Parolee Can't Dodge Allowable Search Of His Home By Staying At His Girlfriend's House

UNITED STATES v. TAYLOR, USCA-5 No. 06-60136, 2007 U.S.App. LEXIS 6048, on appeal from USDC-MSSD, before USCJs Reavley, Jolly, Benavides, opinion by Jolly, filed 15 Mar 2007.

LONG STORY SHORT: Parolees have the same right of privacy where they are overnight guests as they do when at home, but reasonable suspicion of criminal activity justifies a warrantless search of wherever the parolee is staying at the time. Binding in LA, MS, TX.

FACTS: Defendant went out on Earned Release Supervision from Mississippi state prison, and signed a consent to search of his person, residence, or vehicle by his Field Officer or any other LEO at any time. Acting on information from Defendant's Field Officer that Defendant had not reported as required and had acquired a handgun through his girlfriend, a team of MDOC officers, U.S. Marshals, and local police surrounded his girlfriend's apartment. The team had a misdemeanor criminal mischief arrest warrant for Defendant, but no search warrant. The team knocked on the door but no one responded. The team forced entry, found Defendant hiding in a back bedroom, and found a handgun in a dresser drawer in another bedroom.

PROCEDURE: The United States indicted Defendant in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi for possessing a firearm while a convicted felon. Defendant moved to suppress the firearm, arguing that he only consented to warrantless search of his residence, not someplace where he happened to be an overnight guest, and no other exception to the warrant requirement applied. The trial court ruled that while overnight guests have the same reasonable expectation of privacy as they do in their homes, Defendant consented to search of his residence, which applied to wherever he was staying. MOTION TO SUPPRESS DENIED. Defendant pleaded guilty and received 21 months on condition that he could appeal the suppression to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

DECISION: Defendant was correct that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and Fourth Amendment standing to assert his right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, at his girlfriend's residence while an overnight guest there. However, he had no greater right there than at his own home, and as a supervised releasee, any such rights were less than those of the average citizen. Though it was arguable that no suspicion at all is necessary to search a parolee's home, the police here had reasonable suspicion, based on the arrest warrant and the evidence that he possessed a firearm and failed to report, that Defendant was engaged in criminal conduct. The search may or may not have violated his girlfriend's right against unreasonable search of HER home, but Defendant would have been lawfully subject to the same search at HIS home. DENIAL OF SUPPRESSION AFFIRMED.

EDITORIAL: Nice try, wise guy. Well, at least you have a loyal girlfriend waiting for you when your silly self gets out of prison. Why don't any of MY girlfriends buy pistols for ME? Nothing says "I love you" more romantically than a matched pair of Larry Vickers custom 1911s in a velvet-lined presentation case ... hint hint ...