Man Catches Officer Trespassing and Orders Him to Leave

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers the fourth amendment private property and officer trespassing and is brought to us by nikki norris's channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve before we dive into the interaction i want to give a big thanks to the sponsor of this episode skillshare skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes designed to both cultivate your creativity and develop your skill set not only does skillshare offer its members access to a catalog of knowledgeable professionals but it also allows members to connect to the support of fellow creatives and become a part of a community of inspiration and encouragement i particularly enjoyed brent evaston's artistic guide to creativity which explores the most effective and research-based changes that you can make to become more creative and it helped me establish a creative process that i can apply in nearly any situation a skillshare membership is already super affordable but right now the first 1000 people to use the link in my description will get a free trial of skillshare premium you have absolutely nothing to lose so click on the link in the description and empower your personal growth today thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this episode on october 25th 2020 a deputy with the flathead county sheriff's office who only identifies himself as mark approached the door of a private residence in kalispell montana to inquire about an individual named eli tully who had been arrested on october 10 2020 and was being held in the flathead county detention center on charges of assault on a minor seeing the officer's approach property owner jacob norris exited the residence and met the deputy outside hello how are you not too bad how about you good can i ask what you're doing here yep give me one second let's watch our coffee this is just for you know kind of deal with you guys so well that's okay i'm recording too okay uh yeah i'm mark with the sheriff's office i'm looking for an eli tolley by chance do you recognize that name he's in jail he's in jail yeah okay so the reason i'm contacting there's a white ford expedition down there at the school oh okay so it's parked down there it looks like it's been there for a bit yeah he's in jail okay do you know who the car belongs to that's eli's uh can can uh i said how did you get in through the gate it was locked uh there was a chain on it yeah okay it was just all right deputy mark confirms that he entered the property through a gate that was secured with a chain which might have violated the fourth amendment ban on unreasonable searches it is well established that curtilage which is the area immediately surrounding a dwelling is entitled to fourth amendment protection from unreasonable government intrusion however in the 1984 case of oliver vs united states the u.s supreme court determined that the same protection does not extend to quote open fields and that warrantless government intrusion upon open fields is not considered an unreasonable search in the oliver case the law enforcement officers quote drove past petitioner's house to a locked gate with a no trespassing sign but with a footpath around one side the agents then walked around the gate and along the road and found a field of marijuana over a mile from petitioner's house the court concluded that quote because fences or no trespassing signs do not effectively bar the public from viewing open fields the asserted expectation of privacy in open fields is not one that society recognizes as reasonable building on its decision in the oliver case the supreme court defined four factors to determine whether the property police officers enter is considered cartilage or an open field in the 1987 case of united states versus done the court held that quote extent of curtilage questions should be resolved with particular reference to the following four factors the proximity of the area to the home whether the area is within an enclosure surrounding the home the nature and uses to which the area is put and the steps taken by the resident to protect the area from observation by passersby in the dunn case the property in questions surrounded a barn that was approximately 50 yards from a house and 60 yards from a wooden fence that was secured with a locked gate the officers crossed the perimeter fence without a warrant as well as several of the barbed wire fences and the wooden fence in front of the barn the court determined that due to the barnes quote substantial distance from the house among other factors it was not part of the home's cartilage and therefore the officer's actions were not unreasonable given the highly fact specific analysis that is necessary to determine whether the police may enter a locked gate it is nearly impossible to predict whether a court would find that deputy mark's actions violated the fourth amendment a judge would evaluate information about the location of the gate the type of gate and the type of lock as well as any other relevant information to decide whether the entry was reasonable is there an issue no no no i just just wondering okay so there was a note left on the console there that said somebody had f'd up and the keys were in the in the uh by the gas cap and a phone in the console just making sure everybody's okay um at this time i don't want to answer any more of your questions just to be you know all legal and stuff i don't know what this is about so so i'm just trying to conduct you can contact the flaghead county jail and i'm sure he's in there okay so whose card is it card car whose car is it that's eli's car it's not registered to him i don't know okay and who's he like to you i don't answer any questions i don't understand what the deal is i'm not answering any questions without my lawyer present you're not you're not under investigation first oh that's good i'm just covering all my bases dot my eyes my keys you know what i'm saying yep i do so here's the thing man so i'm just trying to investigate and make sure that whoever that car belongs to is okay and not need of help okay you can investigate it other than my property do what you can leave now please mr norris asks deputy mark to leave his property which is well within his rights to do under the knock and talk doctrine police officers are entitled to knock on an individual's door without a warrant to ask questions just like any other citizen could in the 2013 case of florida vs jardines the u.s supreme court explained that the quote implicit license to knock on an individual's front door typically permits the visitor to approach the home by the front path knock promptly wait briefly to be received and then absent invitation to linger longer leave while the case did not explicitly state that individuals can ask police officers to leave their property the context is clear that just as you could ask a private citizen to leave you could also request a police officer without a warrant to do so the supreme court also looked at this issue in the 2011 case of kentucky versus king in this case the court held that quote when law enforcement officers who are not armed with a warrant knock on a door they do no more than any private citizen might do and whether the person who knocks on the door and requests the opportunity to speak is a police officer or a private citizen the occupant has no obligation to open the door or to speak and even if an occupant chooses to open the door and speak with the officers the occupant need not allow the officers to enter the premises and may refuse to answer any questions at any time while the decision once again stops short of explicitly stating that individuals have the right to ask police officers to leave their property it does clearly state that officers who knock on doors without warrants are acting on the permission to knock that is granted to all citizens and that individuals are not required to open the door speak to the officer or allow them to enter given this information it is only logical that an individual such as mr norris could ask a police officer who had entered his property without a warrant to leave if you would like to just i don't understand what your problem is no i don't have a problem i just don't like people coming into my property when it's a lock gate i didn't know right now you're trespassing so i'm in here i'm here uh conducting an investigation oh he can investigate but not here okay and this is your property i don't answer questions all right man have a good day is your name jake i don't answer questions jesus man unbelievable thank you i'd like you to leave my neighbors alone please okay hey skip don't don't answer any of those questions so yeah there's so there's a car that's parked down there that has a piece of mail in it okay that comes back to an eli totally yeah so what's that that's not me no i understand that i'm just making sure everybody's okay but he obviously doesn't want to help me out in this way so do you know who the car belongs to god you guys are putting me on the spot i don't know he you're trespassing right now i like you leave my property i'm not trespassing you came through a log gate and this private property it's marked all over the place that you cut thank you private property call and file a report sorry you don't want to answer any questions either what's your name and badge number what i'm trying to figure out is just questions okay and he's currently in jail as far as i know okay yeah and it's his car we don't answer any questions okay have a nice day officer i'll leave when i'm done although mr norris makes multiple requests for deputy mark to leave his property deputy mark refuses to leave until he is quote unquote done section 45-6-203 of the montana code states that quote a person commits the offense of criminal trust passed to property if the person knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in or upon the premises of another as used in this statute section 45-2-101 of the montana code defines premises as quote any type of structure or building and real property and section 45-6-201 states that quote a person enters or remains unlawfully in or upon any vehicle occupied structure or premises when the person is not licensed invited or otherwise privileged to do so section 45-6-201 goes on to clarify that quote privilege to enter or remain upon land is extended either by the explicit permission of the landowner or other authorized person or by the failure of the landowner or other authorized person to post notice denying entry onto private land once granted the privilege may be revoked at any time by personal communication of notice by the landowner or other authorized person to the entering person while it is not clear from the language of the statute what types of land requires notice denying entry to be posted the supreme court of montana determined in the 2020 case of city of bozerman versus lehrer that quote all indications are that the posting requirements for land and private land in the legislation were intended to obligate a landowner to clearly communicate a closure of raw or unoccupied land that recreationalists may seek to access in contrast to other premises that had previously been defined in the criminal code and which is still so defined there is no basis to conclude that the legislature intended to impose a requirement upon property owners in residential neighborhoods to post notice in order to deny or revoke a privilege to enter their property given this interpretation it seems likely that a court would conclude that entering mr norris's locked gate would be trespassing although it is difficult to predict with any level of certainty without more information about the nature and location of the gate and the lock however even if a court decided that entering the gate was not trespassing because the privilege to remain on the property can be revoked at any time failing to leave after being asked to do so would almost certainly constitute trespassing okay i appreciate your time sir okay what's this guy's name none of your business yeah it's up to him gotcha sorry okay well if i was living here i'd probably find a new place to stay because this is ridiculous so have a good day okay this harassment now i'd like you to go what's your name and badge number one you don't want to give it to me [Music] trespassing through a locked gate after refusing to provide his name and badge number to mr norris deputy mark drove off the property stopping in the driveway at least once on his way out as of the date of this episode mr tully is still detained in the flatland county detention center it is unclear whether mr norris filed a complaint about the incident or if he is pursuing legal action against deputy mark overall deputy mark gets an f for entering private property without a warrant or exigent circumstances refusing to leave the property after being told to do so by the property owner and for becoming angry at mr norris for invoking his right to remain silent if deputy mark had done his due diligence as an officer he would have known that the individual he was looking for was in a nearby jail and this entire interaction could have been avoided the deputy's investigation of an abandoned vehicle simply does not justify his decision to enter a locked gate to question citizens and his refusal to leave demonstrated his disregard for mr norris's rights another serious concern with this encounter is the deputy's angry reaction to mr norris invoking his right to remain silent too often do members of law enforcement interpret a citizen's decision to remain silent as some sort of personal attack against the officer but the fifth amendment is an arbitrary tool that is designed for situations exactly like this one if mr norris had provided the deputy with any information at all he could become an element of a criminal case against his friend and the right to remain silent was designed to shield individuals from incriminating themselves while it may be true that deputy mark was carrying out a legitimate investigation any information that he acquired through an illegal act would likely be useless in a courtroom and remaining on mr norris's property after being asked to leave served as nothing more than a demonstration of power mr norris gets an a-plus because although it is unclear whether he filed a formal complaint against deputy mark he remained calm and collected throughout the entirety of this encounter invoked his rights peacefully and respectfully and challenged the legitimacy of the deputy's conduct without becoming rude or hostile i can't say enough good things about how mr norris handled this interaction and it's even more impressive that he is not an established first amendment auditor as mentioned before mr norris was well within his rights to tell the deputy to leave and refuse to answer his questions and his ability to do so in a composed and professional manner is admirable i commend mr norris for having the courage to challenge the deputy's conduct and the tenacity to invoke his rights accurately and efficiently be sure to give nikki norris's channel your support and let them know that i sent you you can find a link to their channel in the description below let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out the ata patreon page for more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 2,112,444

Rating: 4.8295665 out of 5

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: McoJMEQUQ10

Length: 15min 57sec (957 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 04 2021