Cengage Advantage Books: Law for Business 18th Edition by John Ashcroft ,Janet Ashcroft

Exercise 16

After investigating Darrell Pelvit for several months, agents of the Eastern Montana Drug Task Force (EMDTF) without a warrant searched the trash in garbage cans along a public alley behind Pelvit's house. The agents removed an opaque trash bag from one of the unlocked cans and found pseudoephedrine boxes and empty naphtha cans inside. Naphtha is a solvent used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Finding these items was the basis for the issuance of a search warrant covering Pelvit's home, pickup, and boat. Drug-related evidence was found during the resulting search. Pelvit argued that the evidence should be excluded because the search of his garbage cans was illegal. The state claimed that Pelvit had abandoned his trash, so he had no expectation of privacy in it, and that the search of it was therefore legal. Was the trash abandoned?