United States v. Booth

• Decision Date: 24 January 1983
• Docket Number: No. 81-771.,Bo. 81-772.,81-771.
• Citation: 455 A.2d 1351
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Appellant, v. Roger W. BOOTH, Appellee. UNITED STATES, Appellant, v. Bertha Lee WHITE, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

Page 1351

455 A.2d 1351

UNITED STATES, Appellant, v. Roger W. BOOTH, Appellee.

UNITED STATES, Appellant, v. Bertha Lee WHITE, Appellee.

No. 81-771.

Bo. 81-772.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued November 18, 1982.

Decided January 24, 1983.

Katherine Winfree, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., with whom Stanley S. Harris, U.S. Atty., John A. Terry, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., at the time the brief was filed, and Natalia M. Combs, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., were on the briefs, for appellant.

Gerson Simon, Washington, D.C., appointed by this court, for appellee Booth.

J. Philip Kessel, Washington, D.C., appointed by this court, for appellee White.

Before KELLY, KERN and FERREN, Associate Judges.

FERREN, Associate Judge:

The government appeals from a trial court ruling suppressing evidentiary use of statements by appellee White, as well as a broom handle that appellees allegedly used to assault the complaining witness. The court concluded that the statements and the broom handle were fruits of an unlawful police entry into the front hall of a rooming house where appellees resided. We reject the government's contention that appellees had no legitimate expectation of privacy in the front hallway of their rooming house, and thus lacked standing to challenge the police officer's actions. But, in reviewing the merits, we agree with the government that emergency circumstances, perceived by the officer at the time, justified his limited entry, in order to determine whether his assistance was needed by someone in danger of bodily harm inside the premises. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's suppression order and remand for further proceedings.

I

On March 7, 1981, Officer William Terrell, patrolling in his scout car, received a radio report of an "assault in progress" at 1620 Swann Street, N.W. Officer Terrell drove to the address and knocked on the door. When appellee Booth opened the door, Officer Terrell noticed dried blood on Booth's nose and asked whether he had called the police. Booth answered negatively, but Officer Terrell testified at the suppression hearing that the blood on Booth's nose gave him "reason to believe that somebody in there had been injured." Booth would not respond when Terrell asked why he had blood on his nose.

Officer Terrell then crossed the threshold of the front door into the hall. He testified that, from the hallway, he looked inside the living room "to see if anybody was hurt." He again inquired whether anyone had called the police (about five persons were in the living room). When he was told that no one had called the police, Officer Terrell turned to leave. As he reached the front door, he heard a door open on the second floor, looked up, and saw the complaining witness — "his face covered with blood." Terrell went upstairs. The complaining witness told him that the people downstairs had attacked him, and that appellee Booth was one of the attackers. Officer Terrell returned downstairs and placed appellee Booth under arrest. At that point, appellee White approached Terrell and stated that she was the person who had struck the complaining witness with a broom handle.

Before trial, appellee White moved to suppress her statement, and both appellees moved to suppress the broom handle, as fruits of an unlawful entry.¹ The trial court ruled that, although exigent circumstances existed, Officer Terrell did not have a right to enter without a warrant, since he did not have probable cause to believe an assault had occurred in the house. The court accordingly suppressed the statement and the broom handle.

II.

The government argues that appellees lack standing to challenge the police entry and seizure because they never have asserted a legitimate expectation of privacy in the hallway and other common areas. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143, 99 S.Ct. 421, 430, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978); see Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 360, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). The government correctly stresses that one who contests a search or seizure bears the burden of establishing his or her Fourth Amendment rights. Rakas, supra, 439 U.S. at 131 n. 1, 99 S.Ct. at 424 n. 1. Appellees may establish that expectation "by reference to `a source of that expectation outside of the Fourth Amendment, either by reference to concepts of real or personal property law or to understandings that are recognized and permitted by society.'" In re B.K.C., D.C.App., 413 A.2d 894, 899 (1980) (quoting Rakas, supra 439 U.S. at 144 n. 12, 99 S.Ct. at 431 n. 12).

In discussing expectations of privacy, the Supreme Court has admonished that property law distinctions are not controlling. Rakas, supra at 143, 99 S.Ct. at 430. Indeed, "Rakas emphatically rejected the notion that `arcane' concepts of property law ought to control the ability to claim the protections of the Fourth Amendment." Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. 98, 105, 100 S.Ct. 2556, 2561, 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980) (rejected contention that ownership of drugs in someone else's handbag conferred standing to contest the search of the handbag). Instead, proper analysis requires the court to examine a variety of factors tending to reflect privacy interests worthy of society's protection. These include the defendant's access to and use of the area in the past, id. at 105, 100 S.Ct. at 2561, the defendant's authority to exclude others from the area entered and searched, id.; see Rakas, supra, 439 U.S. at 144 n. 12, 99 S.Ct. at 430 n. 12, and the defendant's reasonable precautions in attempting to maintain privacy. In re B.K.C., supra at 900 (defendant's "temporary relinquishment of possession" not sufficient to defeat defendant's legitimate expectation of privacy); see Slobogin, Capacity to Contest a Search and Seizure: The Passing of Old Rules and Some Suggestions for New Ones, 18 Am.CRim.L.REv. 387, 407 (1981).

Appellees have asserted that they reside in the rooming house at 1620 Swann Street, N.W., and the government has never challenged that assertion.² The government argues, nonetheless, that because appellees live in a rooming house, not in a private home, they lack a legitimate expectation of privacy in the front hall where Officer Terrell made his warrantless entry. See, e.g., United States v. Anderson, 175 U.S.App D.C. 75, 79, 533 F.2d 1210, 1214 (1976) (defendant's constitutionally protected privacy interest began at the door to his room, not at the door to the rooming house). We cannot agree. The government's argument places too much reliance on property law concepts. When we apply the broader range of relevant factors, appellees' legitimate expectation of privacy in the front hallway of this particular rooming house is clearly established.

In contrast with Rawlings, supra 448 U.S. at 105, 100 S.Ct. at 2561, where the defendant "had never sought or received access" to the handbag searched by the police, appellees unquestionably had access to the hallway, which they regularly would use as a means of ingress and egress to the rooming house. Further, the other two factors — "authority to exclude" and "precautions to maintain privacy" — cut in appellees' favor. Unlike the hallway in the rooming house in Anderson, supra 175 U.S. App.D.C. at 79, 533 F.2d at 1214, which was open to "residents of the rooming house, their guests, [and] people making deliveries," the rooming house at 1620 Swann Street, N.W. — and thus its front hallway — was not open to the general public. Indeed, we note that Officer Terrell, upon his arrival, did not even perceive that 1620 Swann Street, N.W. was a rooming house. Thus, if a stranger appeared at the front door, appellees, as residents, had authority, and were in a position, to deny entry.³ (If appellee Booth had consented to Officer Terrell's entry, we cannot believe the government would not vouch for his authority to regulate entrance.)

In sum, we conclude that appellees had standing to challenge Officer Terrell's entry because they had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the front hallway of the house they shared, which was not obviously a rooming house open to the general public.

III.

We turn to the question whether Officer Terrell's entry was justified. "[I]t is a cardinal principal that `searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment — subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions." Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 390, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 2412, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978) (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, 514, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967)).⁴ One exception is "exigent circumstances." A warrantless entry and reasonable search will be authorized if the dangers are such that the entry cannot be delayed. See, e.g., Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967); United States v. Minick, D.C.App., 455 A.2d 874 (1983) (en banc); Brooks v. United States, D.C.App., 367 A.2d 1297 (1976); Dorman v. United States, 140 U.S. App.D.C. 313, 435 F.2d 385 (1970) (en banc). Typically, the exigent circumstances exception applies when police officers are pursuing an offender who they have probable cause to believe committed a known offense. See id. Several courts, however, have extended the exception (or have created another exception) to permit warrantless entry in an "emergency" requiring preventive action, even though no crime assuredly has been committed; e.g., a person inside the premises is reasonably believed to be in peril. See note 6 infra and accompanying text.

In the present case, the trial court did not apply the "emergency" line of cases. In effect relying on the case law represented by Brooks, supra, and Dorman, supra, the court found that Officer Terrell confronted "exigent circumstances" but did not have "probable cause to believe that an assault actually occurred in that house" — a...