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CA10: Bounty hunters were private actors when they entered premises

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant had an expectation of privacy as a social guest, but the entry was by bounty hunters looking for him as a bail jumper, and there was no governmental action involved. Their seeing drugs and paraphernalia on their entry was not subject to the Fourth Amendment. They were acting solely in their own pecuniary interests, and the fact the state regulated bailbondsmen to some degree had no effect on the outcome. United States v. Poe, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 5237 (10th Cir. March 3, 2009): We use a dual-pronged inquiry to decide if a search by a private individual constitutes state action within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Souza, 223 F.3d at 1201; see also Smythe, 84 F.3d at 1242-43; Pleasant v. Lovell, 876 F.2d 787, 797 (10th Cir. 1989)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).