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W.D.Va.: Use of carpenter's scope to look in a locked trailer was an unreasonable search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officer's entry into an open field and looking in the window of a locked trailer was not a search. The defendant had an expectation of privacy in the trailer, however. Inserting a carpenter's scope to see inside was a search. "[T]his time, brought, I call it a carpenter's scope, but it's kind of got a long tube on it with a monocular, just one eye piece, and it kind of uses--it's probably about two feet long and I could stick it through the crack where I could see in the … back of the trailer and that's where I could see it was a tremendous amount of jugs there." United States v. Smith, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35222 (W.D. Va. April 27, 2009): Though Agent Calhoun's entry onto the Pittsylvania County property was not a Fourth Amendment violation, the court does find that Jody Smith had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the locked trailer located on that land...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).