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NM: 8 seconds not enough time for denial of entry in knock-and-announce

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The officers entering eight seconds after announcing defendant’s home entered illegally because there was no denial or constructive denial of entry. The knock-and-announce rule serves important interests, and the search is suppressed. [Hudson was not cited. Here, one officer had a tape recorder on his person, and eight seconds was just not enough.] State v. Gonzales, 2010 NMCA 23, 2009 N.M. App. LEXIS 281 (December 21, 2009), Released for Publication February 23, 2010: [*21] We are unwilling to accept the State's generic assertion that drugs could be destroyed as justifying the officers' failure to comply with the knock and announce rule. See State v. Ortega, 117 N.M. 160, 162-63, 870 P.2d 122, 124-25 (1994) (holding that "the mere potential for destruction of evidence does not in itself give rise to any exigency," but that if the officer has good reason, based on "particular circumstances," that suspects will destroy evidence, that evidence will excuse compliance with the knock and announce rule)...continue to full post

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