How have the courts interpreted the testimony of two police officers who entered a homeowner's home without a search warrant?

2 "Two police officers testified that they had the description and license number of a car that had prowled the neighborhood of the alleged burglary. They found it licensed to petitioner and called at his home. He stated that he and no one else had used the car at the time of the burglary. They then asked if they could go into his house and talk to him and he invited them in. They had no warrant of arrest or search warrant. While talking they saw a heater, one of the stolen items. They then put the petitioner under arrest and searched and found additional articles that had been taken.

"The petitioner denies the testimony of the police officers and states they forced their way into his home after he demanded they not search without a search warrant. This testimony is not accepted and I must find the officers were in fact invited into petitioner's residence.

"This case is not to determine the guilt or innocence of petitioner. It is to find whether petitioner in his trial was denied due process of law. I have concluded he was granted due process.

"Counsel for petitioner relies on United States v. Evans, D.C., 194 F.Supp. 90, as demonstrating that the evidence seized should have been suppressed. In the Evans case the trial judge on disputed testimony found the search without a warrant as unlawful and suppressed the evidence. This was a finding in the early stages of the criminal case. Here the petitioner has the burden of establishing the illegality of the seizure. While the officers were lawfully in the residence they saw an object that had been taken. They then placed petitioner under arrest. I must hold the search was incident to the arrest and there was no denial of due process in permitting that evidence to be received."