Source: http://masscases.com/cases/app/78/78massappct45.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 00:44:57+00:00

Document:
COMMONWEALTH vs. WAYNE D. LEBOEUF, JR.
Present: DUFFLY, BROWN, & VUONO, JJ.
Search and Seizure, Administrative inspection, Motor vehicle. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress.
COMPLAINT received and sworn to in the Framingham Division of the District Court Department on March 10, 2009.
The case was reported by Douglas W. Stoddart, J.
Francis M. Doran, Jr., for the defendant.
Stephen M. Gilpatric, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.
Background. The following relevant facts, taken from the criminal docket sheet and the evidence presented at the hearing on the defendant's motion to dismiss, are undisputed. Officer Keith Strange of the Framingham police department is a member of that department's "Truck Team," which is charged with enforcing both Federal and State commercial vehicle regulations. As required for that assignment, Officer Strange has been certified as an inspector by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). [Note 3] Officer Strange's duties include performing administrative safety inspections of commercial vehicles. Consistent with his training, Officer Strange's selection of a vehicle for inspection does not require him first to observe an infraction. Rather, he identifies and randomly selects a commercial motor vehicle, makes a stop, and conducts an administrative safety inspection.
certificate and the registration of the truck. The defendant was unable to provide a valid commercial driver's license and informed the officer it had been revoked. He was charged with operating a motor vehicle on a suspended license in violation of G. L. c. 90, § 23.
Discussion. Under Mass.R.Crim.P. 34, we may, prior to a trial, answer questions of law that are "of importance to the general public, or questions of substantial significance which have not previously been considered by the [United States] Supreme Court or by either of the appellate courts of the Commonwealth." Commonwealth v. Bankert, 67 Mass. App. Ct. 118 , 120 (2006), quoting from Smith, Criminal Practice and Procedure § 2213 (2d ed. 1983).
Here, the defendant claims that police use of random stops, not based on any reasonable suspicion of a violation of an administrative regulation, to effect warrantless administrative safety inspections of commercial vehicles, violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. That precise question has not been addressed in our decisional law.
of which is clear and narrowly defined. Commonwealth v. Tart, supra at 254-256.
warrant, in that they do not meaningfully limit the time, place, or frequency of inspection.
Under Tart and Burger, whether a statute or regulation provides an adequate substitute for a warrant turns on whether it satisfactorily performs "the two basic functions of a warrant: it must advise the owner of the commercial premises that the search is being made pursuant to the law and has a properly defined scope, and it must limit the discretion of the inspecting officers." Burger, 482 U.S. at 703. "[I]n defining how a statute limits the discretion of the inspectors, . . . it must be 'carefully limited in time, place, and scope.' " Ibid., quoting from United States v. Biswell, 406 U.S. 311, 315 (1972). Accord Tart, supra at 256.
"The carefully delineated scope of the [F]ederal regulations suitably cabins the discretion of the enforcing officer. Moreover, the regulations themselves give ample notice to interstate truckers that inspections will be made on a regular basis. To cinch matters, commercial drivers are required by law to be familiar with the applicable regulations."
operated. "Therefore, the discretion of the inspector is limited." Tart, 408 Mass. at 256.
The defendant additionally argues that, even if constitutionally sound, an administrative safety inspection may not be initiated, as it was in this case, by a random, suspicionless traffic stop. The text of 49 C.F.R. § 396.9(a) specifically provides for inspections by FMCSA-certified officers of "vehicles in operation and intermodal equipment in operation" (emphasis added). This language authorizes suspicionless stops of commercial vehicles in operation for the sole purpose of performing administrative inspections. See, e.g., State v. Livingston, 153 N.H. 399, 403 (2006); State v. Hewitt, 400 N.J. Super. 376, 384-386 (2008); McCauley v. Commonwealth, 17 Va. App. 150, 152-156 (1993).
We also reject the argument that an administrative inspection in the context of a highly regulated industry that is conducted pursuant to the FMCSA regulations is analogous to the arbitrary selection of vehicles at a sobriety checkpoint, which is prohibited. See Commonwealth v. Murphy, 454 Mass. 318 , 323 (2009). In such cases, we are concerned with constitutionally protected privacy concerns of ordinary citizens and not the attenuated expectation of privacy that accompanies pervasive government regulation of an industry. See Burger, 482 U.S. at 700; Tart, supra at 253-254.
Accordingly, our answer to the reported question is: No. The random stop of a commercial vehicle for the purpose of conducting an administrative safety inspection, pursuant to which the defendant was requested to produce his license, was not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. [Note 10] The case is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
[Note 1] This case comes to us in an unusual posture. The case was reported without findings of fact by the motion judge; the record does not contain the motion judge's report framing the legal question or a copy of the defendant's motion to suppress. Because the parties are in substantial agreement as to the relevant legal question and the essential factual predicate, we decide the question in the interest of judicial economy. Cf. Commonwealth v. Colon, 431 Mass. 188 , 193 n.9 (2000).
[Note 2] No argument is made that the inspection violated the defendant's rights under art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
[Note 3] The certification required, inter alia, completion of a two-week training program provided by the State police, demonstration that two written examinations administered by DOT had been passed, and participation in a field training program that, as testified to by Officer Strange, "included thirty-two Level 1 inspections. . . . A Level 1 inspection is a complete inspection of both the driver and the commercial motor vehicle. We do everything from checking driver credentials, logbook, license, medical certificate and so on. Upon doing that we then start on the commercial motor vehicle. The working mechanisms of the vehicle."
[Note 4] See 49 C.F.R. § 350.105 (2007).
"(vii) an accident register and copies of all accident reports required by state or other governmental entities or insurers.
"(5) any other applicable state statute pertaining to the operation of commercial motor vehicles."
[Note 6] In New York v. Burger, 482 U.S. 691 (1987), the Court stated that "[b]ecause the owner or operator of commercial premises in a 'closely regulated' industry has a reduced expectation of privacy, . . . a warrantless inspection of commercial premises may well be reasonable within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. . . so long as three criteria are met." Id at 702. These criteria are: (1) "there must be a 'substantial' government interest that informs the regulatory scheme pursuant to which the inspection is made"; (2) "the warrantless inspections must be 'necessary to further [the] regulatory scheme' "; and (3) "the statute's inspection program, in terms of the certainty and regularity of its application, [must] provid[e] a constitutionally adequate substitute for a warrant." (Citations omitted.) Ibid.
[Note 7] We note that our conclusion that this industry is closely regulated is in line with every Federal appellate court to have considered the issue. In addition to United States v. Maldonado, 356 F.3d 130 (1st Cir. 2004), see United States v. Dominguez-Prieto, 923 F.2d 464, 468 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 936 (1991); United States v. Mendoza-Gonzalez, 363 F.3d 788, 793-794 (8th Cir. 2004); United States v. Castelo, 415 F.3d 407, 410 (5th Cir. 2005); United States v. Delgado, 545 F.3d 1195, 1201-02 (9th Cir. 2008), cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 1383 (2009); United States v. Mitchell, 518 F.3d 740, 751 (10th Cir. 2008); United States v. Steed, 548 F.3d 961, 967 n.5 (11th Cir. 2008).
[Note 8] Although Maldonado is factually distinct in that the inspection in that case occurred after the vehicle was lawfully stopped for speeding, the focus of the appeal was the warrantless search of the truck pursuant to the administrative search exception to the warrant requirement. Id. at 134.
[Note 9] In his brief, the defendant cites three cases for the contrary proposition, none of which is applicable here. People v. Deacy, 140 Misc. 2d 232 (N.Y. 1988), involved a State statute that explicitly limited administrative inspections to vehicles that had already been lawfully stopped. State v. Myers, 63 Ohio App. 3d 765 (1990), did not involve an administrative inspection of a closely regulated industry, and therefore falls outside of the Burger exception. Finally, United States v. Shaefer, Michael & Clairton Slag, Inc., 637 F.2d 200 (3d Cir. 1980), involved a stop that was pretextual. See note 10, infra.
[Note 10] The defendant expressed concern that, by upholding the constitutionality of suspicionless administrative traffic stops, the door might be opened to pretextual stops that have as their target, for example, illegal immigrants. Nothing in this record provides a basis for the defendant's concerns. Thus, the question we are asked to answer does not implicate any allegation of false pretenses or pretext. We note that "an administrative search may not be used as a subterfuge to avoid the burden of establishing probable cause to support criminal investigative search." Commonwealth v. Bizarria, 31 Mass. App. Ct. 370 , 375 n.7 (1991), citing Commonwealth v. Frodyma, 386 Mass. 434 , 445 (1982).

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