Scenario to Review
In Hookset, New Hampshire, three officers from the Hookset PD responded at 5:15am to an ominous 911 call: the caller said that there was a drug deal that had gone bad in the Kozy 7 Motel and that there was a dead body in room 10. The dispatcher told the officers there was a possible shooting. When they arrived, the officers, Sergeant Chamberlain and Officers Pinardi and Sherrill, went straight toward room 10 and noticed it was the only room lit in the motel.
The officers placed themselves on either side of the door in case of a shootout. They saw movement in the room, announced themselves, and knocked on the door. Beaudoin answered, opening the door only wide enough for his face to be seen. He was told to step outside the room so the officers could speak with him, which he did, leaving the door partially open.
When Beaudoin stepped outside, Sgt. Chamberlain asked him if he had any weapons on him. When Beaudoin said he had a knife in his back pocket, Sgt. Chamberlain said he would retrieve the knife and put Beaudoin against the wall to frisk him. In Beaudoin's pocket, Sgt. Chamberlain felt an object that felt like a knife and two cylindrical objects that he could not identify. He pulled a knife and two glass tubes containing "crack" cocaine from Beaudoin's pocket and place him under arrest.
How will you decide this legal issue? Were the police justified in telling Beaudoin to step out of his motel room?