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CA1: No REP in a washing machine in a common area

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant had a subjective expectation of privacy in a gun hidden in a washing machine on the second floor landing 7' feet from where he was found, but it was not an expectation that was reasonable. United States v. Rheault, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 6484 (1st Cir. March 27, 2009): Unlike the entryways in Fluker and Drummond -- which were immediately outside the respective apartment doors -- the third-floor landing is not, in our view, an area in which Rheault, a second-floor tenant, could reasonably expect privacy. 10 Also weighing against Rheault is the landlord's testimony that the front-stairway landings were not to be used as storage areas. Thus, the reasonable expectations of anyone attempting to store items there would not be privacy or security, but that the items would be removed by someone -- either the landlord, or, as with Archambault's reclaimed desk, a scavenger...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 03, 2009 (boomark / email).