STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. YOMAIRA SENCION
STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. JUAN F. SANTANA
STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. ROBERTO PEREZ-GARCIA
STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. WILLIAM R. JEREZ
A-3138-15T3/A-3274-15T3/A-3328-15T3/A-3829-15T3(CONSOLIDATED)
The court reverses the denial of defendants' motion to suppress drugs and guns found after a plain view sighting through the open door of an apartment. The police used a tool to force entry into the locked apartment building twice before approaching the fourth-floor apartment door. The State, conceding a lack of probable cause, argued that the forced entry into the building did not violate defendants' expectation of privacy because of the size of the apartment building. The court refused to "condone the police forcing entry into a locked residential apartment building while on an investigative hunt for suspected criminal activity."
