Warrantless Entry Onto Property to Conduct Search Violates Fourth Amendment

State v. Chute, Minn.Ct.App., 11/21/2016.  B.W.F. called the police to report that he'd found the camper that he had reported stolen a couple of months back.  An officer met B.W.F. at the designated location and from the vantage point of a public road the officer confirmed that the make and model of the camper matched those of the stolen camper. The officer then parked his squad in one of two driveways on the property; from this vantage point the officer could see what were described as a "unique set of bolts" on the front of the camper.  The officer then walked down that driveway to the camper. 

The state charged Mr. Chute with receiving stolen property.  Mr. Chute challenged the search and seizure but the trial court said that the officer's actions were justified under the plain-view doctrine. This doctrine says that police may seize an object that they believe to be the fruit of a crime without a warrant if the object's incriminating nature is immediately apparent, the police are legitimately in the position from which the view the object, and the police have a lawful right of access to the object.  State v. Milton, 821 N.W.2d 789 (Minn. 2012).  

The court of appeals reverses the trial court's ruling on the suppression motion.  The court said that the camper's incriminating nature only became apparent after the officer had entered upon the property. However, was the officer's position on the driveway lawful?  This raises the question whether the driveway was part of the "curtilage" which the Fourth Amendment protects the same as persons and houses.  Police may not search the curtilage without a warrant.  If, however, the curtilage included the driveway and was "impliedly-open" to the public then the entry was lawful.  State v. Crea, 305 Minn. 342, 233 N.W.2d 736 (Minn. 1976).  This doctrine, however, does not give the police license to enter the curtilage where their behavior objectively reveals a purpose to conduct a search.  Florida v. Jardines, 133 S.Ct. 1409 (2013). Tracht v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 592 N.W.2d 863 Minn.Ct.App. 1999).   The court of appeals concludes that because the officer first walked down the driveway toward the camper and performed various other acts to identify the camper as the stolen camper before going over to talk to Mr. Chute, the officer was on the property to conduct a search.  That made the search unlawful.