Court Opinion

ID: 9747750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:30:55.853558+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:26.419768
License: Public Domain

*577On Motion For Rehearing
Per Curiam:
Defendant complains that the crux of the decision in this case is to be found in the following statements in the opinion: “We specifically hold that it is lawful for a police officer without a warrant to enter and search a dwelling when he can see from the outside that a crime is being committed inside. * * * In deciding whether an officer was justified in making an arrest without a warrant for a misdemeanor, the criterion is whether the circumstances presented to the officer through his senses were sufficient to justify a sincere belief that the accused was committing the misdemeanor in his presence.” The complaint is that the second sentence quoted cuts down the first by broadening the right of arrest from arrest for a misdemeanor committed in the officer’s presence to arrest for a misdemeanor which the officer had probable cause to believe was committed. This was not the purpose and is not the effect of the sentence complained of. We did not broaden the right to arrest without a warrant, but merely undertook to explain, in the circumstances of the instant case, the evidence sufficient to show that a misdemeanor had been committed in the officer’s presence. The event showed conclusively that a misdemeanor had been committed in close proximity to the officer. The officer testified that he saw the book and slips used for the purpose of a lottery. Appellant claimed he could not see this. If the officer had been blind, completely intoxicated, or otherwise unconscious, he could not have seen what he testified to. The sentence of which appellant complains merely suggests a measure or test of testimony which an officer may honestly give in the circumstances, and which the trier of facts and this court may accept as legally sufficient and true in fact. To this extent we did not subtract from, but added to, the legal requisites of an arrest without a warrant.