Appeals court hears challenge to protective sweep and later consent in Oliver suppression motion

The Massachusetts Appeals Court heard argument in Commonwealth v. Jason Oliver (24P0688) on whether a protective sweep and a later consent search were lawful. Defense counsel Amy Coddignone urged the panel to focus on what officers knew at the moment they conducted the sweep, saying the record lacked the “specific and articulable facts” required to justify a protective sweep when the defendant already was secured in handcuffs.

Coddignone told the court officers executed a fugitive warrant based on information from Rhode Island and encountered multiple people in the house; she said the only information linking the residence to firearms was an email from a neighboring law-enforcement agency and argued the state police needed to verify the underlying factual basis before relying on it. She said officers knocked at about 6 a.m.; after…