Reference no: EM133389893
Question: The police suspected Edward of money laundering, racketeering, mail fraud, and wire fraud but they did not have enough evidence to arrest him. The police began to surveil his house undercover where they had officers sit in unmarked vehicles watching his house 24/7. They wanted to observe his comings and goings and who he associated with at his home in hopes of procuring more evidence against him.
One Thursday evening, the police noticed Edward drag six bags of garbage to the curb of his home. The police knew that Edward's garbage collection day was Friday morning, so it made sense for him to put his trash out the night before. The police wanted to know what was in his garbage as they thought he may have been throwing away evidence. Not wanting to waste time getting a search warrant, the police waited for Edward to go to sleep and at 3:00am, the police took all six bags of garbage from his curb to the police station. Upon examining the contents of the bags, the police found documents that had been shredded which after they were taped together revealed the evidence the police needed to arrest Edward for money laundering, racketeering, mail fraud, and wire fraud.
The police arrested Edward for those crimes the next day. Later, Edward contended that he was unlawfully arrested claiming the police illegally searched and seized his garbage from him home and that the evidence against him must be suppressed. Was there a reasonable search, seizure, and/or arrest in this scenario? Please explain and describe any exceptions that may apply.