03-28-08 State of New Jersey v. Hiram Rodriguez
A-4614-05T4
In this appeal, the court determined that the police
complied with the "reasonable wait time" standard and therefore
did not violate the "knock and announce" rule, which is
incorporated in the Fourth Amendment and Article I, paragraph 7
of the state constitution, when they waited fifteen to twenty
seconds after announcing their presence before entering the
premises.
The State also argued in this appeal that Hudson v.
Michigan, 547 U.S. 586, 126 S. Ct. 2159, 165 L. Ed. 2d 56
(2006), which holds that the Fourth Amendment does not require
application of the exclusionary rule upon a knock and announce
violation, should be followed in determining the appropriate
remedy for a similar violation of our state constitution. Since
the court found no violation, it recognized that it was not
necessary to decide this issue but expressed in dictum its doubt
that Hudson would be followed in determining the remedy
available upon a breach of the state constitutional knock and
announce rule.
Judge Stern filed a concurring opinion.
Editor: Eric Waage
