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E.D.Mo.: Warrantless entry to apartment was based on exigent circumstances of destruction of evidence and safety issues

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officers reasonably entered defendant’s apartment without a warrant after a drug sale outside and then when officers moved to arrest, another fled inside and nobody would come to the door and there were sounds inside consistent with destruction of evidence. They climbed to the balcony. United States v. Anderson, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90158 (E.D. Mo. July 30, 2010)*: Based on this evidence, an objectively reasonable officer on the scene could have believed that there was an exigency and that contraband inside of 815½ Gladstone Blvd. was being destroyed and/or there was an immediate danger to innocent third persons. These circumstances justified all of the officers actions up to and including entry of the apartment (after Anderson opened the door) to arrest the occupants...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 03, 2010 (boomark / email).