Police come to suspect's home at 4 am without a warrant and with intent to arrest. Knock & Talk?

Around 4:00 a.m. on April 23, 2013, three northern California law enforcement officers approached Defendant Eric Lundin's home without either an arrest warrant or a search warrant. They came onto his front porch and knocked on his door *1155 with the intent of arresting him. From the front porch where they were standing, the officers heard crashing noises coming from the back of the house. They ran to the back, ordered Lundin to come out of the fenced-in backyard, and arrested him. After putting Lundin in a patrol car, several officers briefly searched Lundin's home, including the back patio where they found two handguns in open view. The district court suppressed the handguns as the result of an illegal search. The United States appeals. We hold that the officers violated the Fourth Amendment when they knocked on the door at 4:00 a.m. without a warrant with the intent of arresting Lundin, and that the immediately ensuing search was illegal.

Holdings: The Court of Appeals, W. Fletcher, Circuit Judge, held that:
1. law enforcement officers exceeded the scope of customary license to approach suspect's home and knock when they stood on suspect's porch and knocked on his door at 4:00 a.m. without warrant and with intent of making arrest, and thus “knock and talk” exception to warrant requirement did not apply;
2. exigent circumstances did not justify officers' warrantless search of suspect's home after they heard crashing noises coming from suspect's backyard;
3. officers lacked reasonable ground for believing that danger justified warrantless sweep of suspect's home, and thus sweep was not authorized under protective sweep doctrine; and
4. handguns seized as result of officers' warrantless search of suspect's patio and home were not admissible under the inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule.

Read full case here: United States v. Lundin, 817 F.3d 1151, 1154–55 (9th Cir. 2016), https://casetext.com/case/united-stat...


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