Opinion ID: 2181717
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Private vs. Public Searches

Text: The activities of Alex and Lambert in entering Clarendon Court on January 23, 1981, to locate the black bag included their search of defendant's closet, bathroom, desk, and study. Despite defendant's vigorous assertion that the prior involvement of Attorney Kuh was so extensive as to make this search governmental, we are not persuaded that the strictures of the Fourth Amendment should apply to their entry and search that day. Alex and Lambert's conduct did not implicate the Fourth Amendment    because the constitutional prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures applies only to governmental conduct. State v. Eiseman, R.I., 461 A.2d 369, 374 (1983) (citing Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 475, 41 S.Ct. 574, 576, 65 L.Ed. 1048, 1051 (1921)). No matter how egregious their actions may appear in a society whose fundamental values have historically included individual freedom and privacy, the exclusionary rule cannot be invoked by defendant to bar the introduction of evidence that was procured by Alex and Lambert while acting as private citizens. The purpose of the exclusionary rule is not to redress the injury to the privacy of the search victim   , United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347, 94 S.Ct. 613, 619, 38 L.Ed.2d 561, 571 (1974); State v. Spratt, 120 R.I. 192, 193-94, 386 A.2d 1094, 1095 (1978), but rather to deter unconstitutional methods of law enforcement. United States v. Janis, 428 U.S. 433, 446-47, 96 S.Ct. 3021, 3028-29, 49 L.Ed.2d 1046, 1056-57 (1976); State v. Carillo, R.I., 407 A.2d 491, 496 (1979); State v. Spratt, 120 R.I. at 194, 386 A.2d at 1095. Similar principles do not, however, govern our review of the evidence-gathering techniques employed by the state. Our decision in State v. Eiseman, R.I., 461 A.2d 369 (1983), requires our application of an analysis that clearly separates the Fourth Amendment standards to be applied to the private search of Clarendon Court on January 23, 1981, from those governing the subsequent chemical testing of certain fruits of that search by the Rhode Island State Police. [6] In Eiseman we held that when the government significantly expands a prior private search without first procuring a search warrant and no recognized exception to the warrant requirement exists to justify such expansion, the independent governmental search is subject to the proscriptions of the Fourth Amendment, State v. Eiseman, R.I., 461 A.2d at 377.