Plain View and Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

[InquirinMind]

I'll try to make this as short as possible the following happened in Minnesota. According to police report 2 officers were executing a "pick up and hold" (is this a warrant?) on someone who lived at the residence. One officer went around the back of the house goes up the stairs of the deck and stands next to the patio door. He looks thru the door and sees 2 people, a man and a woman sitting on the couch smoking a drug. He's doesn’t know if the guy on the couch is the person he's looking for or not, but thinks it might be because that guy's car is outside. In the report he gives a long narrative of what he observed while looking through the back door. He then tells the officer in the front of the house what he sees and that officer knocks on the front door, the officer in the back watches the woman stand up and see that its an officer at the front door and sees her grab a small baggie and put in under a towel on the kitchen table. He also says he saw the man "take a bong off the coffee table and put it along side of the couch and then position himself across the couch and begin watching t.v" When the woman answers the front door the officer asks her if the person they were looking for is there she tells him no - he then asks if he could come in and she says yes - Once the officer is in the house - the one standing next to the patio door enters as well and tells the officer what he saw. The woman is charged for the bag she hid under the towel. The man is identified and then searched they find "a plastic bag in his pocket containing a white crystal in the bottom" so in other words a very small amount. The man is then charged with a Controlled Substance in the 5th Degree Crime - the penalty is up to 10 years and $20,000 - My question is did they have a right to search him? Can the officer use what he saw while looking through the patio door against him? Is this what is known as in "Plain View"... Wouldn't a patio door located in the rear of your house lead you to have Reasonable Expectation of Privacy . Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Mr. Knowitall]

The question is whether the police had a lawful vantage point when they observed what was happening in plain view. This has been held to extend to positions which a utility worker or mailman might have on the premises, which encompasses many outside vantage points. But that's not even an issue here, as they were lawfully present to serve an arrest warrant.

Can they search the subject of an arrest warrant when they catch him? Yes.

[InquirinMind]

Thanks for the info, I'm not sure if it matters or not, but the individual who was searched and charged was not the person the police had the warrant for.

[panther10758]

It doesnt matter! The Officer (in back) witinessed a crime!

[seniorjudge]

Yes, based on your facts, this arrest is legal.

This is not a Fourth Amendment question since there was no search. There was certainly a seizure, but the backdoor cop had a lawful reason for being there and saw something through a glass door.

[rockin_cj]

Well she let him in so at that point their in every proper right to do what they did. I'm not sure about the cop sneaking around into the back yard without any kind of authorization being legal but...

[lwpat]

The question is whether the officers with the arrest warrant had probable cause to believe the person they were looking for was in the house. If the person owns, rents, or normally stays overnight, they have PC. An officer would have to have PC or exigent circumstances to lawfully be at the back door.