BY BOB ANEZ, The Associated Press
HELENA (AP) -- A carport is not a home, and a law limiting the power to arrest someone in their home doesn’t apply to such a parking space, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled.
The unanimous decision by a five-judge panel Tuesday rejected the appeal of Melissa Large, a Whitefish woman convicted of drunken driving after she was discovered asleep in her vehicle that was parked in the carport outside her condominium.
Nothing about the arrest violated Large’s right to privacy or a law that prohibits nighttime arrests in a person’s home for a minor crime committed elsewhere, the court said.
The central issue in the case was whether Large’s carport could be considered a part of her home and, therefore, off limits to arresting officers under the circumstances in this case.
On the night of Nov. 21, 2000, authorities received two reports of a motorist driving erratically before turning into the parking lot of an apartment building. Officers discovered Large’s vehicle in the lot. It matched the description and license plate numbers reported to police.
The car was parked in a carport with its engine running and music playing. Large was asleep in the front seat. She was arrested for drunken driving.
When her legal challenge to the arrest was rejected in District Court, she pleaded guilty and appealed to the Supreme Court.
Large claimed that the carport was part of her home and state law forbids law officers from arresting someone in their home at night for a misdemeanor that occurred somewhere else.
The high court agreed with District Judge Ted Lympus of Kalispell that Large’s home and carport are two different places legally.
Although carports may be attached to a house, “presence in the carport does not equate to presence in the home,” Justice Bill Leaphart said for the court. “A carport does not afford the privacy and sanctuary associated with a house.”
The law Large cites is specific to a person’s home, not property that happens to be connected to a home, he said.
As for Large’s claim that her privacy rights were violated by the police entering her carport, the court said Large could have no valid expectation of privacy in the parking spot that was open for all to see.
The carport was visible to anyone entering the apartment complex’s parking lot, which is an area open to the public, the court said. It said that “society does not recognize a driver’s expectation of privacy in ways of the state open to the public, a term which encompasses private parking lots open to the public.”