Court Opinion

ID: 9675667
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:01:29.664355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:36.807123
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING
Appellee asserts that we have incorrectly characterized the police officers’ conduct at 706 Austin Avenue as a search. We hasten to point out that whether this characterization is correct or not is immaterial to our holding. Accordingly, we will not quibble over the precise definition of a search. The fact remains that the record before us is totally silent as to why the police were there at all. There was no search warrant. There was no arrest warrant. There was no invitation or consent to enter the premises. There was no evidence of hot pursuit of anyone. There was no evidence of probable cause of any criminal conduct whatsoever in this record. In short, the evidence merely showed that police officers were in and about the premises for some time.
Looking once again to the respective testimony of those officers in the light most favorable to appellee, it is clear that at the very least, one officer remained outside traversing the grounds surrounding the two-story structure; the remaining five, after checking the front porch, entered the front door spreading out through the common hallways on both floors and the stairway connecting them; and each of the four apartments were checked and the ococcupants therein were identified.
Appellee relies heavily on Hayes v. State, 44 Ala.App. 539, 215 So.2d 604, and Maples v. Statee, 44 Ala.App. 491, 214 So.2d 700, in its contention that constitutional restrictions upon searches and seizures have no application where contraband has been abandoned. In Maples the defendant had already been taken into custody on a public street when the narcotics were discarded. In Hayes the defendant discarded the narcotics on a public sidewalk while departing the area in front of a closed grocery store at 2:45 A.M. where he had been loitering. These cases, therefore, are distinguishable from the instant case in that there was no illegal intrusion upon private premises and no invasion of defendant’s right to privacy. In Hayes and Maples, supra, the police officers had a right to be where they were —the record before us now is devoid of any evidence tending to legitimate the officers’ presence.
Opinion extended. Application overruled.
All the judges concur except DeCARLO, J., concurs in result.