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Officers entered onto the curtilage of defendant’s property before they could smell a grow operation and hear the equipment. That was a Fourth Amendment violation, and it vitiated alleged consent and the good faith exception to a later warrant. United States v. Lopez, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61707 (S.D. Fla. May 2, 2012):

Here the Court finds that the area within the Target Residence's metal fence and gates—and specifically the areas occupied by Officers Bartra, Rios, and Benavides at the time they smelled marijuana and heard the sounds of marijuana-grow-house equipment— constituted curtilage subject to fundamental Fourth Amendment protections. The area was close in proximity to the residence, was enclosed within the metal fence and contiguous gates, and was shielded by the fence's white paneling to block observation from outside. Although the driveway may have been used for ingress to and egress from the property, and although the driveway gate did not contain obstructive paneling, the closed, locked mechanical gate clearly delineated the driveway as a private area which visitors—and thus the investigating officers—were not expected to encroach. See, e.g., Edens v. Kennedy, 112 F. App'x 870, 875 (4th Cir. 2004); United States v. Hambelton, No. 1:08cr26-SPM, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25139, 2009 WL 722284, at *4 (N.D. Fla. 2009). Moreover, although at one point Perez opened the gate so that he and Ricano could exit, one cannot say that this brief opening of the gate converted the driveway into only a semi-private area through which visitors were free to travel. See Fernandez v. State, 63 So. 3d 881, 884 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2011) ("[T]he momentary opening of the gate for the defendant to leave was not an open invitation to the public, or by extension to the police, to enter. ... No salesman or visitor could have entered the enclosed curtilage during the momentary opening. The momentary opening of the gate for the express purpose of leaving did not alter the Dunn expectation-of-privacy factors.") The Court thus finds that the area from which officers first smelled marijuana constituted "curtilage" and that the officers' physical entry into that area implicated Defendants' Fourth Amendment protections.

Australia's Casey Stoner will start Sunday's Portuguese MotoGP on pole, despite leaving it late to record the best qualifying lap.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Nearly 11 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, family members of some of the victims watched via closed-circuit TV on Saturday as the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks and four co-defendants were arraigned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in their first public appearance in years....

NYTimes.com: Wireless Carriers Who Aid Police Are Asked for Data by Eric Lichtblau:

WASHINGTON — A leading House Democrat is demanding information from the country’s biggest cellphone companies about their role in helping local police departments conduct surveillance and tracking of suspects and others in criminal investigations.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks declined to respond to a judge's questions Saturday and his co-defendant was briefly restrained at a military hearing as five men charged with the worst terror attack in U.S. history appeared in public for the first time in more than three years....

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks declined to respond to a judge's questions Saturday and his co-defendant was briefly restrained at a military hearing as five men charged with the worst terror attack in U.S. history appeared in public for the first time in more than three years....

More than 300 people are detained after deadly clashes between protesters and Egyptian security forces in Cairo, military sources say.

A man serving 12 years for armed robbery who absconded from a prison in Surrey has been returned to jail after he handed himself in to police in Kent.

Test-tube babies have higher rates of birth defects, and doctors have long wondered: Is it because of certain fertility treatments or infertility itself? A large new study from Australia suggests both may play a role....

Test-tube babies have higher rates of birth defects, and doctors have long wondered: Is it because of certain fertility treatments or infertility itself? A large new study from Australia suggests both may play a role....

Test-tube babies have higher rates of birth defects, and doctors have long wondered: Is it because of certain fertility treatments or infertility itself? A large new study from Australia suggests both may play a role....

Test-tube babies have higher rates of birth defects, and doctors have long wondered: Is it because of certain fertility treatments or infertility itself? A large new study from Australia suggests both may play a role....

Test-tube babies have higher rates of birth defects, and doctors have long wondered: Is it because of certain fertility treatments or infertility itself? A large new study from Australia suggests both may play a role....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says his goal of defeating al-Qaida is within reach and that it's time to turn the country's attention to domestic concerns....