New Case on Consent Searches When Tenants’ Wishes Conflict, and When a Suspect is “Present” to Object

Georgia v. Randolph and the “present at the scene” requirement for a co-tenant’s objection to a warrantless search to be valid. 

• Consent searches of a residence 
• Use of a laser pointer on aircraft, per 18 U.S.C. § 39A 
• An objecting co-tenant’s physical presence requirement 
• Non-custodial questioning vs. an interrogation 
• Suppression of the products of an illegal search 

When two co-tenants are present at a residence, one of whom consents and the other objects to police officers entering and searching their residence, the objecting co-tenant’s objection takes precedence.  

To be “present,” the objecting co-tenant must be at least within the “immediate vicinity” of the residence. Being within visual (“line-of-sight”) and auditory reach of the residence counts as being within the immediate vicinity. A suspect’s oral admissions will not be suppressed as the product of an illegal search if the suspect was unaware of any evidence that was seized during that search. 

Brett Wayne Parkins (aka: the “laser pointer guy,” to his neighbors), living in a Huntington Beach apartment complex, liked to amuse himself by pointing a laser light at helicopters and other aircraft flying overhead. Over the six months leading up to June 25, 2021, a number police helicopter and commercial aircraft pilots from nearby airports had complained of laser strikes on their aircraft. On the night of June 25, Huntington Beach Police Department Officers Garwood and Vella, flying a HBPD helicopter, were struck by a bright green laser. Turning their highly sophisticated thermal imaging camera toward an apartment complex below — they recalled having been struck by green lasers from this area on previous flights — the officers attempted to locate the source. When a second laser shined upon their helicopter, the thermal camera captured the image of a man with a stocky build and a large stomach, wearing shorts and a hat, walking from the area of the laser source into a nearby apartment breezeway where he disappeared. When hit by a third laser strike, the same form appeared. The ....