Police Violated 4th Amendment, says Michigan Supreme Court

Case: People v. Towne

Michigan Supreme Court ( Order )

Search & seizure; Motion to suppress evidence; U.S. Const. amend. IV; Const. 1963, art. 1, § 11; Payton v. New York; Steagald v. United States; Proper scope of a knock & talk; People v. Frederick; The exclusionary rule; Wong Sun v. United States; Mapp v. Ohio

Summary:

In an order in lieu of granting leave to appeal, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals judgment and vacated the trial court’s order denying defendant’s motion to suppress, holding that the police violated his constitutional right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure and that the evidence must be suppressed. The court concluded that the officers “exceeded the proper scope of a knock and talk by approaching and securing the defendant’s home without sufficient reason to believe that the subject of the arrest warrant was inside the home.” Further, the evidence had to be suppressed “because the warrantless entry was the direct result of the Fourth Amendment violation, and in this case the benefit of deterring future police misconduct outweighs the cost of exclusion.” The court remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings not inconsistent with its order.