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AZ: Going into garage to look at car instead of doing "knock and talk" at door was unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

An officer went to defendant’s house to do a knock and talk. Instead of going to the door, he went into the open garage to check out defendant’s car. This violated curtilage and was unreasonable, analyzing a bunch of curtilage cases from around the county. The court found “instructive” United States v. Magana, 512 F.2d 1169 (9th Cir. 1975), where a heroin dealt went down in a garage, and that was a waiver of privacy. State v. Blakley, 2010 Ariz. App. LEXIS 213 (November 16, 2010): P17 Here, instead of approaching the front door to make contact with any occupants of the residence, Silva walked past the pathway that led directly to the front door and continued walking down the driveway into an area ordinarily not used by visitors...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on November 22, 2010 (boomark / email).