Loud sex enough for cops to search your home, court rules

Loud sex enough for cops to search your home, court rules

rawstory.com

For Brian McGacken of Farmingdale, New Jersey, an evening of loud sex resulted in a 10-year prison sentence for growing marijuana.

On Feb. 17, 2007, New Jersey state troopers arrived at McGacken's home, responding to an anonymous 911 call complaining of screams coming from McGacken's home. McGacken explained the noise was a bout of loud sex; his girlfriend appeared at the front door and corroborated his claim.

(visit the link for the full news article)

More proof that our homes are really not our castles anymore and are meant for very limited use. This latest bit of constitutional desecration comes to us from New Jersey where two lovers enjoying some obviously heated moments of passion find the Gestapo at their door.

Despite assurances that all was well from both parties the police insisted on searching the home and the Judge held up the search as being constitutional.

Now because of some questionable indoor greenhouse farming practices the man of the house is facing 10 years in prison.

Many people will see this as a good thing, another dreaded criminal off the streets, what does it matter that the alleged crime was a victimless one, or involved simply being in possession of a naturally flowing plant provided by nature itself.

After all the Government knows better! It knows obviously when two people are apparently enjoying intimacy too much there must be something amiss in the land.

One might wonder what laws we are currently being governed by the U.S. Constitution or the far more Puritanical ones that preceded that from the Mayflower Compact?

What a country, last one out grab the flag!


rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Good thing I don't do anything illegal....

smiley faces don't count as a second line...sorry. (second line)


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[edit on Tue Mar 16 2010 by DontTreadOnMe]

[edit on 16-3-2010 by Ventessa]

Dude should have told the cops to come back with a warrant

and go back to his girlfriend - and be even louder during round 2

why did he let them in?

Sux for him

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

This latest bit of constitutional desecration comes to us from New Jersey where two lovers enjoying some obviously heated moments of passion find the Gestapo at their door.

Would you feel the same if the cops had found a young kidnapped girl upstairs?

This is a difficult one. I believe if I was a cop, I would ask to look inside just to be on the safe side.

Furthermore, it is hard to distinguish between what we read and what actually went down. Maybe when the couple said they were making love, they came across as if they were hiding something.

[edit on 16-3-2010 by jam321]

reply to post by jam321


There is sex in nearly every home, and a lot of people are loud during it.

To say that cops should be able to use exigent circumstances for hearing "sex-like screams", to avoid warrants, and to enter homes, is patently absurd. I don't care how paranoid you want to be, you're not going to find a kidnapped girl, ever.

The odds of randomly finding a kidnapped person in a random home encounter is beyond phenomenal. It is complete BS to use this as an excuse.

Originally posted by jam321
Furthermore, it is hard to distinguish between what we read and what actually went home. Maybe when the couple said they were making love, they came across as if they were hiding something.

"Coming across like you are hiding something" does not give any officer the right to enter private property. I'm tired of people coming on this site and accusing everyone of being paranoid, yet we have instances such as this, where authorities and their supporters will use the most ridiculously paranoid approach to "allow and excuse" an outlandish law.



[edit on 16-3-2010 by SyphonX]

Originally posted by jam321

Would you feel the same if the cops had found a young kidnapped girl upstairs?

This is a difficult one. I believe if I was a cop, I would ask to look inside just to be on the safe side.

Right on man, lets just search EVERY home in the country without warrants or anything because you know, WE WILL SAVE TONS OF LITTLE GIRLS!!!!

Maybe....

Or maybe we will just be burning the Constitution and any Freedom we have left?

Hmmmm.... tough one.

Originally posted by Ventessa
Good thing I don't do anything illegal....

Not yet at least!

everything is becoming illegal, that's what people don't understand

Oh no.

No more sex for me.



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[edit on Tue Mar 16 2010 by DontTreadOnMe]

Originally posted by LadySkadi
Dude should have told the cops to come back with a warrant

I have an idea he might off, if your growing that much veg you gotta know what the first to say to the cops is... Well one would hope!

I think there are various things they can literally kick your door down for, and hearing screams seems to be one of those things...... His only hope at that point is to be incredibly diplomatic and have the police never enter and leave laughing at the misunderstanding....

Maybe there was also a slight anger (or more likely desperation!) in his tone that sealed his fate, or a furtive mannerism... The dude was surprised mid stroke by police and he had enough greenery to hover for a month in the next room.

As you said - Sux to be him ........... Mind you 10 years??? I doubt that would get 12-20 months here in the UK.

reply to post by jam321

Would you feel the same if the cops had found a young kidnapped girl upstairs?

Flag on the play...

Emotional manipulation 10 ATS Points and loss of post.

Ouch that has to hurt Dick Enberg!

Lets throw some more hypotheticals in there "Would I have said the same thing if Osoma Bin Laden was found upstairs"

You bet your constitution trashing life I would.

Why is it so many people have this strange propensity to justify living in a state of fear by imagining every fear to be so real as to justify any and every excess of authority?

Would I have still said this if their upstairs toilet was backed up, flooding and threatened to wipe out all of Camden?

Yes I sure would.

reply to post by SyphonX

"Coming across like you are hiding something" does not give any officer the right to enter private property.

Never said it did. Read the article again. The guy never told them to get a search warrant. Never told them to stay outside.

To say that cops should be able to use exigent circumstances for hearing "sex-like screams", to avoid warrants, and to enter homes, is patently absurd.

Never said that either.

Here is what I said.

I would ask to look inside just to be on the safe side.

Notice the word "ASK". Never said I would bust the door down. Nor do I think cops should.

Haha!

What is the world coming to?

Maybe I should rig my speakers to my guitar amp during sex!

Explains the need (or lack thereof) for the search warrant, in this case...

Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, says he is gratified. "Here, the police weren't investigating a crime, but acting as first responders to an emergency call regarding a scream, and therefore wouldn't have been in a position to seek a search warrant once they corroborated that there was indeed screaming from inside the dwelling," he says. "Their brief welfare check inside the house was totally reasonable, and this was the right result."

link

[edit on 16-3-2010 by LadySkadi]

I don't see this story as having anything to do with sex.

It has to do with loud screaming coming from inside of a house.

So, ATS should write their congressmen to get screaming in houses a right of everyone and then we can all kill people inside of our homes as long as we have a member of the opposite sex with us to answer the door and so, "Oh, officer we were just having sex!"

They had a legal right to be there. The problem is, did they have a legal right to take the investigation further, and if so, what were the requirements to do so? The police talked to both people but were not satisfied with the answers, so the question is, why were they not satisfied and what led them to investigate further?

Anyway, I think the police asked if they could come in, he said "sure" and from there it was on. He should have told them to wait, should have closed the door, or should have told his GF to go get his I.D.

Originally posted by LadySkadi
Dude should have told the cops to come back with a warrant

and go back to his girlfriend - and be even louder during round 2

why did he let them in?

Sux for him

He should have pre-negotiated the scope of the search. If they were concerned about others being in the house under captivity or duress he should have made the Officers sign a quid pro quo agreement allowing them to search the home but only for those things.

They could have confiscated the Marijuana if it was in plain site but they could not have charged him.

Chances are the Warrant would have limited the search in a similar way so the cops would have been happy to take that deal if they were truly interested in just seeing that the home was a secure and safe environment for anyone inside.

However without a legitimate complainant they really had no grounds to search the home. At most the neighbor could have claimed noise ordinances were being exceeded which is hard to measure the decibel level of and certainly doesn’t warrant a search of the home.

Had he refused to let them search the house chances are that they would have just waited outside the house for the warrant prohibiting him from removing anything from the house?

Chances are who ever called in the complaint shared another few choice tidbits with the police to arouse their suspicion…”And he drives a motor cycle and has tattoos and his eyes are always red and his sheep are always scared!”.

I hope that this guy takes this to an appellate court and all the way up the line to the Supreme Court if need be.

This is not right!

reply to post by RestingInPieces

I don't see this story as having anything to do with sex.

It has to do with loud screaming coming from inside of a house.

Well I can't speak for everyone's sex life but you wouldn't think religion has anything to do with sex either...

Yet when ever I find myself in such situations the other person ends up screaming " OH GOD, OH GOD, OH MY GOD" a lot.

So since we are technically supposed to have seperation of Church and State...

As a police officer, I would search the home for any other persons that may be in distress in the house. If I find something in the process then too bad for you! Don't break the law by growing illegal plants and you won't get in trouble, my concern is the safety of other potential victims...

Can you imagine if there was someone found dead or severely injured the next day in that house? I'm sure some people would be bashing the officers for not searching the house...

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