A Wood County woman was going on a trip. She recruited a couple of people to feed her cats while she was away. One of them was a "friend" of the woman. He was supposed to enter the home to give the cats food and water. The woman also asked him to turn off a light at the top of the stairs and he went upstairs to do so. In the upstairs bathroom he saw what he believed to be illegal drugs. So he called the police and "consented" to their entry into the house. The police did not get a warrant initially and entered because they believed that the pet sitters had authority to consent to the search by police. The trial court overruled defendant's motion to suppress the drugs. The Sixth District Court of Appeals reversed the trial court because the pet sitter did not have the authority to consent to the entry and search by police officers. Read the decision in State v. Huntington, 2010-Ohio-3922, here.
Pet sitter did not have "common authority" over home
August 20, 2010
