Privacy Rights of Probationers "well below" Rights of Others
In United States v. Trujillo, 04-4074(April 12, 2005), the Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of a parolee's motion to supress handguns seized from his home in a warrantless search of his home after his arrest. The Tenth Circuit rejected the defendant's argument that his arrest revoked his parole agreement and rendered unreasonable the subsequent warrantless search.
In Trujillo, the parolee had signed a parole agreement, which authorized the search of his home upon reasonable suspicion. The Tenth Circuit cited Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, 873-74 (1987), for the proposition that warrantless searches of probationers' homes when conducted pursuant to reasonable regulations are reasonable. United States v. Knights, 534 U.S. 112 (2001), made clear that a probation order allowing warrantless searches by probation officers and law enforcement officers extended to investigative searches as well as probationary searches.
The Trujillo Court found that the arrest of Trujillo, pursuant to a valid arrest warrant for parole violations, outside his residence did not vitiate the parole agreement he had signed. In joining the Seventh Circuit and the Third Circuit, the Tenth Circuit found that the officers were merely fulfilling the purpose of the parole agreement when they searched Trujillo's house.
Practitioner's Note:
If representing a probationer with a potential suppresion issue, always ask for Department of Corrections regulations on probation/parole searches. Most warrantless searches require reasonable suspicion.
