Suppose Investigator Lockemup suspects drug activity at a residence. He can walk to the front door of

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Question:

Suppose Investigator Lockemup suspects drug activity at a residence. He can walk to the front door of the residence and knock. There is a caveat that the front door must be accessible and not intentionally shielded from visitors. In other words, if the Girl Scout could walk up and knock on the door, then so can Lockemup.

Suppose Lockemup walks up to the door and knocks. When he knocks, he sees through the window what he believes through his training education and experience to be a methamphetamine lab. Can Lockemup draft an application for a search warrant based on his viewing of the methamphetamine lab through the window of the private residence?

Investigator Lockemup takes possession of Dennis's cell phone and retrieves stored numbers for all the men Dennis said were involved in the murder. Lockemup calls Fred Fed, who worked for the FBI, and asked for an immediate phone trace on each of the numbers. The federal authorities have access to cell phone towers and can determine the location of a phone and give historical data of the phone's location. Within the hour, Lockemup has phone data supporting Dennis's story. He also has the current location of Melvin's and Andy's (Dennis's codefendants) phones. If further evidence is collected based on the information gathered from the cell phone tracking, will it be admissible? If admissible, who could it be admissible against?

Investigator Lockemup has a reliable informant who has given him credible information in the past. The informant tells Lockemup that he saw drugs in Jake's house two days ago. Lockemup puts this information in an affidavit and submits this for approval to Judge Jones. Jones signs the search warrant and gives Lockemup ten days to execute the search warrant. The next day, a doctor is killed in Smallville and Lockemup begins working on that case. With the pressures to solve the murder of the doctor, Lockemup forgets about the search warrant for the drugs in Jake's house. On the twelfth day, Lockemup sees the search warrant for Jake's house sitting on his desk and realizes his mistake. What can Lockemup do to search Jake's house? Is his information now too stale to refresh the search warrant?

Investigator Lockemup suspects Victor Victims' wife, Trina, as being involved in the murder of Victor Victim. He thinks that she may have some bank records at her office. Lockemup travels to her office and knocks on the door. Lockemup is met by a woman who appears to be hired to clean the office space. He tells the woman that he needs to look around the office for possible evidence related to the murder of Victor Victim. She tells him that she needs to call Trina to get approval. She tries Trina's cell phone, but gets no answer, so she lets Lockemup in to search the office.

Is this a violation of the Fourth Amendment?

Yes, it is. Lockemup needs a warrant to search a private space, such as an office, and he does not have one.

He knows that the cleaning lady does not have the authority to allow him consent because she tells him that she has to call Trina for approval. Therefore, the cleaning lady is acting as an agent of the government and the search is not good.

Suppose Lockemup tells the cleaning lady that he is looking for bank statements and asks the her to retrieve the bank statements from inside the office. Lockemup stays outside while the cleaning lady searches for the bank records. She eventually finds them and turns them over to Lockemup.

Is this a violation of the Fourth Amendment?

Yes, it is. In this scenario, Lockemup is using the cleaning lady as an agent of the police. He is asking her to do what he needs a warrant to do. Just because she agrees to help does not make it constitutional.

Investigator Lockemup is working a murder investigation where Victor Victim was murdered in his home in Smallville. Lockemup interviews Dennis Driver and Dennis Driver admits that he drove Melvin and Andy to Victor's home just before Victor was killed. Lockemup searches Dennis's car and finds a piece of paper with Victor's home address written on it and collects it. The paper with the address is also a child support document containing identification information of Melvin. Melvin's attorney objects to the paper being submitted into evidence in the case against Melvin because Lockemup did not get a search warrant or consent to search Dennis's car. Will Melvin be successful in objecting to evidence found in Dennis's car?