Court Opinion

ID: 9592882
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:17:41.321347+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:43.540950
License: Public Domain

SCHWARTZMAN, Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the result reached in this ease, as well as with the general legal view that the police may not create their own “exigency” to justify or validate a warrant-less entry into a private residence. I write to give a slightly different legal/factual perspective to the incident under review.
1. The officer’s conduct was more than “reasonable” up until the point of entry into the home at 1:30 in the morning. He was in the process of continuing his investigation of a relatively minor arson incident, and I see nothing “constitutionally” wrong with knocking on the door, even at this awkward hour.
2. I believe the officer’s entry was based upon his subjective, albeit erroneous, belief that he had implied consent; not that this was such a compelling exigency that he had to burst in to save life, limb or evidence. However, as this Court recently articulated in State v. Abeyta, — Idaho -, 963 P.2d 387 (Ct.App.1998): “There was no reasonable respectful citizen-trespasser exception to the warrant requirement for entry into a home!”
3. The threshold to the home is constitutionally sacrosanct, especially at 1:30 a.m. What the officer should have done was to have remained there and further clarified the issue of consent, perhaps by reidentifying himself in a loud voice and requesting the presence of the lady who had just responded, or the suspect for that matter. But once he crossed that threshold and continued his investigation inside the home, without consent, *778he violated the principle articulated in Abeyta, without being able to purge that unlawful entry of the primary taint.
Accordingly, suppression of evidence must follow this unlawful entry into the sanctity of the home.