STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. RAYMOND INGRAM The court considers whether a police officer, who walked onto the driveway of a home without permission or a warrant, was lawfully there when he observed illegal narcotics in a hole in the home's front porch. Because the driveway was part of the home's curtilage, the court holds that the officer conducted an unlawful search and his subsequent observation of contraband in the hole in the porch did not satisfy the plain-view exception. Accordingly, the court reverses the trial court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress the seized contraband.
