If there is no hot pursuit, police must obtain warrant before they cuff 'em and stuff 'em*

People v Hunter, 2012 NY Slip Op 01298 [4th Dept 2012] [available here]

Back in 2006, Shawn Hunter was convicted of felony drug possession based on a undercover buy-and-bust operation in the city of Rochester. An undercover officer "purchased narcotics from defendant in front of a small apartment building," and then radioed a description of the defendant to his fellow officers. Mr. Hunter ran into the apartment building "where the pursuing officers lost sight of him." The officers set up a perimeter around the building, and "were unable to find defendant upon a search of all but one of the apartments in the building."

Instead of watching the apartment, maintaining the perimeter, and sending an officer to the courthouse for a warrant, the officers kicked in the door to Mr. Hunter's apartment and arrested him. Unfortunately for Mr. Hunter, "the buy money was recovered from defendant after he was placed in custody."

Mr. Hunter moved to suppress the buy money, arguing that the officers needed a warrant before entering his apartment.* The People argued (and the trial court agreed) that the warrantless entry was justified under the "hot pursuit" exception to the warrant requirement, or failing that, that exigent circumstances justified the intrusion.

On appeal, the Fourth Department held that, while it was true that a defendant could not thwart an arrest set in motion on the street simply by successfully fleeing to a private residence, the pursuit must actually be "hot" for the exception to apply. Since there "was no immediate or continuous pursuit of [defendant] from the scene of the crime," the "hot pursuit" exception did not apply.

Likewise, the Fourth Department found that the entry could not be justified under the "exigent circumstances" exception. That exception allows the police to proceed without a warrant if the suspect presents a grave risk of harm to others, or where the suspect will likely escape if not apprehended immediately. Mr. Hunter was suspected (strongly) of selling drugs, but nothing about the crime gave the police any reason to believe that he was armed, or violent. Once the perimeter was established, there was almost no chance he could flee. The buy-and-bust happened on a "weekday afternoon," and it would have been an easy thing to obtain a warrant from a judge before entering the building. Given those facts, there was simply no emergency situation to justify foregoing the warrant and busting the door in.

The upshot of all this is that, after more than six years (all of it spent in prison, presumably), Mr. Hunter's case is sent back to County Court for further proceedings, this time with the buy money suppressed.

* Youtube failed me. This is the best I could do.
** A "warrantless intrusion" into a private residence is "presumptively unreasonable and unconstitutional unless it [is] justified by one of the 'carefully delineated' exceptions to the Fourth Amendment Warrant Clause." I guess it did not stop the police in this case from entering every other apartment in the building before narrowing the search down to defendant's apartment, but hey. Omelettes and eggs, you know?