Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/398/398mass761.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 06:23:39+00:00

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INDICTMENTS found and returned in the Superior Court Department on November 20, 1984.
A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Lawrence B. Urbano, J.
An application for an interlocutory appeal was allowed in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk by Liacos, J., and the appeal was reported by him to the full court.
Thomas Lesser (William Newman with him) for the defendant.
ABRAMS, J. On November 20, 1984, the defendant, Barry Sanderson, was indicted for possession of marihuana, G. L. c.
94, Section 34 (1984 ed.); and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, G. L. c. 94C, Section 32E(b)(1) (1984 ed.). On November 4, 1985, the defendant filed a motion to suppress the physical evidence taken from his person and his knapsack. The defendant asserts that those items are the fruits of an arrest made without probable cause and without an arrest or search warrant. A judge of the Superior Court held a hearing and allowed the defendant's motion. [Note 1] The Commonwealth appealed the ruling pursuant to Mass. R. Crim. P. 15(b)(2), 378 Mass. 882 (1979), and a single justice of this court granted the Commonwealth's request for leave to take an interlocutory appeal. We affirm the order granting the defendant's motion to suppress.
the defendant did indeed own an Oldsmobile Cutlass, the defendant's automobile was not found in the parking lot at the Springfield bus station at any time during the next two days.
The anonymous informant phoned the trooper conducting the investigation approximately twenty times. The caller informed the trooper that the defendant worked at a realty office in Shelburne. The anonymous informant also stated during at least four phone calls that the defendant would be traveling to New York on the bus from Springfield. On each of these occasions, the troopers checked the bus terminal but did not see the defendant or his automobile. The trooper did not know the caller or the source of the caller's knowledge. The trooper did not have any means by which he could communicate with the informant.
On August 31, 1984, State troopers executed a search warrant in a different investigation at a home in Clarksburg. Several grams of cocaine were found in this search. In addition, several business cards were discovered, including the defendant's card from the realty office. One of the informants who had provided information for this August 31 search [Note 3] told a trooper in another office that he had heard "on the street" that the defendant was a major drug dealer. In addition, that informant stated that, during the summer of 1984, he observed several ounces of marihuana in the defendant's automobile.
had on prior occasions, that the defendant carried the cocaine in a knapsack.
The troopers established surveillance of the realty office and observed the defendant leave in his automobile at 2 P.M. The troopers had planned to follow the defendant, but were unsuccessful. The troopers did confirm that the defendant was not expected at work again until November 2. [Note 5] In addition, the troopers checked the defendant's home in the middle of the night to confirm that he had not returned. The next morning an officer phoned the realty office again and was told that the defendant had gone to New York and would return on November 2.
that he was under investigation for drug trafficking and recited the warnings mandated by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). For approximately the next thirty minutes, no State trooper spoke to or questioned the defendant.
As the two troopers waited for a superior officer (a sergeant) and other troopers to arrive, they walked around the vehicle. Each officer observed marihuana on the floor of the automobile. [Note 7] Within ten minutes after the two troopers stopped the defendant, three more State troopers arrived at the scene. One trooper was accompanied by a K-9 dog, "Trooper Thor." Trooper Thor had been trained to detect narcotics by smell. At that time, the troopers ordered the defendant to step thirty feet away from his automobile and to leave his knapsack near the vehicle. Trooper Thor then sniffed in and around the automobile and seized the knapsack on two separate occasions. Approximately twenty minutes later, after obtaining legal advice, the sergeant searched the defendant's pockets, which revealed two marihuana cigarettes, and searched his knapsack, [Note 8] which yielded a plastic bag containing cocaine. The troopers then formally arrested the defendant for possession of marihuana and trafficking in cocaine, and repeated the Miranda warnings.
v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). To determine whether the police action is tantamount to an arrest, it is necessary to consider the degree to which the defendant's movement is restrained, the degree of force used by the police, and the extent of the intrusion. See Commonwealth v. Bottari, 395 Mass. 777 , 781 (1985). In analyzing an automobile stop situation, we also look to the number of police used to effectuate the stop and situation, we also look to the number of police used to effectuate the stop and whether the movement of the automobile was impeded. Bottari, supra. The test is an objective one. See Commonwealth v. Borges, 395 Mass. 788 , 791 (1985); Commonwealth v. Meehan, 377 Mass. 552 , 559 (1979), cert. dismissed, 445 U.S. 39 (1980). "[I]f, in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave," a "seizure" of the person has occurred. Borges, supra at 791, quoting United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554 (1980). See Commonwealth v. Avery, 365 Mass. 59 , 65 (1974).
The Commonwealth concedes that it did not have probable cause to arrest the defendant and search his car at the time of the stop because the informant was not known to the police; the information provided by the informant had been unreliable in the past; and the source of his information was unknown. Thus, there are no facts from which the police could conclude the informant was reliable or credible. [Note 11] See Bottari, supra at 784; Borges, supra at 795; Commonwealth v. Upton, 394 Mass. 363 , 375 (1985).
"Clearly the police here . . . were detaining the suspect for purposes of making a search for contraband. They were not merely, for their own protection, conducting a pat-down for weapons while they questioned a suspicious person. The requisite for a search and seizure in this Commonwealth is probable cause, and not the `articulable suspicions' of Terry." Borges, supra at 798 (Hennessey, C.J., concurring). We affirm the order granting the defendant's motion to suppress.
[Note 1] The judge did not make specific findings. Instead, he stated that the motion was "presented on an agreed statement of facts. Findings are not necessary. An appellate court will have the same record as is before me. I am persuaded by the reasoning expressed in the defendant's memorandum. Accordingly, MOTION ALLOWED."
[Note 2] In an unrelated matter in 1983, the defendant was convicted of possession of marihuana with intent to distribute. The troopers conducting the instant investigation had this information in June of 1984.
[Note 3] This informant's tips had led to the arrest of two people and the seizure of controlled substances, and therefore the troopers considered this informant reliable.
[Note 4] The caller did not state whether the defendant would be traveling by bus or by car. The informant stated that the defendant was going to New York to attend a Halloween party, in addition to purchasing cocaine. That evening one investigating officer saw news coverage of a Halloween street party in Greenwich Village. No mention was made of the defendant.
[Note 5] At this point, the police consulted with an assistant district attorney, who advised that in his opinion there was probable cause to obtain a search warrant. Despite this conclusion, the troopers did not prepare a warrant. On appeal, the Commonwealth admits that this determination of probable cause was erroneous. The Commonwealth now agrees that at that time there was no probable cause to search the defendant's automobile. See infra at 767.
[Note 6] In the time between the troopers' reporting the spotting of the defendant's automobile and receiving the order to stop the defendant, another trooper telephoned an assistant district attorney. The attorney told the trooper that in his opinion that there was probable cause to search the automobile and instructed the trooper to stop the defendant's vehicle.
[Note 7] This was the only fact on which the defendant and the Commonwealth did not agree. The Commonwealth stated that the officers observed a "roach," numerous seeds, and green vegetable matter which he concluded was marihuana. The defendant's version of the facts was that, although the officer testified to seeing marihuana, no physical evidence of this was introduced at the suppression hearing. The defendant's version continued that, based on the photographs introduced by the Commonwealth, the judge could not conclude that the substance on the floor was marihuana.
The marihuana spotted in the vehicle is irrelevant because the illegal arrest already had occurred. See Commonwealth v. Bottari, 395 Mass. 777 , 785 (1985); Commonwealth v. Borges, 395 Mass. 788 , 795 (1985).
[Note 8] When Trooper Thor seized the knapsack, the defendant stated that the police could search it, but he withdrew his consent and denied having given consent when the sergeant asked him if he would permit a search of the knapsack. The Commonwealth does not claim that there was consent for the search.
[Note 9] While the subjective intent of the arresting officers is not controlling in differentiating between an investigatory stop and an arrest, it can be of some relevance. Compare Massachusetts Gen. Hosp. v. Revere, 385 Mass. 772 , 778 (1982), rev'd on other grounds, 463 U.S. 239 (1983), with Borges, supra at 792-793 n.3. The Massachusetts Gen. Hosp. court, in defining arrest, stated that an arrest must be performed with an intent to effectuate the arrest. In this case, the troopers were operating under the erroneous belief that they had probable cause to search the vehicle. See, supra, notes 5 and 6.
[Note 10] Although there was no use of force by the troopers here, that is not decisive. The troopers had no reason to believe force was necessary to effectuate the arrest. The troopers never received any information indicating that the defendant carried weapons or posed a physical threat to the officers.
[Note 11] The most detailed portions of the informant's information involved the description of the defendant's trips via the bus to Greenwich Village to buy cocaine. The police were unable to confirm this information on four different occasions. In fact, on the day of the defendant's arrest, he used his own car, instead of the bus, to travel to New York.

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