Matthews v. State

PER Curiam. The appellant was convicted of keeping a disorderly house and has appealed. He claims that his arrest and the ensuing search of his residence and seizure of evidence were illegal; that he was entrapped into the commission of a crime; and that, in any event, the evidence was insufficient to convict. None of the contentions has merit.

A police officer and policewoman went to the house leased by the appellant, asked for a room, and were admitted by the person in charge of the premises. The person who invited them in (also indicted as a codefendant), inquired as to “how long” they would stay, told them to pay on leaving and as ⁴⁰³ signed them to the front room on the second floor. In the search of the premises that took place after the police officer and policewoman had been joined by a police sergeant, they encountered three unmarried couples using other bedrooms, discovered a large quantity of soiled sheets in a bathroom, and seized a blue notebook found on the television in the downstairs room. The person in charge explained to the police that the notebook was used to indicate the rooms that were occupied and the time occupancy began, for instance, “2B 12 AM” meant “second floor back at 12 A.M.” The appellant, who was asleep when the police arrived, was awakened and when he admitted that the premises were under his control, he was placed under arrest.

The arrest and the ensuing search and seizure were not unlawful. As to the arrest, it is clear that the admission of the peace officers into the house and the assignment of a room to them, without inquiry as to their marital status and without their being asked to register, was sufficient probable cause for