Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/349/349mass224.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 00:50:20+00:00

Document:
COMMONWEALTH vs. CLIFFORD A. ROY.
INDICTMENTS found and returned in the Superior Court on October 5, 1964.
A motion to suppress evidence was heard by Lappin, J., and the indictments were tried before him.
Ronald J. Chisholm (Edgar A. Rimbold with him) for the defendant.
A. T. Handverger, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.
KIRK, J. The defendant Roy, with one Lamm, was tried and found guilty on three indictments. [Note 1] Indictment 38,432 charged, in count 1, that Roy and Lamm on September 17, 1964, at Milton broke and entered the dwelling of Paul G. Queeney with intent to commit larceny, and, in count 2, that on the same day in the named dwelling they committed larceny. Indictment 38,434 charged both with the possession of burglar's tools on September 17, 1964. Indictment 38,527 charged, in count 1, that Roy and Lamm on August 29, 1964, at Brookline broke and entered the dwelling of Paul F. Clark with intent to commit larceny, and, in count 2, that on the same day in the named dwelling they committed larceny. The trial was subject to G. L. c. 278, Sections 33A-33G. The case comes to us on Roy's appeal accompanied by seventeen assignments of error. We have a summary of the record and the transcript of evidence.
and the original general motion to suppress, were rightly denied for reasons later to be mentioned.
We think, however, that it is our duty to comment upon the procedure which was followed. Although the granting of the preliminary hearing was doubtless originally intended by the judge to safeguard the defendant's constitutional rights, it developed into a far ranging and free wheeling expedition in which the defendant was able to search out all of the evidence, physical and testimonial, which the Commonwealth had against the defendant. For example, items of personal property, the existence and custody of which were disclosed by the defendant's examination of the Commonwealth's witnesses, were at the defendant's request produced by the Commonwealth, marked for identification and, at the close of the preliminary hearing, became the subject of the defendant's oral "motions to suppress." This procedure is not consistent with good trial practice. It is prejudicial to the Commonwealth's right to a fair trial. In the absence of a clear showing of unusual circumstances that the procedure is warranted, it should not be permitted. Evidence which has been obtained as the result of an allegedly illegal search and seizure is properly the subject of a pre-trial motion to suppress. Commonwealth v. Lewis, 346 Mass. 373, 382. "The judge, however, is not required to make, and in the nature of things cannot be required to make, a decision on such a motion, where, as here, the evidence sought to be suppressed is not identified by the moving party." Commonwealth v. Kiernan, 348 Mass. 29, 34. Nor may the judge be required to permit counsel before trial to examine the Commonwealth's witnesses in order to ascertain what evidence the Commonwealth has and the means used to obtain it. See Commonwealth v. Kiernan, 348 Mass. 29, 34. A pre-trial motion to suppress, based on an alleged illegal search and seizure, should specify the evidence sought to be suppressed, and the hearing should be directed to the specified evidence and to the grounds alleged for its suppression.
us any name of his uncle." [Note 2] Green then asked Roy if he would "mind coming to the police station to get this confused story you're telling us straightened out." Lamm and Roy voluntarily accompanied the police to the station where they arrived at approximately 2:15 P.M. The officers at that time did not know that Queeney's dwelling had been broken into. Lamm was interrogated first, apart from Roy. Within fifteen minutes he admitted participation in six house breaks including one at the Queeney residence. At about 2:20 P.M. while the interrogation of Lamm was in progress and before any questioning of Roy at the police station had begun, Lieutenant Giuliano, head of detectives, said to Roy, "I am going to inform you that you do not have to talk unless you have an attorney present, and you are entitled to use the station telephone for the purposes of engaging counsel or communicating with family and friends." Roy replied, "Look it, you're only a youngster. I've been through this before. I'm a graduate of Sing Sing." He said that he did not want to use the telephone. Later, at a confrontation of Lamm and Roy, the latter said to police, "I'll go for this break that you have me for but I won't go for anything else that Lamm says. I'm a graduate of Sing Sing. I know the score."
the preliminary hearing and at the trial supported the Commonwealth's position that the police officers did not touch or open either the suitcase or the filing cabinet. Whatever the officers were able to see in either container was the result of Roy's voluntary act. The act was incidental to a reasonable and brief on-the-street inquiry by alert police officers. No arrest had then taken place. See Commonwealth v. Lehan, 347 Mass. 197, 204-206, and authorities cited and discussed. The revelation of the contents of the suitcase and filing cabinet justified continued questioning by the officers.
The episode in its entirety, viewed in the light of the responses by Lamm and Roy before and after the opening of the suitcase and the filing case and of the police awareness of the fact of numerous recent house breaks in the vicinity, presented to the officers the choice between detention for the purpose of further investigation, or release on the spot which doubtless would finally and conclusively eliminate them from the case. The course pursued was sensible, reasonable and dutiful. See Commonwealth v. Lawton, 348 Mass. 129. The evidence shows that the officers suspected that Lamm and Roy had committed a felony. The facts and circumstances of which the officers were aware when the street interrogation was completed afforded, in our judgment, reasonable grounds or probable cause for their belief that the two men had committed a felony. Commonwealth v. Phelps, 209 Mass. 396, 404. The further detention of the men was therefore lawful. The fact that the officers did not then know or had not then been informed that a felony had in fact been committed is not determinative of the issue. Commonwealth v. Carey, 12 Cush. 246, 251. Commonwealth v. Lehan, 347 Mass. 197, 206. About 4:30 P.M. on September 17, 1964, Queeney reported the breaking and entering and larceny at his residence to the police.
The defendant Roy was entitled, however, to a directed verdict on the indictment charging breaking and entering and larceny at the Clark dwelling in Brookline on August 29, 1964. We state briefly the reasons for this conclusion. Although Lamm's statements to the police at the station clearly implicated Roy in the Brookline crime, his statements, as the judge repeatedly and correctly instructed the jury, were not evidence against Roy. There was no competent evidence that Roy lived in the same room where Lamm stated they both lived, and where goods stolen from the Clark residence were found at 7 P.M. when the police accompanied Lamm to search the room. The statements made by Roy, in response to questions by the Brookline police are not, in our view, reasonably susceptible of any interpretation other than as an unequivocal denial of participation in the Brookline house breaks. See Commonwealth v. Twombly, 319 Mass. 464; Commonwealth v. Grieco, 323 Mass. 639. The motion for a directed verdict on indictment 38,527 should have been allowed.
It follows that as to indictments 38,432 and 38,434 the judgments are affirmed, and that as to indictment 38,527 the judgment is reversed.
[Note 1] The judgments against Lamm have been vacated, and, on motion of the district attorney, the indictments against him have been dismissed.
[Note 2] The defendant contends that it does not appear from the transcript whether the inquiry about the initials took place during the street interrogation or later at the station house. In context it seems clearly inferable that the inquiry took place during the street interrogation by Green and Murphy. In any event, if the defendant had any doubt, he could have clarified the point during any one of the five later times when Green or Murphy was recalled to the stand.

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