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OH11: Judicial intergrity justifies exclusion; warrantless entry for noise complaint was unjustified

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Police responding to a noise complaint at defendant's house found no noise when they arrived. Their entry into the premises was without exigent circumstances. The exigent circumstance here, contributing to the delinquency of a minor for giving alcohol was disproved by the fact that the officers never even seized evidence of the offense (beer cans). State v. Andrews, 2008 Ohio 3993, 2008 Ohio App. LEXIS 3389 (11th Dist. July 25, 2008). The opinion also was a rare support for the exclusionary rule's justification of judicial integrity: [*P20] The slow erosion of its protection for expediency's sake or the attitude that a warrant is just a "technicality" should be troubling to all citizens but especially to the judicial branch, which is tasked with standing as the bulwark for our constitutional rights...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 10, 2008 (boomark / email).