The defendant lives in the lower, front apartment of a two-story four-unit building. A common path between his building and an adjacent two-unit building, owned by the same landlord, leads to a back yard surrounded by a chain link fence. The tenants of the six units have common use of the yard.
Suspecting narcotics activity, Officer Valdes maintained surveillance from the street in front of the defendants apartment while Officer Knapp kept vigil, with permission, from a neighbors garage abutting the back yard.
In one forty-five minute period, Valdes saw six individuals on separate occasions enter the defendants apartment. The defendant on each occasion exited the apartment and walked to the back yard along the common path. Each time, Knapp saw the defendant retrieve something from a shaving kit in a rubbish pile under the tree and return to the apartment, after which the visitor departed.
After conferring, the two officers walked the common path into the back yard, retrieved a closed shaving kit from the rubbish pile, opened the kit, and discovered narcotics. They subsequently arrested the defendant.
For Discussion 3, address the following questions.
First, can the narcotics search and seizure be justified under plain view? In other words, have the three requirements of a plain view seizure been met by Officer Knapp and Valdes? Justify your answer.
Second, as the judge, how would you rule on a motion to suppress the narcotics? Justify your answer.
Your discussion submission should be thorough and well-written and at least three paragraphs in length
Responses to other students should be at least one paragraph long.
In your response, do the following
Critique, identifying strengths and/or weaknesses, one of your classmate’s responses and provide justification for your critique.
Please refer to the grading rubric so you can identify the specifics of how your discussion will be graded.
Also, refer to the course syllabus for details regarding the discussions. The discussion is worth a maximum of 20 points up to 15 points for your posting and up to 5 points for your response to another students posting.
*** THIS is the post you will reply to: In my personal opinion the narcotics search and seizure be justified under plain view? The answer is yes. The officers were running surveillance and one officer was positioned in the garage per the neighbors approval. With this the officer had a prime spot for seeing the individuals and were the product was being kept. I think that’s really the key point here is that the product was outside and not in his house. That’s fair game the narcotics are not in his home, and he doesn’t own the property.
If you take a look at Plain View, “it’s the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Again the narcotics were found outside of the subjects apartment. Next I would look at the officers and the surveillance that was done. The officers stated that in a forty five minute window, they observed six individuals that had come into the subjects apartment, and then later left with the narcotics. ” The plain view doctrine is limited, however, by the probable cause requirement: officers must have probable cause to believe that items in plain view are contraband before they may search or seize them.” As far as the three points go, one the items must be in plain view. Yes. Second the officer must lawfully be in the place where he discovered the evidence. Yes. Third any incriminating character of the object is immediately apparent. Yes.
If I was the judge in this case, I would not suppress the narcotics. “The Court has analogized from the plain view doctrine to hold that, once officers have lawfully observed contraband, the owners privacy interest in that item is lost.” They have every right to make that arrest and have evidence to back it up. They did everything by the book. They got in contact with the property owner. Got permission from him to survey from the garage, while the other officer was outside in his vehicle surveying from the street.
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