Opinion ID: 157419
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Consent to Search the Rith Home

Text: Rith argues that the evidence seized by the police during the search should have been suppressed for two reasons: (1) Rith revoked his parents’ consent to search the home; and (2) the evidence failed to show that Rith’s parents had authority to consent to a search of his bedroom. The trial court’s findings of fact are accepted by this court unless clearly erroneous, with the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the government. See United States v. McAlpine, 919 F.2d 1461, 1463 (10th Cir. 1990). Issues of law, such as whether consent was valid under the Fourth Amendment, are reviewed de novo. See United States v. Flores, 48 F.3d 467, 468 (10th Cir. 1995).
Generally, consent to a search given by someone with authority cannot be revoked by a co-occupant’s denial of consent, even if that denial is clear and contemporaneous with the search. In United States v. Matlock, the Supreme Court held that mutual use of property carries with it the risk that just one of the occupants might permit a search of the common areas. 415 U.S. 164, 172 n.7 (1974). Applying Matlock, this court has stated that “[i]f common authority is -5- established, the person whose property is searched is unjustified in claiming an expectation of privacy in the property because that person cannot reasonably believe that the joint user will not, under certain circumstances, allow a search in her own right.” See McAlpine, 919 F.2d at 1463 (emphasis added). Rith argues that his claim to privacy is stronger because he, not his parents, was present at the time he refused to consent to the immediately ensuing search. According to Rith, consent by a third party to search is valid “only where the defendant [is] physically or constructively absent.” To support this claim, Rith refers the court to a sentence in Matlock which states that “the consent of one who possesses common authority over premises or effects is valid as against the absent, nonconsenting person with whom that authority is shared.” Matlock, 415 U.S. at 170 (emphasis added). The language and structure of the Matlock opinion refute such an interpretation. The language to which Rith refers is embedded in a discussion of cases in which the Court addressed issues previously undecided. Concluding its discussion of these cases, the Court stated its holding: These cases at least make clear that when the prosecution seeks to justify a warrantless search by proof of voluntary consent, it is not limited to proof that consent was given by the defendant, but may show that permission to search was obtained from a third party who possessed common authority over or other sufficient relationship to the premises or effects sought to be inspected. -6- Id. at 171. This unequivocal holding is unencumbered by the Court’s earlier reference to the “absent, nonconsenting person.” Furthermore, Matlock is uniformly interpreted as allowing a person with shared authority to grant effective consent to search the common premises despite the objections of the subject of the search. See, e.g., United States v. Morning, 64 F.3d 531, 534-36 (9th Cir. 1995); Lenz v. Winburn, 51 F.3d 1540, 1548 (11th Cir. 1995); United States v. Donlin, 982 F.2d 31, 33 (1st Cir. 1992); United States v. Bradley, 869 F.2d 417, 419 (8th Cir. 1989); J.L. Foti Construction Co. v. Donovan, 786 F.2d 714, 716-17 (6th Cir. 1986); United States v. Bethea, 598 F.2d 331, 335 (4th Cir. 1979). Under Matlock and its interpretive progeny, Rith had no expectation of privacy that negated his parents’ consent to a search of their home. To hold otherwise would undermine the gravamen of Matlock: “any of the co-habitants has the right to permit the inspection in his own right and . . . the others have assumed the risk that one of their number might permit the common area to be searched.” Matlock, 415 U.S. at 171 n.7 (emphasis added). B. Rith’s Parents Had Authority to Consent to a Search of Rith’s Bedroom That Rith’s parents were authorized to grant effective consent to the search of their home does not fully resolve Rith’s challenge. It is the government’s -7- burden to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that Rith’s parents had authority to consent to the search of Rith’s bedroom. See Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 181 (1990); McAlpine, 919 F.2d at 1463. In order to have authority to grant effective consent, Matlock requires “mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes.” 415 U.S. at 172 n.7. -8- Rith urges this court to use the D.C. Circuit’s interpretation of Matlock. 1 In United States v. Whitfield, the D.C. Circuit required proof both of mutual use and joint access in order for the third party to have authority to consent to a search. 939 F.2d 1071, 1074 (D.C. Cir. 1991). Applying this test to the facts, the Whitfield court held that the police had sufficient basis to believe that a mother 1 Though not mentioned by Rith, the Second and Fourth Circuits have also interpreted Matlock. In United States v. Davis, the Second Circuit established the following test to meet the requirements of Matlock: the third party (1) had access to the area searched, and (2) a common authority over the area, a substantial interest in the area, or permission to gain access to the area. 967 F.2d 84, 87 (2d Cir. 1992). Using this test, the Southern District of New York in United States v. Perez concluded that a father had authority to consent to a search of his son’s bedroom and the closed containers therein, even though the son had been the sole occupant and user of the bedroom for four years, the father did not use the bedroom for any purpose, and he had never accessed the personal effects in his son’s closets. 948 F. Supp. 1191, 1201 (S.D.N.Y. 1996). The determining factor for the court was that the father led the officers into the room and removed a suitcase from his son’s closet, indicating that he had “at a minimum, permission to gain access to the bedroom.” Id. at 1200. The court also noted that there was no evidence the son had ever prohibited his father from examining the contents of his bedroom. See id. Unlike the Second and D.C. circuits, the Fourth Circuit requires proof that the third party has common authority over, general access to, or mutual use of the premises under circumstances that make it reasonable to believe that the third party has the right to permit a search. See United States v. Block, 590 F.2d 535, 539-40 (4th Cir. 1978). The Block court held that a mother had both the actual authority and a reasonable appearance of authority to consent to a search of the bedroom of her twenty-three year old son flowing from the “normal free access that heads of household commonly exercise in respect of the rooms of family member occupants.” See id. at 541. The court held, however, the mother did not have the authority to consent to the search of her son’s footlocker, albeit in his bedroom, because there is a greater expectation of privacy in a locked container. See id. -9- generally had joint access to her twenty-nine year old son’s bedroom because the room was unlocked and because the mother lived in the house. See id. But, the court held, there was insufficient proof of mutual use of the bedroom, such as evidence that the mother cleaned her son’s room, visited with him there, stored possessions in his room, watched television there, or made any use of the room. See id. The court declined to find that there was mutual use merely because a parent-child relationship existed and concluded that there was no evidence to negate the defendant’s exclusive use of his bedroom. See id. at 1075. The Tenth Circuit applied Matlock in McAlpine. See 919 F.2d at 1463. The issue was whether a woman held against her will in the defendant’s residence for two months possessed the authority to consent to a search of his residence. The court essentially restated Matlock’s test: “the government bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the consenter had mutual use of the property searched by virtue of her joint access to it, or control for most purposes over it.” Id. at 1463. Applying this test, the court found that the captive woman had authority to consent because she slept in the back room where the guns were found and she had personal possessions throughout the trailer. See id. at 1464; see also United States v. Iribe, 11 F.3d 1553, 1556 (10th Cir. 1993) (employing same standard as McAlpine and finding that by virtue of being a coresident, the third party had joint access to the house). -10- This panel clarifies the test used in McAlpine and rejects Rith’s argument that the Whitfield test be used. Rather than requiring mutual use from joint access and control, the McAlpine test is disjunctive: a third party has authority to consent to a search of property if that third party has either (1) mutual use of the property by virtue of joint access, or (2) control for most purposes over it. 2 Mutual use of property by virtue of joint access is a fact-intensive inquiry which requires findings by a court that the third party entered the premises or room at will, without the consent of the subject of the search. For example, in McAlpine, a woman held captive by the defendant in his home had authority to consent to the search simply by virtue of her joint access. Uncontradicted evidence showed that 2 United States v. Falcon interpreted Matlock differently than McAlpine , but for the following reasons this court declines to follow Falcon. 766 F.2d 1469, 1474 (10th Cir. 1985). The Falcon court stated that Matlock required “the consenting party [to have] both access to the area and either a substantial interest in or common authority over the property.” See id. (emphasis added). This language, however, is dicta and creates no binding precedent. Critically, the defendant in Falcon conceded that the third party had authority to consent to a search. The issue in Falcon was whether valid consent to search is distinguishable from valid consent to seize. Citing Supreme Court precedent, the court held that for purposes of valid third-party authority, there is no distinction between the two. Consequently, though seemingly part of the analysis, the Matlock discussion is gratuitous. Rith relies upon United States v. Salinas-Cano in support of his effort to have the Tenth Circuit adopt the Whitfield test. 959 F.2d 861 (10th Cir. 1992). Salinas-Cano stated that Matlock requires “both shared use and joint access or control of a container in order to support third party consent.” See id. at 864. We construe this language and Salinas-Cano generally to be consistent with McAlpine’s interpretation of Matlock in the disjunctive. -11- she was free to access the rooms of the home because she slept where the guns were found and her personal effects were found throughout the residence. Unlike the fact-intensive inquiry of mutual use, control for most purposes of property is a normative inquiry dependent upon whether the relationship between the defendant and the third party is the type which creates a presumption of control for most purposes over the property by the third party. 3 If a relationship creates such a presumption of control and is unrebutted, the third party has authority to consent to a search of the property. Relationships which give rise to a presumption of control of property include parent-child relationships and husband-wife relationships. See, e.g., United States v. Ladell, 127 F.3d 622, 624 (7th Cir. 1997) (“A third-party consent is also easier to sustain if the relationship between the parties—parent to child here, spouse to spouse in others—is especially close.”); United States v. DiPrima, 472 F.2d 550, 551 (1st Cir. 1973) (“[E]ven if a minor child, living in the bosom of a family, may think of a room as ‘his,’ the overall dominance will be in his parents.”). In contrast, a simple co-tenant relationship does not create a 3 Although the McAlpine court stated that the appropriate Matlock inquiry is the relationship between the consenter and the property searched, not the relationship between the consenter and the defendant, the court conceded that “the character of the relationship between the consenter and the defendant may bear upon the nexus between the consenter and the property.” 919 F.2d 1461, 1464 (10 th Cir. 1990). -12- presumption of control and actual access would have to be shown. See United States v. Duran, 957 F.2d 499, 505 (7th Cir.1992) (“Two friends inhabiting a two-bedroom apartment might reasonably expect to maintain exclusive access to their respective bedrooms without explicitly making this expectation clear to one another.”); United States v. Heisman, 503 F.2d 1284, 1287 (8 th Cir. 1974) (although defendant’s room did not have a door or a lock, co-tenant did not have authority to consent to a search of defendant’s private areas). The difference between a husband-wife or parent-child relationship and a co-tenant relationship is that a husband-wife or parent-child relationship raises a presumption about the parties’ reasonable expectations of privacy in relation to each other in spaces typically perceived as private in a co-tenant relationship. 4 See, e.g., Ladell, 127 F.3d at 624 (“Third-party consents to search the property of another are based on a reduced expectation of privacy in the premises or things shared with another.”). Two caveats are important. First, in determining whether a particular relationship raises a presumption of control for most purposes, McAlpine 4 Consistent with Matlock’s admonishment that this inquiry into authority to consent to a search does not rely upon notions of property law, a relationship giving rise to a presumption of control cannot be premised on the general proprietary interest in the home of one of the parties. See Matlock, 415 U.S. at 172 n.7. Thus, a mortgage or lease in the parents’ name would not be sufficient to confer authority to consent to a search of a child’s bedroom. See, e.g., Maxwell v. Stephens, 348 F.2d 325, 336 (8th Cir. 1965) (finding that mother had authority to consent to a search independent of her proprietary interest in the house). -13- admonishes that authority to search is premised on a “practical understanding” of the way parties have access to and share the searched property. See McAlpine, 919 F.2d at 1463. Second, while husband-wife or parent-child relationships give rise to a presumption of control for most purposes over the property, that presumption may be rebutted by facts showing an agreement or understanding between the defendant and the third party that the latter must have permission to enter the defendant’s room. For example, evidence that the defendant paid rent to the third party would tend to show a landlord-tenant relationship. See Stoner v. California, 376 U.S. 483, 489-90 (1964); see also DiPrima, 472 F.2d at 551 (noting that payment of rent may weigh in favor of defendant’s claim of exclusive right to room). Other examples include a lock on the bedroom door or an agreement, explicit or implicit, that the third party never enter a particular area. See Morning, 64 F.3d at 536 (“A defendant cannot expect sole exclusionary authority unless he lives alone, or at least has a special and private space within the joint residence.”); United States v. Kinney, 953 F.2d 863, 866 (4th Cir.1992) (third party did not have authority to consent to search of defendant’s locked closet). In this case, there are insufficient factual findings that Rith’s parents had joint access to his bedroom to support a conclusion of their authority to consent to a search of the room. There are no findings that Rith’s parents visited with him -14- in his room, cleaned his room, or otherwise went into Rith’s room uninvited. Furthermore, the district court chose not to infer that Rith’s parents had access on the basis of their knowledge of hidden guns in his room. The government has, however, shown that Rith lived with his parents and was not paying rent. Although Rith was eighteen years old, these facts raise a presumption of control for most purposes by Rith’s parents over the entire home and thus they could have accessed Rith’s room without his consent. There is no evidence to rebut this presumption: no lock on Rith’s bedroom door; no agreement with Rith’s parents that they not enter his room without his consent; no payment of rent. Because the presumption of control is unrebutted, Rith’s parents had authority to consent to the search of Rith’s bedroom. 5