United States v. Bennett, 555 F.3d 962 (January 21, 2009)
The defendant was convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. During the course of executing an arrest warrant for Bennet at his apartment, the police conducted a protective sweep of one of the bedrooms in the apartment, occupied by Bennet’s brother and a friend, where they found a rifle between a mattress and box spring. The defendant moved to suppress arguing that the search “improperly expanded the scope of their protective sweep outside Bennett’s grab area.” The Eleventh Circuit upheld the search finding that the agent had a reasonable belief that the brother and friend could be dangerous and both had been moved to the bed by the agent. It was reasonable for the agent to lift the mattress as a safety precaution since the officer was not familiar with what objects may have been in the room, as the boys may have been, and the mattress was properly within the limited grab area of both young men.
