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novapsycheCourt: Privacy Limited in Public Restroom
A man's right to privacy was not breached when he was arrested after a rendezvous with a woman in a convenience store restroom, a federal appeals court ruled.
The three-judge 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday unanimously rejected Lonnie Maurice Hill's claim that his expectation of privacy in the public restroom made the drugs seized by the officers unusable as evidence.
In the decision, stemming from a 2003 arrest in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Judge Donald Lay wrote that, "under these circumstances, we hold that whatever reasonable expectation of privacy Hill and his companion had expired by the time the officers arrived."
[...] Hill was arrested after a clerk called police to report suspicious activity, a man and woman entering the store's one-person unisex restroom.
When police arrived minutes later, according to the ruling, the couple twice failed to respond to knocks, and someone inside locked the door after an officer unlocked it. The two finally emerged — Hill with his pants undone — after the officer unlocked the door a second time. He was arrested after he re-entered the restroom, and marijuana and cocaine were found near the toilet.
A man's right to privacy was not breached when he was arrested after a rendezvous with a woman in a convenience store restroom, a federal appeals court ruled.
The three-judge 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday unanimously rejected Lonnie Maurice Hill's claim that his expectation of privacy in the public restroom made the drugs seized by the officers unusable as evidence.
In the decision, stemming from a 2003 arrest in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Judge Donald Lay wrote that, "under these circumstances, we hold that whatever reasonable expectation of privacy Hill and his companion had expired by the time the officers arrived."
[...] Hill was arrested after a clerk called police to report suspicious activity, a man and woman entering the store's one-person unisex restroom.
When police arrived minutes later, according to the ruling, the couple twice failed to respond to knocks, and someone inside locked the door after an officer unlocked it. The two finally emerged — Hill with his pants undone — after the officer unlocked the door a second time. He was arrested after he re-entered the restroom, and marijuana and cocaine were found near the toilet.