2020 Ohio 850
Ohio Ct. App.2020Background
- Officers with a drug task force tracked and arrested Reilly’s roommate, Adam Barto, at the Bloomville residence where both lived.
- While officers were staged outside, they heard voices inside acknowledge their presence and heard people “scurrying” about the house.
- After Barto’s arrest, officers knocked, received no response, entered without a warrant, detained four occupants, and observed drugs in plain view in a bathroom as Reilly exited.
- Officers then obtained a search warrant and recovered additional drugs and drug paraphernalia.
- Reilly moved to suppress, the trial court denied the motion, Reilly pleaded no contest pursuant to a plea agreement, was sentenced, and appealed claiming the warrantless entry violated the Fourth Amendment.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether the warrantless entry/search was lawful under a Fourth Amendment exception | Exigent circumstances justified immediate entry to prevent destruction of drug evidence after occupants were alerted and heard scurrying | Entry was unlawful; no warrant and no exception applied; evidence observed in the warrantless entry tainted the later warrant | Court affirmed denial of suppression: an objective totality-of-circumstances test supports exigent circumstances to prevent destruction of narcotics; limited intrusion was reasonable |
Key Cases Cited
- Burnside v. State, 100 Ohio St.3d 152 (on mixed questions of law and fact and appellate standard for suppression rulings)
- Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (establishing a reasonable expectation of privacy test)
- Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (fruit-of-the-poisonous-tree principle)
- Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (exclusionary rule applied to states)
- Kentucky v. King, 563 U.S. 452 (exigent-circumstances exception and limits when police-created exigency is at issue)
- Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325 (scope of protective sweep incident to arrest)
- United States v. Sangineto-Miranda, 859 F.2d 1501 (narcotics can be quickly destroyed; exigency to prevent loss of evidence)
- State v. Moore, 90 Ohio St.3d 47 (warrantless entry can be justified to preserve narcotics evidence)