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FL4: Arrest outside here did not justify protective sweep of house

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officers arrested a suspect outside a house. They had a reasonable belief that others were inside, but no reason to believe that they posed any kind of threat. A protective sweep of those inside could have been valid if there were articulable reasons for it, but here there were none. Diaz v. State, 2010 Fla. App. LEXIS 6942 (Fla. App. 4DCA May 19, 2010) (good discussion of protective sweep doctrine). Defendant prison official had qualified immunity for threatening force to obtain a DNA sample which plaintiff concedes he could obtain from him. Rendelman v. Scott, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 10223 (4th Cir. May 19, 2010) (unpublished).* Defendant denied living at the place searched; he only stored a couch there. He lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy there...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 22, 2010 (boomark / email).