Must Police Respect the Privacy Rights of House Guests?
Does a defendant have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the home of a friend? Not if he’s only in that home as a means to evade cops, according to the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District in a recent decision dealing with Fourth Amendment California search and seizure law.
The case of People v. Magee arose after cops spotted what they thought was a drug deal taking place in a well-known narcotics trafficking area of Vallejo. Officers pursued the suspect, who ran into a nearby home owned by his friend. Without a warrant, officers chased the defendant into a locked bathroom in the home, where they allegedly saw him flush what appeared to be cocaine down the toilet.
He was charged with possession of cocaine base for sale among other offenses.
The trial court suppressed the evidence from the locked bathroom, but the Court of Appeal reversed. The justices reasoned that under Fourth Amendment California search and seizure law “social guests” enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy in homes where they are guests, but only when the purpose of the visit is in fact socializing.
“Although a regular guest such as defendant may well have a legitimate expectation of privacy during a social visit,” the court wrote, “that does not mean that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable the privacy expectation defendant claims here: an expectation that his ongoing social relationship with the residents of the Mark Avenue house meant that he could use the house as a sanctuary to escape contact with the police.”
The state high court also had occasion to look at Fourth Amendment California search and seizure law recently. In People v. Troyer, the California Supreme Court held that cops could search a locked bedroom under the “emergency aid” exception for warrantless searches when they had been summoned by a 911 call to that residence on the grounds of a possible shooting (even when a victim on the porch informed the officers that the perpetrator had already fled the scene).
