{"id":7258,"date":"2012-07-15T18:14:02","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T09:09:35","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T09:09:35","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=7258","title":{"rendered":"MA: Defendant’s suspicious conduct while getting dressed after arrest led to valid search under mattress for gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant answered his door in his underwear and was told he was under arrest. He asked if he could get dressed, and an officer went to his bedroom with him. The room was checked by a protective sweep. Defendant\u2019s conduct in the bedroom led the officer to suspect a weapon, so the officer lifted the mattress and found a gun. That was lawful under Chrisman<\/a>. Commonwealth v. Quilter<\/a>, 81 Mass. App. Ct. 808, 969 N.E.2d 163 (2012):<\/p>\n

The firearm was not discovered during the protective sweep after the police entered the bedroom. Rather, it was discovered when an officer, suspicious of the defendant’s conduct — sitting at the end of the bed farthest away from the closet — found the firearm under the mattress where the defendant had been sitting. While the judge stated that the officer was “acting on a hunch — an excellent one, but a hunch nevertheless,” the facts instead indicate that the officer’s decision to look under the mattress was objectively reasonable. It is not unreasonable “for a police officer, as a matter of routine, to monitor the movements of an arrested person, as his judgment dictates, following the arrest. The officer’s need to ensure his own safety — as well as the integrity of the arrest — is compelling.” Washington v. Chrisman, 455 U.S. 1, 7, 102 S. Ct. 812, 70 L. Ed. 2d 778 (1982). “[A] police officer’s decision how and where to conduct the search is ‘a quick ad hoc judgment.'” Commonwealth v. Elizondo, 428 Mass. 322, 324, 701 N.E.2d 325 (1998), quoting from United States v. Queen, 847 F.2d 346, 352 (7th Cir. 1988).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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