Court upholds secret hall camera in drug bust

PARCHMENT, Mich. (AP) - A secret camera outside an apartment in southwestern Michigan didn't violate the rights of a man who was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for a drug crime, an appeals court said. Police got a warrant to search the apartment of Raheim Trice after the camera recorded him going in and out of the unit. The camera, which looked like a smoke detector, was placed on a wall in the building in Parchment. "The hallway was effectively a common area, open to all, in which Trice had taken no steps to maintain his privacy. He therefore did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the unlocked common hallway," a federal appeals court said in a 3-0 opinion last week. Trice pleaded guilty to a methamphetamine crime under an agreement that allowed him to challenge the search of the apartment and use of the camera. Police in 2018 also discovered cocaine, heroin, and digital scales. Published: Tue, Jul 28, 2020