Court Opinion

ID: 9735783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:30:45.067321+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:01.539141
License: Public Domain

BELL, Judge,
dissenting in which ELDRIDGE, Judge joins.
It is well settled that the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution is not infringed when a warrantless search and seizure is conducted pursuant to exigent circumstances. Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U.S. 499, 509, 98 S.Ct. 1942, 1949, 56 L.Ed.2d 486, 498 (1978); United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38, 42-43, 96 S.Ct. 2406, 2409-10, 49 L.Ed.2d 300, 305-06 (1976); Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 298-300, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 1645-46, 18 L.Ed.2d 782, 787-88 (1967); Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 770-71, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 1835-36, 16 L.Ed.2d 908, 919-20 (1966); Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 37-41, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 1632-34, 10 L.Ed.2d 726, 740-42 (1963); Oken v. State, 327 Md. 628, 646, 612 A.2d 258, 267 (1992); McMillian v. State, 325 Md. 272, 281, 600 A.2d 430, 434 (1992); Stackhouse v. State, 298 Md. 203, 211-12, 468 A.2d 333, 338 (1983), and cases cited therein. The exception is, however, a narrow one since “exigency implies urgency, immediacy, and compelling need.” Stackhouse, 298 Md. at 212, 468 A.2d at 338. The Supreme Court has held that “It is a ‘basic principle of Fourth Amendment law’ that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.” Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585, 586, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1379, 1380, 63 L.Ed.2d 639, 651 (1980) (quoting United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 2134, 32 L.Ed.2d 752, 764 (1972)). Accordingly, “[b]e-fore agents of government may invade the sanctity of the home, the burden is on the government to demonstrate exigent circumstances that overcome the presumption of unreasonableness that attaches to all warrantless home entries.” Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 750, 104 S.Ct. 2091, 2098, 80 L.Ed.2d 732, 743 (1984). The burden of establishing exigent circumstances, one of the few carefully delineated exceptions *742to the warrant requirement, United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. at 318, 92 S.Ct. at 2137, 32 L.Ed.2d at 767, is a heavy one. In such circumstances, the police bear the burden “when attempting to demonstrate an urgent need that might justify warrantless searches or arrests.” Welsh, 466 U.S. at 749, 104 S.Ct. at 2097, 80 L.Ed.2d at 743. It is also clear that “no exigency is created simply because there is probable cause to believe that a serious crime has been committed.” Id. at 753, 104 S.Ct. at 2099, 80 L.Ed.2d at 745.
The majority’s statement and explanation of the exigent circumstances exception are consistent with these principles, as are our cases applying it. See, in addition to cases herein-before cited, Lebedun v. State, 283 Md. 257, 278, 390 A.2d 64, 73 (1978); Nilson v. State, 272 Md. 179, 191, 321 A.2d 301, 307 (1974); Davis v. State, 236 Md. 389, 395, 204 A.2d 76, 80 (1964), cert. denied, 380 U.S. 966, 85 S.Ct. 1113, 14 L.Ed.2d 156 (1965). Therefore, up to this point, the majority and I agree.
Nor do I disagree with most of the cases cited by the majority addressing whether law enforcement officers may enter a home without a warrant for the purpose of investigating a probable burglary. Although their stated rationale is to protect property, see 2 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment (§ 6.6(b) at 706 (2nd Ed.1987), for the most part, the cases indicate that entry is permitted to determine whether the burglary is ongoing. United States v. Johnson, 9 F.3d 506 (6th Cir.1993) (upon receipt of a report of a burglary in progress—individuals crawling through a window—the police arrived to find the doors locked, a kitchen window with a broken pane, and people inside the premises, one of whom lied as to the number actually in the premises. Held, entry was appropriate); Reardon v. Wroan, 811 F.2d 1025 (7th Cir.1987) (responding to report of burglary in progress at a fraternity house when students were on break, on arrival, police found single car in driveway and the door to the fraternity house unlocked); United States v. Valles-Valencia, 811 F.2d 1232 (9th Cir.1987), amended on other grounds, 823 F.2d 381 (9th Cir.1987) (police *743suspected a burglary in progress on the basis of report of strangers being parked in front of a house, the owners of which were on vacation, the strangers could not explain their presence and a front window showed signs of being pried open, along with the smell of marijuana); United States v. Singer, 687 F.2d 1135 (8th Cir.1982), adopted in relevant part, 710 F.2d 431 (8th Cir.1983) (circumstances indicated burglary in progress); Mann v. Cannon, 731 F.2d 54 (1st Cir.1984) (report of juveniles breaking into house); United States v. Estese, 479 F.2d 1273 (6th Cir.1973) (report of breaking and entering plus, upon arrival, observing open door with pry marks); Carter v. State, 405 So.2d 957 (Ala.Cr.App.) cert. denied, 405 So.2d 962 (Ala.1981) (where door to adjoining apartment where burglary-rape had just occurred was open, with key in the lock and vice type pliers were found nearby and there was no response to police knock, entry to investigate possible burglary permitted); People v. Duncan, 42 Cal.3d 91, 720 P.2d 2 (1986) (report burglary in progress or had just occurred; found doors to the premises locked but back window open and beneath that window was a box containing a television set and other items; entry to determine whether burglars were still inside permitted); People v. Unruh, 713 P.2d 370 (Colo.), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1171, 106 S.Ct. 2894, 90 L.Ed.2d 981 (1986) (car observed carrying safe and suspect confessed to burglary in the area, police permitted to enter to check the premises where front door was open and door jam splintered); People v. Berow, 688 P.2d 1123 (Colo. 1984) (broken locks, report of movement inside the apartment prompted burglary report, while at the scene, landlord told the officer that she thought she had just seen movement inside the apartment, entry permitted); State v. Mann, 440 So.2d 406 (Fla.App.1983) (where police set up surveillance as a result of burglary in apartment complex, screen bent and door jams scarred and door opened with slight pressure was sufficient evidence to permit officer to enter to check for burglary in progress); Commonwealth v. Fiore, 9 Mass.App.Ct. 618, 403 N.E.2d 953 cert. denied, 449 U.S. 938, 101 S.Ct. 336, 66 L.Ed.2d 160 (1980) (report of housebreaking and discovery of *744cottage with outside door torn off and inner door ajar); In Re Forfeiture of $176,598, 443 Mich. 261, 505 N.W.2d 201 (1993) (activated residential security alarm, together with evidence of forced entry sufficient to permit exigent circumstances entry); State v. Metz, 422 N.W.2d 754 (Minn.App.1988) (report of a burglary permitted entry to investigate); State ex rel. Zander v. District Court, 180 Mont. 548, 591 P.2d 656 (1979) (report of burglary, door, reportedly kept locked, found unlocked when no one was reported to be at home; “the officers at the time of entry were engaged in protecting the Zander property. This included determining whether any burglars were hiding inside the house. A prudent officer was warranted in believing that a felony had been attempted or committed and in concluding prompt entry into the home was necessary to protect the property and determine whether the suspect was hiding in the house.”); State v. Crabtree, 655 S.W.2d 173 (Tenn.Crim.App. 1983) (response to a burglar alarm; entry justified to determine if a burglar was in the building); State v. Bakke, 44 Wash.App. 830, 723 P.2d 534 (1986), cert. denied, 107 Wash.2d 1033 (1987). See also United States v. Dart, 747 F.2d 263 (4th Cir.1984) (police appropriately entered Dart storage warehouse in response to break-in report and evidence of a break-in, i.e. locks being sawed off on several units); B.P.O.E. No. 576 Elks Club v. State, 413 N.E.2d 660 (Ind.App.1980) (response to a burglar alarm); United States v. Pichany, 687 F.2d 204 (7th Cir.1982) (entry not permitted when call indicated that the burglary was no longer in progress).1
*745These cases are consistent with the prerequisite for an exigent circumstance entry: that there be probable cause, ie. “the probability of substantial chance of criminal activity, not an actual showing of such activity.” United States v. Ogbuh, 982 F.2d 1000, 1002 (6th Cir.1993). In the context of the exigent circumstances exception, in defining probable cause “two principles must be kept in mind[:] (1) Since the doctrine is an exception to the ordinary Fourth Amendment requirement of a warrant for entry into a home, the burden of proof is on the state to show that the warrantless entry fell within the exception. * * * (2) An objective standard as to the reasonableness of the officer’s belief must be applied.” Root v. Gauper, 438 F.2d 361, 364 (8th Cir.1971). To meet the objective standard, a police officer must “be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together -with rational inference from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion.” State v. Sanders, 8 Wash.App. 306, 506 P.2d 892, 895 (1973).
Thus, inferences appropriately may be drawn from the facts and circumstances surrounding the break-in and known to the police, e.g., from the fact of a call of a break-in and the observation of signs of forced entry or the fruits stacked beneath the point of entry, it is logical to infer that the burglary is ongoing. On the other hand, speculation is not, and should not, be permitted. When a burglary occurred cannot be inferred, without more, from the fact that a burglary may have been committed. Thus, evidence of a burglary, ie. a broken latch or a broken window pane, does not provide probable cause for the belief that a burglary just occurred or *746that it is ongoing. Such a conclusion is nothing more than speculation.
Of course, when the premises burglarized is a dwelling and there is no information as to the whereabouts of the occupant, because the warrantless entry is permitted to aid persons in need of assistance, 2 W. LaFave, supra, § 6.6(a) at 697, an inference that the occupant may be in the premises and in need of assistance is a bit more compelling. When, however, the information available to the police is that the occupant is not present, then that basis for inference no longer exists.
In the case sub judice, there is no reasonable basis for inferring that the burglary of the petitioner’s premises had recently occurred or was in progress. There is nothing in the record indicating when the petitioner left his home; all that is known is that he was expected back either the next day or the following day. Nor is there any evidence that his neighbor heard any noises or anything else which would somehow serve to pinpoint the time of the break-in. The police went to the premises looking for an escapee from a work release program. That person, the petitioner’s neighbor said, left her house the preceding evening at about 11 o’clock. WThile it is not clear at what time the police arrived, it was certainly in the morning of the next day.2
*747It is of some interest that the police officers recognized that not every break-in or open door is an invitation for the police to enter and investigate in order to “protect” the property of the burglary victim. They were aware that additional information was needed. They sought that information from the petitioner’s neighbor. What that neighbor told them or, perhaps, was unable to tell them—if, for example, she could not account for the petitioner’s whereabouts—may have supplied the reasonable basis for entry. Here, it did not. And, lest ambiguity on the issue persist, the police may not enter the premises and later plead ignorance of the facts, though a source be available to acquire them; the police must seek out available information and assess it for adequacy before entry is made.
The petitioner’s neighbor told the police that the petitioner was not present and was not expected back for at least a day. From this, we know that the only basis upon which the police could legitimately have entered the premises was to investigate an ongoing burglary, i.e., to determine whether the burglar was still on the premises. Nobody being at home, there was no reason to believe that anyone was in need of assistance.
It seems likely that the police were concerned that the escapee was in the premises; however, there is no reason to suppose that, even if it is a legitimate inference that he broke into the premises, that he remained on the premises.3 Indeed, given the lack of a temporal context, it is difficult to conceive of what legitimate inferences could be drawn which would have permitted entry.
There being no basis for a reasonable inference as to when the burglary occurred and, hence, no basis for entering the *748premises to look for a burglar, the State can only proffer that this case presents an emergency occasioned by the search for an escaped convict who had been in the immediate vicinity of the premises or that the police were attempting to protect the property of the petitioner, and, perhaps, to determine whether anything was missing. As to the latter, there is no basis for supposing that the police could determine whether anything was stolen, not knowing what was in the premises in the first place. Moreover, assuming that some property was taken, once the property had been stolen, it was too late to protect it. The only thing that could have been done in that regard was to secure the premises, as the police did when they went to get the warrant, so that no additional property would be taken. That could have been accomplished without entering the premises.
As to the former, curiously, the majority does not address, although it earlier recognized that exigency required the establishment of an ongoing burglary or a recently committed one, see Majority op. at 734, why the police believed that it was possible that the burglar was still inside or, in any event, why entry was required. It is, of course, true as the majority points out, Majority op. at 739, that the presence or absence of suspects within the subject premises could not be ascertained without entering the premises, but until there is probable cause, not just speculation, to believe that .suspects are on the premises, there simply is no basis for the police to enter the premises. Nor does the totality of the facts the majority enumerates supply the bridge from burglary at some time to burglary in progress or hot pursuit of an escapee.
As I see it, the police acted illegally, there being no exigency justifying their entry into the petitioner’s premises.
If, as the State argues, and the majority accepts, the facts of this case constitute a sufficient basis for the establishment of exigent circumstances, then the urgency or emergency nature of exigency has been completely written out of the exception. In other words, the exception is now the rule. An exigency exists and hence, entry into a home is permissible, whenever a *749police officer can surmise that there probably has been a break-in at those premises. The officer need not show or articulate a basis for believing it to have occurred recently, not to mention for believing it to be in progress.
Therefore, the Circuit Court for Carroll County was correct in suppressing the fruits of the State’s illegal entry. I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals and reinstate the judgment of the Circuit Court for Carroll County-
ELDRIDGE, J., joins in the views expressed herein.

. A rather clear case of entry to protect the property of another, and perhaps of the occupant of the premises entered, is United States v. Boyd, 407 F.Supp. 693 (S.D.N.Y.1976). In that case, water was leaking into a third floor apartment. When the landlord discovered that the leak did not originate in the fourth floor apartment, which was vacant, and that the water was running in the apartment above it, it was appropriate, the court held, to enter that apartment, whose occupant did not respond to the knock, to avoid a dangerous condition, i.e., collapse of ceilings and walls.
If the police enter premises to abort a burglary, it is at least arguable that they are doing so to protect the owner’s property—avoiding its theft is a means of protecting property. It is rather difficult to understand how property is being protected by an entry after the burglary has *745been completed. In that circumstance, the property owner’s remaining properly is protected by securing the premises. See People v. Parra, 30 Cal.App.3d 729, 106 Cal.Rptr. 531 (1973) in which the court paraphrased § 197 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1966) to the effect that “one is privileged to enter and remain on land in the possession of another if it reasonably appears to be necessary to prevent serious harm to the land or chattels of the other party, unless the actor has reason to know that one for whose benefit he enters is unwilling that he shall take such action.” Id. 106 Cal.Rptr. at 533.

. This Court may only consider the evidence produced at the motions hearing, Lee v. State, 311 Md. 642, 648, 537 A.2d 235, 237 (1988). However, in a supplemental report prepared by Officer J.W. Prise, not offered into evidence at the motions hearing, it is clearly stated that the officers arrived at "approximately 1230 hrs” and entered the downstairs apartment shortly thereafter "[b]elieving that Hudson may have broken into and still may be in the apartment”. Carroll County Sheriff’s Department Supplemental Report, CIR X-18 01933, 7/31/92. As a factual matter, it is apparent that the officers did not believe that a burglary was in progress or had recently occurred. More importantly, the "hot pursuit” exception to the warrant requirement cannot be established under these circumstances. Penn told them that she had seen Hudson at 11:00 p.m. the night before. No exigency is present where the officers arrive 13 {6 hours after the sighting of a suspect. I believe it unreasonable, and speculative at best, for the officers to believe that Hudson, aware of his escape status, would have broken into the downstairs apartment and waited 13/6 hours for the police to arrive.

. Of course if the purpose for entering the premises was to discover the escapee, there would seem to be another set of problems. First, there would be no way of establishing the exigency of hot pursuit, not to mention of establishing that the escapee was indeed in the premises. The only basis for any conclusion in that regard would be simply pure speculation.