State v. Sines

This case requires us to consider whether a private citizen’s seizure of criminal evidence was subject to suppression at trial as the fruit of an unlawful government search. Defendant came to the attention of law enforcement after his housekeeper anonymously called the child protective services division of the Department of Human Services (DHS) and said that she suspected that defendant might be sexually abusing his adopted daughter. The housekeeper’s suspicions had been raised after finding an unusual “discharge” on several pairs of the child’s underwear, and she told DHS that she had…