State v. Gene Hinton (070386)

In this appeal, the Court determines whether, after a court officer executed a warrant of removal that had been issued in an eviction proceeding, defendant Gene Hinton had a constitutionally protected reasonable expectation of privacy in the apartment he had previously shared with his mother.

In March 2009, defendant’s mother, the legal tenant of the apartment, died. On a date not revealed in the record, the apartment’s owner, evidently unaware of the tenant’s death, instituted an action to summarily dispossess her for nonpayment of rent. The eviction action proceeded and the court issued a…