Lingo v. City of Salem

Plaintiff was charged with two counts of child endangerment under Or. Rev. Stat. 163.575 after officers smelled the odor of marijuana from her home but she refused to allow them to search inside the residence. Plaintiff argued that the officers violated the Fourth Amendment by entering her carport and approaching her home’s back door. The trial court agreed and granted plaintiff's motion to suppress. The charges were later dropped. Plaintiff then filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against the officers and the City, alleging constitutional violations for false arrest without probable cause and by interfering with her (and her children's) right to familial association. The district court granted summary judgment to defendants. The court joined other federal courts of appeal and held that the exclusionary rule does not apply in section 1983 cases, and rejected plaintiff's suggestion that probable cause to arrest may be supported only by information that was obtained in accordance with the Fourth Amendment. The court rejected plaintiff’s argument that the officers’ unlawful entry into her home’s curtilage necessarily tainted the arrest that followed. In this case, plaintiff gives no reason to doubt that the officers indeed smelled what they suspected to be marijuana. Such odor gave the officers probable cause to arrest plaintiff under Oregon law. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Lingo v. City of Salem" on Justia Law