Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/427/427mass490.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 00:53:01+00:00

Document:
COMMONWEALTH vs. VINCENT A. SMIGLIANO.
FRIED, J., concurring, with whom LYNCH, J., joined, expressed the view that the police officer's stop and investigation were governed by this court's decision in Commonwealth v. Leonard, 422 Mass. 504 , cert. denied, 117 S. Ct. 199 (1996).
COMPLAINT received and sworn to in the Peabody Division of the District Court Department on February 20, 1996.
Motions to suppress evidence were heard by Santo J. Ruma, J., and the case was heard by Robert E. Hayes, J.
Michael T. Smerczynski for the defendant.
Deirdre L. Casey, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.
ence of alcohol. The defendant moved to suppress the evidence of his offense on the ground that, by activating the blue lights, the officer performed an unlawful seizure. The defendant separately moved to suppress the result of a breathalyzer test on the ground that the officer administering the test was certified not by the Secretary of Public Safety (Secretary), but by the Criminal Justice Training Council (council), contrary to the terms of G. L. c. 90, s. 24K. A District Court judge denied both motions. We transferred the case to this court on our own motion and now affirm the conviction.
We summarize the facts the motion judge found. On February 17, 1996, a Peabody police officer was on duty. There was a snowstorm taking place, and automobiles were sliding and skidding due to the icy road conditions. A motorist stopped the officer and told him that he had followed an automobile from Salem to Peabody and the automobile was "all over the road." After the officer saw the automobile that had been described, he followed it for approximately one-quarter of a mile, during which time he twice saw the automobile veer to the right and almost strike parked cars. The automobile stopped, and the officer pulled up behind it, activated his blue lights, and got out of his cruiser to approach the car. The officer saw the defendant (driver) slumped over with his head on the steering wheel. At first, the defendant did not respond to the officer, but he did respond a few minutes later. A conversation followed, resulting in the arrest of the defendant for operating while under the influence of liquor.
to leave. See Ozhuwan v. State, 786 P.2d 918, 920 (Alaska Ct. App. 1990) ("in the eyes of a reasonable person, the police conduct in the present case [activating the overhead red lights] would be virtually tantamount to an overt command to 'stay put' "); State v. Markgraf, 59 Wash. App. 509, 511 (1990), citing State v. DeArman, 54 Wash. App. 621, 624 (1989). Activating the blue lights thus was a seizure requiring some level of justification.
The seizure was justified because the officer had grounds for reasonable suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity, more specifically, that the defendant was operating while under the influence of alcohol. The officer had received the motorist's report that the defendant's car had been "all over the road," and he had seen the defendant's driving. Because the facts offered to justify the seizure included the motorist's report, we evaluate the motorist's basis of knowledge and reliability. See Commonwealth v. Lyons, 409 Mass. 16 , 19 (1990). Weakness in either requirement can be made up for by independent police corroboration. Id. Because reasonable suspicion is a lower standard than probable cause, we apply this test less rigorously when such a report is offered to support reasonable suspicion. See id. Here, the motorist saw the defendant's car. Therefore, the report was based on the motorist's personal knowledge. We have no evidence as to what, if anything, the officer concluded about the motorist's reliability from their face-to-face encounter. However, the report was corroborated by the officer's observations of the defendant's car swerving and nearly hitting parked cars. Based on the report and the officer's observations, an officer could have reasonably suspected that the defendant was operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Therefore, activating the blue lights was justified as a Terry stop to investigate possible criminal activity. The judge properly denied the motion to suppress.
assistance, justifying opening the door. See id. at 509. Indeed, it is hard to see what else the officer could have done. It would have been reasonable to believe, for example, that the defendant had had or was having a heart attack or was seriously ill, in which case the officer could not reasonably have simply left a citizen to die without exposing himself and his municipal employer to criticism and potential liability. In this case, by contrast, there are no similar facts giving rise to a reasonable belief that the defendant required immediate assistance.
2. General Laws c. 90, s. 24K, authorizes the Secretary to "promulgate rules and regulations regarding satisfactory methods, techniques and criteria for the conduct of [breath] tests, and [to] establish a statewide training and certification program for all operators of [breath-testing] devices." It further requires "that no person shall perform such a test unless certified by the [S]ecretary." The Secretary has promulgated regulations authorizing the council to certify breath-testing operators. 501 Code Mass. Regs. s.s. 2.21-2.22 (1993). The defendant argues that this regulation is inconsistent with G. L. c. 90, s. 24K, and is therefore invalid. Further, because the officer who administered a breath test to the defendant was certified by the council rather than the Secretary, the defendant argues that the test was invalid and inadmissible. We disagree.
operator wag properly certified, and that the judge properly denied the defendant's motion to suppress.
FRIED, J. (concurring, with whom Lynch, J., joins). I agree that the officer acted properly when he activated his blue lights and approached the defendant's vehicle. I also agree that these actions constituted a seizure for purposes of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and art. 14 of our Declaration of Rights. But I think it stretches a point to say, as does the court, that these actions were justified, under the rule of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), by a "reasonable suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity, more specifically, that the defendant was operating while under the influence of alcohol." Ante at 492. And there is no reason to stretch in order to justify the officer's eminently reasonable conduct. The motion judge found that "[t]here was a snowstorm taking place and the road conditions were icy and snowy; cars were sliding and skidding on the roadways." He also found that "[t]he officer lawfully stopped the motor vehicle and engaged the operator in conversation because of what the unknown motorist told him, because of what he observed while following the vehicle, and because the operator with his head slumped over the wheel should be assisted by the police." The motion judge made no finding or ruling that the officer had reason to suspect that the defendant had been operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or that any other unlawful activity was afoot. He simply denied the motion to suppress. Moreover, the officer testified that, at the time he pulled up behind the defendant's vehicle, he had no thought that any violation of law had occurred, but rather that he was investigating whether the operator was lost or having some kind of trouble operating his vehicle under the hazardous condition that then obtained. The officer also testified that other vehicles were also slipping and sliding on the roads because of the very poor conditions. This testimony accords with the findings quoted above. It was on this basis that the Commonwealth briefed and argued this case to us.
In my view this case is controlled by our decision in Commonwealth v. Leonard, 422 Mass. 504 , cert. denied, 117 S. Ct.
"Even if opening an unlocked vehicle door, where the police officer is acting out of concern for the well being of the person inside rather than on the basis of a suspicion of criminality, passes some constitutional threshold requiring constitutionally sufficient justification . . . what [the trooper] did here was a minimally intrusive response to one of the myriad and uncategorizable events that may alert an officer that his assistance may be required."
Id. at 508-509. The officer's action in opening the vehicle door in Leonard would have to be categorized as a search, while what we have here is technically a seizure, but the the same principles apply.
I do not know why the court stretches to justify the seizure in this case as an exercise in criminal law enforcement when the officer's testimony, the objective circumstances, and the Commonwealth's theory of the case present a clear instance of another and entirely sufficient justification, what has long been recognized as the exercise of the "community caretaking" function. Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 441 (1973). The motion judge's findings also point in this direction and certainly speak not at all of reasonable suspicion nor of criminality. I do not understand why the court assumes that the nightstick and revolver rather than the helping hand are the more natural or the inevitable way of conceptualizing police action.
justify warrantless intrusions in certain circumstances); Wayne v. United States, 318 F.2d 205, 212 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 860 (1963) ("[A] warrant is not required to break down a door to enter a burning home to rescue occupants or extinguish a fire, to prevent a shooting or to bring emergency aid to an injured person"); People v. Lanthier, 5 Cal. 3d 751, 755 (1971) (warrantless search of lockers justified to identify source of noxious odor permeating surrounding area); State v. Hetzko, 283 So. 2d 49, 52 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1973) (police officers "had every reason to believe that the defendant was in distress or that some foul play had occurred"; they "would have been derelict in their duty" if they had not made a warrantless entry into the house). See generally 3 W.R. LaFave, Search and Seizure s. 6.6 (3d ed. 1996).
fire protection"); Horner v. State, 836 P.2d 679, 682 (Okla. Crim. App. 1992) (warrantless inspection of salvage yard based on statutory regulation of industry was reasonable because State bad substantial interest in regulating industry to control automobile theft).
To be sure, this case, like the Leonard case, involves not premises but a motor vehicle. But motor vehicle cases are but a species of a genus the members of which number in the hundreds. Indeed, it is standard lore that, if anything, motor vehicles are the occasion for less not more stringent constitutional safeguards than private premises. See Cardwell v. Lewis, 417 U.S. 583, 590 (1974) ("One has a lesser expectation of privacy in a motor vehicle because its function is transportation and it seldom serves as one's residence or as the repository of personal effects"); Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925). And no basis in principle or practicality exists for departing from the fundamental touchstone of reasonableness in cases where a motor vehicle is searched or detained for other than law enforcement reasons. As the Supreme Court stated in South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 367-368 (1976), "[i]n discharging their responsibilities for ensuring public safety, law enforcement officials are necessarily brought into frequent contact with automobiles. Most of this contact is distinctly noncriminal in nature." And, of course, the exercise of this police function in respect to motor vehicles is neither novel nor infrequent. As the cases collected in the Appendix illustrate, courts all over the country have long recognized community caretaking as a constitutionally legitimate basis for action that constitutes a search or seizure.
possible, consistent with the purpose justifying it in the first instance. . . .
"We conclude that when a community caretaker function is asserted as justification for the seizure of a person, the trial court must determine: (1) that a seizure within the meaning of the fourth amendment has occurred; (2) if so, whether the police conduct was bona fide community caretaker activity; and (3) if so, whether the public need and interest outweigh the intrusion upon the privacy of the individual.
Finally, the analysis offered here is not at odds with that recently announced by the Supreme Court in Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 812-813 (1996), in which the Court held that if a police officer has an objective basis for suspecting that one kind of criminality, in that case a marginal civil traffic infraction, has occurred, it is irrelevant that the actual subjective basis for the police action may have been suspicion that a far more serious form of criminality was afoot, but one for which a reasonable basis for action did not exist. This holding cannot mean, and the Court does not say, that only if a police officer has an objective basis to stop a motor vehicle for law enforcement purposes, may he take such action. This would overrule sub silentio several of the Court's own cases and a vast body of jurisprudence elsewhere. Nor does the Court say that, where there are two equally sufficient bases for police intervention, a court must first reach for the criminal rather than the caretaking justification - that it must justify the nightstick before it justifies the helping hand.
the United States simply argued that the officer's asserted ground was a lawful one. Id. at 809. The Whren Court affirmed the defendants' convictions on being satisfied that this was a lawful ground for the stop. Likewise, in the instant case, the ground that the police officer articulated in his testimony and the one that the Commonwealth based its argument on was a constitutionally valid one.
been in trouble"); State v. Green, 133 N.H. 249, 256 (1990) (articulable suspicion of crime not needed where police "regulat[ing] the movements of civilians at crime scenes"); State v. Oxley, 127 N.H. 407, 411 (1985) (officer's stop of a motor vehicle is justified where officer's reason for stop was to ensure that furniture hanging out from the back of the motor vehicle did not fall onto the highway); State v. Maynard, 114 N.H. 525, 526-527 (1974) (officer's stop of a motor vehicle is constitutional if he does so reasonably and in good faith believing that driver "may be ill and physically unfit to drive"); State v. Martinez, 260 N.J. Super. 75, 78 (App. Div. 1992) (officer's stop justified where defendant was driving at an extremely low speed because such low speed was possibly an indication that there is something wrong with the driver or the motor vehicle, a threat to approaching vehicles, or an indication that the neighborhood is being "cased"); State v. Goetaski, 209 N.J. Super. 362, 364365 (App. Div.), cert. denied, 104 N.J. 458 (1986) (officer's stop justified where defendant was driving slowly on shoulder of rural highway flashing his left turn indicator); State v. Konewko, 529 N.W.2d 861, 863 (N.D. 1995) (officer's opening driver's door of defendant's parked motor vehicle was justified because officer observed defendant sliding toward floor and door, and therefore probably thought defendant needed help); Wibben v. State Highway Comm'r, 413 N.W.2d 329, 333 (N.D. 1987) (officer was justified in approaching defendant who was sitting in her motor vehicle at 2:35 A.M. in a deserted parking lot after dispatcher relayed call from unidentified person who reported that a person fitting defendant's description was sick or intoxicated; driver's privacy interest "minimal"); Provo City v. Warden, 844 P.2d 360, 361, 365 (Utah Ct. App. 1992), aff'd, 875 P.2d 557 (Utah 1994) (stop justified out of concern for defendant's "mental stability and welfare" where two unidentified men approached officer and told him that defendant was seeking to use cocaine so he could "drive [himself] into a wall"); State v. Marcello, 157 Vt. 657, 658 (1991) (a passing motorist's tip - "there is something wrong with that man" - was sufficient to justify trooper's making a "public interest" stop to determine whether defendant needed assistance); Commonwealth v. Waters, 20 Va. App. 285, 291 (1995) (citing Cady "community caretaking" exception, officer's stop of defendant was justified as reasonable exercise of community caretaker function where defendant's unsteady walking led to reasonable belief that aid or assistance was needed); State v. Chisholm, 39 Wash. App. 864, 866-868 (1985) (officer's stop solely for purpose of informing defendant driver that his hat was in jeopardy of blowing out of bed of pickup truck was "reasonable" as a legitimate community caretaking stop; Dunbar noted and disregarded on authority of Cady).
People v. Deppert, 83 Ill. App. 3d 375, 381 (1980) (officer's belief that defendant motorist was in need of assistance was insufficient to justify stop); Doheny v. Commissioner of Pub. Safety, 368 N.W.2d 1 (Minn. Ct. App. 1985) (officer's belief that driver was lost did not justify stop); State v. Brown, 509 N.W.2d 69 (N.D. 1993) (though officer may be fully justified in stopping vehicle to provide assistance, stop in instant case is invalid as officer failed to provide any clear reason for thinking defendant needed assistance); State v. Langseth, 492 N.W.2d 298, 301-302 (N.D. 1992) (officer's activation of his warning light and approaching a van stopped along a rural gravel road was unreasonable seizure); State v. Sarhegyi, 492 N.W.2d 284, 286 (N.D. 1992) (mere fact that defendant had parked his motor vehicle next to tractors and combines in a farm implement dealership at 1:30 A.M., and attempted to leave the area when officer approached did not justify stop); Barrett v. Commonwealth, 250 Va. 243, 247-248 (1995) (without deciding the applicability of community caretaking functions doctrine, the fact that defendant was driving partially on shoulder of road, partially on adjoining yard, and not entering highway was not sufficient to show that defendant needed police assistance); State v. Markgraf, 59 Wash. App. 509, 512-513 (1990) (radio dispatch informing officer that an occupant in a motor vehicle fitting description of defendant's motor vehicle was in trouble justified officer's initial contact, but because defendant told officer that he was all right, further inquiry was unjustified); State v. DeArman, 54 Wash. App. 621, 625 (1989) (despite officer's belief that defendant or his motor vehicle was disabled because vehicle remained motionless at a stop sign for forty-five to sixty seconds, this belief was dispelled when vehicle moved, and therefore stop was unjustified).
[Note 1] An officer's reasonable belief that a motorist is lost "free of complicating elements (safety hazards, illness, suspicion of crime, or the like)" is insufficient to justify a seizure. Commonwealth v. Canavan, 40 Mass. App. Ct. 642 , 647 & n.6 (1996).
[Note 2] Many cases cited in the concurrence, identifying specific facts justifying police intervention, support our view that there must be limits on a police officer's discretion to extend a "helping hand." See, e.g., United States v. King, 990 F.2d 1552, 1561 (10th Cir. 1993) (driver incessantly honked his horn at accident site; officer reasonably believed this created a hazard); Crauthers v. State, 727 P.2d 9, 11 (Alaska Ct. App. 1986) (driver rolled down his window; officer reasonably believed he was requesting assistance); State v. Puig, 112 Ariz. 519, 520 (1975) (driver used hand signal; officer reasonably stopped him "to check apparent defects in safety devices"); State v. Mitchell, 498 N.W.2d 691, 694 (Iowa 1993) (broken taillight justified stop for safety reasons); State V. Fuller, 556 A.2d 224, 224 (Me. 1989) (headlights blinked several times; officer reasonably believed they were defective); Provo City v. Warden, 844 P.2d 360, 361, 365 (Utah Ct. App. 1992), aff'd, 875 P.2d 557 (Utah 1994) (officer received tip that defendant was seeking to buy cocaine "so he could 'drive himself into a wall' "; stop justified for suicide prevention); Commonwealth v. Waters, 20 Va. App. 285, 291 (1995) (pedestrian staggered and walked unsteadily; officer reasonably believed he was "intoxicated, ill, or in need of help").
[Note 3] Standards are developing to determine whether the police in "community policing" situations have acted reasonably. See Provo City v. Warden, 844 P.2d 360 (Utah Ct. App. 1992), aff'd, 875 P.2d 557 (Utah 1994). See also State v. Anderson, 142 Wis. 2d 162, 169 (Ct. App. 1987).
[Note Concur-1] The relevant portion of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. . . ."
[Note Concur-2] The relevant portion of art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights states: "Every subject has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches, and seizures, of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions."

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 art. 14
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 V. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 art. 14