Bridgett v. State

I respectfully dissent. The officers in this case, who responded to a report of domestic abuse, had the right to conduct a Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), patdown for their safety. Assuming, without deciding, that Jarvis Lamar Bridgett, the defendant, was actually wearing the jacket at the time of the patdown,2 once the officers determined that Bridgett did not have a weapon on his person or within his reach and thus that their safety was not in jeopardy, the officers had no reasonable suspicion to detain Bridgett or justifying a search of Bridgett’s room. The…