D.S.C.: Arrest on porch had sufficient facts to justify protective sweep inside

Defendant was arrested on his porch, and a protective sweep for weapons was conducted inside. The protective sweep was not unreasonable because it was based on articulable facts that another person was present and potentially armed. United States v. White, 767 F. Supp. 2d 582 (D. S.C. 2010), Decision reached on appeal by United States v. White, 2011 U.S.
App. LEXIS 15780 (4th Cir. S.C., July 29, 2011):

The circumstances warranted a reasonable fear that an individual with a firearm may still be lurking in the home: it had been reported to the officers that a gun was involved in the domestic disturbance occurring at the residence, the victim indicated she was not complying with Officer Church’s commands to come off of the porch because she was being held at gunpoint by someone inside the mobile home, and the gun remained unaccounted for after the officers detained Defendant outside of the residence. Based on these facts, the officers reasonably believed a firearm was still in the house and that it could have been in possession of another person. Therefore, their warrantless entry into Defendant’s home did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights.

Police entry into a church to investigate a claim of excessive noise from nighttime music was into a public place where there was no reasonable expectation of privacy. Faith Baptist Church v. Waterford Twp., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18226 (E.D. Mich. March 2, 2010).*

Plaintiff was stopped for a traffic offense and refused to provide any identifying information because it would “number” him. He claimed sovereign immunity against the police. His arrest for lack of DL and insurance information was with probable cause and qualified immunity as was the limited search for papers in the car incident to the arrest. Unger v. Taylor, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 4349 (5th Cir. March 2, 2010) (unpublished).*