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S.D.Iowa: Going to back door when no answer for a knock-and-talk when somebody should have been there was not unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officers went to defendant’s property and mobile home to do a knock-and-talk about cocaine trafficking. In the driveway were two vehicles with out of state license plates, and nobody answered a knock at the front door. Officers went to the back door, which was not blocked by any fencing, in case those inside could not hear the knocking. The saw a 30 ton hydraulic press that is commonly used to compress cocaine for shipment. That was a valid plain view, and curtilage was not y unreasonably violated by trying the back door. United States v. Gonzalez, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106448 (S.D. Iowa June 4, 2010)*: The Court finds that there was a sufficient indication that someone might be home for a police officer to knock at an alternate entrance...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 12, 2010 (boomark / email).