Archive | exigent circumstances

United States v. Simmons, No. 10-1526-cr (2d Cir. October 26, 2011) (Winter, Pooler, Parker, CJJ)

New York City police officers accompanied an individual to his apartment in the Bronx to retrieve his belongings. He was moving out because his roommate, defendant Simmons, had pulled a gun on him during an argument a few days earlier.

Inside the apartment, the officers found Simmons in his bedroom; the door was ajar, he was lying in bed and there was a “shiny object” next to him. Simmons got up and the officers pulled him out of the bedroom and into the hall. They asked him about his dispute with the roommate and the gun. Simmons told the officers the gun was in his bedroom and they went in, retrieved it, and arrested him.

The circuit found that the officers’ questions to Simmons about the gun were covered by the “public safety” exception to …

United States v. Klump, No. 06-0339-cr (2d Cir. August 4, 2008) (McLaughlin, Sack, Livingston, CJJ)

Federal drug agents followed a fan believed to be associated with drug activity to a home depot, and then to a warehouse in Buffalo that Klump owned. The agents watched the warehouse for a while, and when Klump and another person left the building, detained them. Shortly thereafter, the agents smelled smoke from the warehouse, although they did not see any smoke or flames. They called the fire department and accompanied the firemen into the building, which, it turned out, was not on fire. Once inside, they found 300 marijuana plants and a handgun. Based on this, they obtained a search warrant and, armed with that, returned to the warehouse and found more of same.

In the district court, Klump moved to suppress the evidence on the ground that the agents’ original, warrantless entrance into …