United States v. Mathias, No. 12-3092 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence. The court concluded that the strip of grass and weeds on defendant's property constituted an open field for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment; because the officer was within an open field when he looked through defendant's fence, his actions did not constitute a trespassory search; and although defendant had a subjective expectation of privacy in the back yard, the gaps in the fence, through which the back yard could be seen unaided, rendered the expectation not one society was willing to recognize as reasonable. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law. The strip of land from which a police officer spotted the marijuana plants growing on defendant's property was properly characterized as an open field and was not part of the curtilage of defendant's property; officer's actions in looking through gaps in defendant's fence into the property did not constitute a trespassory search or a violation of defendant's reasonable expectation of privacy.
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