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OR: Entry onto the curtilage is presumptively a trespass, and the state could not justify it

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Entry onto the curtilage is presumptively a trespass, and the state could not justify it. State v. Olinger, 2010 Ore. App. LEXIS 1684 (December 29, 2010): Entry onto the property for purposes other than to contact persons at the front door, however, is a different matter. Such intrusions onto a home's curtilage are presumptively trespasses, unless the circumstances so strongly evince an invitation to the public that it can be said that the homeowner has implicitly invited entry. State v. Pierce, 226 Ore. App. 336, 343-45, 203 P.3d 343 (2009); Somfleth, 168 Ore. App. at 425; State v. Glines, 134 Ore. App. 21, 25, 894 P.2d 516, rev den, 321 Ore. 512, 900 P.2d 509 (1995). In this case, the state argues that it is no less common or acceptable for the public (and thus the police) to be in an offshoot of a driveway with a parked car in it than it is for the public to be in the driveway itself, at least absent any evidence of the resident's intent to exclude the public from that area...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 04, 2011 (boomark / email).