Opinion ID: 567448
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence of Items Observed During a Protective Sweep

Text: 70 Joseph Bickett complains that the trial court violated his fourth amendment privileges against illegal search and seizure by allowing into evidence items observed during an alleged protective sweep of his home at the time of his arrest. The rule concerning protective sweeps, as articulated in Maryland v. Buie, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 1094 (1990), is that the fourth amendment permits a properly limited protective sweep in conjunction with an in-home arrest when the searching officer possesses a reasonable belief based on specific and articulable facts that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the arrest scene. Since the arresting officers in this matter were met with no resistance or violence, defendant argues, they had no reasonable belief that there was an individual in the house who posed a danger to the police. 71 The United States argues that the requirements for a protective sweep under Buie were met in this instance, inasmuch as specific and articulable facts supported the arresting officers' belief that there might be someone else in the house threatening their safety. The government points out that while the officers were arresting defendant in the kitchen, they found both loaded guns and drugs. In addition, the government notes that there were many more cars parked at the house than people in the kitchen. Furthermore, defendant agreed to allow the protective sweep and only asked that the officers not look in the drawers. 72 We find that the district court acted well within its discretion in ruling that the items obtained during the protective sweep were allowable into evidence. The arresting officers gave specific facts in support of their reasonable belief that there may have been some other individual(s) in the house who threatened their safety at the time of the arrest. 73