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VI: Code enforcement entry into backyard, despite view from street, was Fourth Amendment violation

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

In searching for junk cars, the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority entered defendant’s backyard to search and photograph. The entry into the backyard, despite the observations from off the property was without a warrant and unreasonable. Simmonds v. People, 2010 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 17 (May 4, 2010): But the salient question in this appeal does not concern the observations the officers made from the public road or from Simmonds’ front yard. Rather, at issue is the evidence gathered from Simmonds’ back yard: the observations the officers made after they entered the back yard and the photographs they took from that vantage point. Even if the officers, while standing in the public road or in Simmonds’ front yard, observed violations situated within Simmonds’ back yard, those observations would have merely provided probable cause, not authorization for a warrantless search of the curtilage...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 09, 2010 (boomark / email).