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Case No. 19-0862

State of Iowa
v.
Nicholas Ashley Boggs

Appellee

State of Iowa

Appellant

Nicholas Ashley Boggs

Attorney for the Appellee

Thomas E. Bakke, Assistant Attorney General

Attorney for the Appellant

Melinda J. Nye, Assistant Appellate Defender

Court of Appeals

Court of Appeals Opinion

Opinion Number:
19-0862
Date Published:
Nov 04, 2020
Summary

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Warren County, Richard B. Clogg and Paul R. Huscher, Judges.  REVERSED AND REMANDED.  Heard by Doyle, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Doyle, P.J.  (12 pages)

            Nicholas Boggs appeals four drug-related convictions.  He challenges the denial of a motion to suppress evidence obtained after police officers entered an enclosed porch attached to his apartment.  OPINION HOLDS: The enclosed porch is a constitutionally protected area on which Boggs enjoyed an expectation of privacy.  Even assuming that the officers had a license to enter the porch in order to make contact with an occupant of the apartment, that license does not apply under the circumstances.  The officers made contact with Boggs outside.  Boggs was in an officer’s presence when the officer entered the porch.  It follows that the only legitimate way the officers could enter the porch was with Boggs’s consent.  The record shows Boggs did not freely and voluntarily consent to the officers’ entry on the porch.  Because the officers intruded on Boggs’s rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution, the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. 

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