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Timestamp: 2019-04-19 18:22:37+00:00

Document:
COMMONWEALTH vs. LOUIS C. HALL.
INDICTMENTS found and returned in the Superior Court on November 16, 1972, and December 15, 1972.
Pre-trial motions to suppress evidence were heard by Linscott, J., and the cases were heard by Bennett, J.
Robert Snider, Special Assistant District Attorney (Stephen M. Needle with him) for the Commonwealth.
KAPLAN, J. The defendant was convicted after a jury waived trial in the Superior Court on indictments for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute (G. L. c. 94C, Sections 31-32), possession of marihuana with intent to distribute (id.), and possession of a firearm without an identification card (G. L. c. 140, Section 129C). He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for each offense, the terms to run concurrently.
proceeded to search it nevertheless. Large quantities of cocaine and marihuana were found there sufficient if admissible to support the charges of "intent to distribute." The defendant appeared at the apartment with another in the early morning and was also arrested.
The judge at voir dire made findings and rulings holding that the warrant for search of the second-floor apartment was adequately supported, and validating also the search of the third-floor apartment by reading the warrant to cover that apartment as an "extension" of the second-floor apartment. He also found the search, "under all the circumstances," reasonable.
The defendant argues on this appeal, first, that all the evidence seized should have been suppressed because the affidavit on which the warrant issued was entirely invalidated by the inclusion in it of information secured through illegal eavesdropping in the hallway outside the second-floor apartment; if this illegality did not taint the entire document, then the rest was anyway insufficient to support the issuance of the warrant. Second, assuming that the warrant legalized search of the second-floor apartment and thus justified seizure of the hand gun and its reception in evidence, it could not be read to cover the third-floor apartment, and exigent circumstances did not exist that could legalize a warrantless search of that apartment; so the evidence consisting of the drugs found there should have been suppressed.
Our analysis leads us to the conclusion that the firearm was properly seized in the second-floor apartment and the conviction based thereon should be affirmed; but the seizure of the drugs in the third-floor apartment was illegal and the relevant convictions should be reversed.
three pieces of information: an informant's tip, observations by police officers of "suspected users and dealers of Narcotics" entering and leaving the premises, and a report of conversations in the second-floor apartment about sale and use of drugs overheard by police officers. As to the overheard conversations, it appeared at voir dire that after receiving the tip (to be described below), the police on two evenings, September 30 and October 1, maintained a surveillance of the building and also eavesdropped on the landing and stairway outside the second-floor apartment.
vestibule door and off the stairway to the second and third floors. Further, he was the owner of the building, not merely a tenant. The hallway was thus in his exclusive control; he did not share its use with other tenants or with an absentee landlord; and the arrangement made -- the lock on the downstairs door and the buzzer system -- was designed to exclude members of the public and to admit none but the defendant's own guests and invitees. [Note 4] See Commonwealth v. Dinnall, supra, at 167; Commonwealth v. Thomas, supra, at 773-775. A justified expectation of privacy therefore arose. [Note 5] That the lock on the vestibule door could be and was bypassed on the two occasions when the eavesdropping took place cannot alter the picture, for police do not have carte blanche to pass through doors that are unlocked or even ajar if the area beyond has a private character. See Commonwealth v. Spofford, 343 Mass. 703 , 705 (1962); Sabbath v. United States, 391 U.S. 585, 589-591 (1968); People v. Haven, 59 Cal. 2d 713, 715-717 (1963); People v. Williams, 24 App. Div. 2d (N. Y.) 274, 276 (1965).
(D. C. Cir. 1969). Howell v. Cupp, 427 F. 2d 36, 38 (9th Cir. 1970). United States v. Tarrant, 460 F. 2d 701, 703-704 (5th Cir. 1972). United States v. Koonce, 485 F. 2d 374, 379 (8th Cir. 1973). United States v. Epstein, 240 F. Supp. 80, 82 (S. D. N. Y. 1965). As the court said in the James case, supra, it can hardly be thought in such a situation that the warrant is "fruit of the poisonous tree," or that the warrant must be held void in order to effectuate a sound policy of deterring official lawlessness. 418 F. 2d at 1151-1152. But in the majority opinion in the Giordano case we find a discordant footnote of uncertain meaning. On a motion to suppress evidence secured by means of a court approved "pen register," it appeared that the application for the pen register had referred to certain logs of conversations illegally monitored. Speaking of the illicit logs as "a critical element" (416 U.S. at 533-534, n. 19) in the approval of the use of the pen register, the Supreme Court, without apparently overruling the James line of cases, held that the evidence obtained by the pen register should be suppressed. But, as the opinion dissenting on that point noted, 416 U.S. at 548 (Powell, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), a prior application for pen register authority, not referring to the logs of the wiretapped conversations, contained enough to show probable cause on which authority for a pen register could be granted; and the information from that original, approved, application was included in the later application which that court invalidated. Perhaps, then, "critical element" is to be taken as meaning an impressive or important element in relation to the totality of material put before the court, even though the rest would independently have merited that approval. [Note 6] This would be a curious rule, for it would appear to invite speculation about how far the mind of the magistrate was affected by the several parts of the application. Reserving doubts about the Giordano proposition, we now try to fit it to our case.
and applying Aguilar amply demonstrate. Commonwealth v. Avery, and Commonwealth v. Stewart, both supra. Commonwealth v. Snow, 363 Mass. 778 , 782-784 (1973). See Spinelli v. United States, supra, at 416; United States v. Carter, 337 F. Supp. 604 (D. Minn. 1971), affd. sub nom. United States v. Smith, 462 F. 2d 456 (8th Cir. 1972). [Note 8] To the tip must be added the observations by the police of suspected drug users and dealers entering and leaving the premises. [Note 9] These lend further support to the belief that there were drugs in the second-floor apartment. See Commonwealth v. Anderson, 362 Mass. 74 (1972); Commonwealth v. Duran, 363 Mass. 229 (1973); Commonwealth v. Snow, supra, at 782-784.
Returning now to the Giordano point, when the foregoing evidence legally obtained is contrasted with the overheard conversations, the latter appear to be not a "critical element." This is the case not only substantively but textually, for the overheard conversations are summarized in one sentence at the end of a rather long recital giving prominence to the contents of the tip. In the Giordano case the application for pen register authority set out verbatim the logs of the wiretapped conversations which, because of their length and vivid detail, would be likely to impress themselves sharply on the mind of the magistrate; there is no such long recital in the text of the illegally overheard conversations here. We conclude that the warrant authorizing the search of the second floor was valid, and it follows that the hand gun conviction should be upheld.
facilities to those inside and to the police station, summoned the officer downstairs by means of a walkietalkie. The informant, waiting around the corner, told the officer that he had been trying to reach him since 6 P.M. to say that the "main stash" was in the unoccupied third-floor apartment. Someone else, said the informant, had gone between 5 and 6 P.M. to buy drugs and the defendant had gone upstairs to get them. That other person was the informant's girl friend whom the officer had met previously; she had been present on occasions when the informant had given the officer information, but she had never before supplied information. Now the officer telephoned her (the informant dialed her number) and she confirmed the informant's story. Her own reliability was unproved. Nevertheless we believe the sum total of previously available information, when combined with her story, provided probable cause for a search of the third floor. Cf. Commonwealth v. Stewart, 358 Mass. 747 (1971); Commonwealth v. Snow, 363 Mass. 778 (1973).
The police now sought advice from the assistant to the departmental legal advisor as to what to do about the third floor. He advised them to get a fresh warrant, otherwise to call him again. The police telephoned a number of clerks of the Municipal Court of the Dorchester District but evidently reached but one, who said he had no key to the court house. We may accept the judge's finding that the police acted diligently in seeking a warrant, although they were aware that on other occasions warrants had been issued by clerks from their homes. Responding to a further call -- it was now near midnight -- the assistant legal advisor told the police they could enter the third-floor apartment with the Halls' key. They did so and found the cocaine and marihuana.
police could have retreated to the vestibule. And since those present in the second-floor apartment had already been arrested, and on the basis of evidence found there the police had grounds and intended to and did in fact arrest the defendant when he appeared, there was no one with a cognizable right of entry into the premises who could complain of its curtailment by the police. See Note, supra, at 1471-1481.
The delay facing the police before they could obtain a warrant was not one or two hours but perhaps as much as eight hours, but the cases do not suggest that the result should turn on such measurements of time; rather the question is whether the longer delay introduces a substantially greater risk of loss or destruction of evidence or of harm to the police. [Note 18] No such showing of increased risk was made here. It is significant that the police did not balk at waiting the length of time needed to apply for and secure a fresh warrant if a court clerk were available. There was no showing that the police feared the appearance during the longer period of confederates bent on preventing seizure of a possible cache in the third-floor apartment or threatening or attacking the police; had any associates of the Halls appeared, they could, as noted, have been denied entrance. The Commonwealth on all the facts thus failed to meet its burden of showing exigency, and the third-floor search must be held illegal.
Judgment of conviction for possession of firearm affirmed; other judgments reversed and findings set aside.
[Note 1] The voir dire was in respect to the charges brought against Mrs. Hall as well as the defendant, but the trial proper proceeded against the defendant only, another disposition having been made of the charges against Mrs. Hall.
[Note 2] "On September 30, 1972 Det. Linsky, Currier and Simmons received information from a reliable informant who has proved reliable in the past and has given the above officers information that has led to the arrest of (1) Little Cannabis, (2) Douglas & Tate, Cocain both arrests led to the convictions, said informant told the above officers that on Sept. 30, 1972 he was with another male who was having conversation with another male at the corner of Woodrow Avenue and Blue Hill Ave. in the Dorchester area of the city. The conversation between the males (all three of them) was relative to the sale and use of Cocaine and Cannabis. The unknown male told the informant and his friend to follow him to a house in Dorchester, the informant and his friend followed the other male who was in a cab, to 22 Rosedale St., Dorchester upon reaching this house the man in the cab got out came back to the informant's car told the informant's friend to come with him, which he did. Both males then left the informant and went into 22 Rosedale Street, Dorchester, after a period of time the informant's friend and the unknown male returned (coming from 22 Rosedale St.) to the car upon arriving at the car the unknown male told the informant that he sells good Cocaine and clean Grass and with that the informant's friend showed the informant the white powder he just bought from the unknown male, the unknown male then told the informant that if he was interested in buying some at any time to come to the second floor apartment at 22 Rosedale St., Dor. and use his friend's name. With this the informant's friend and the unknown male got in the car and drove back to Woodrow Avenue and Blue Hill Avenue. On September 30 and October 1, 1972, the above officers and other officers of the DCU did observe a number of suspected users and dealers of Narcotics enter and leave the second floor apartment at 22 Rosedale St., Dorchester. Conversation was also heard coming . . . [from] the apartment at this time. The conversation was relative to the sale and use of Cocaine and Cannabis."
[Note 3] As to the police visit on October 1, the record suggests that the door may have been unlocked. There is clearer testimony that on September 30 the police came in surreptitiously behind two persons who had rung the second-floor apartment doorbell and been admitted by the buzzer.
[Note 4] The judge at voir dire found that the area was a "common hallway" but this was only another way of stating his conclusion of law which does not bind us.
[Note 5] We draw support for our conclusion from those cases in which a small number of tenants share a hallway but the outer door is kept locked, and it is held that this limitation of access itself is enough to create an expectation of privacy. United States v. Case, 435 F. 2d 766 (7th Cir. 1970). United States v. Blank, 251 F. Supp. 166 (N. D. Ohio 1966). State v. Di Bartolo, 276 So. 2d 291 (La. 1973). Contra, United States v. St. Clair, 240 F. Supp. 338 (S.D.N.Y. 1965).
[Note 6] Cf. United States v. Nelson, 459 F. 2d 884 (6th Cir. 1972) (two to one) (warrant may not be sustained if issuance is in doubt without the tainted evidence).
[Note 7] The Commonwealth argues from the text of the affidavit that the third person was in fact the defendant. This is possible but cannot be said to be established. We do not deem it crucial to the case.
[Note 8] The conclusion is strengthened by comparing our case with cases such as Commonwealth v. Causey, 356 Mass. 125 (1969), and Von Utter v. Tulloch, 426 F. 2d 1 (1st Cir. 1970), cert. den. 400 U.S. 826 (1970), where warrants were found to be inadequately supported; in both those cases there was no indication of how the information was obtained.
[Note 9] The affidavit states that the suspected persons were observed entering and leaving the second-floor apartment, but as the surveillance was carried on from the street, it is likely that the affiant meant to refer to the building. But our conclusion that the warrant was good for the second-floor apartment would not change even if the surveillance evidence were excluded from consideration.
[Note 10] United States v. Kaye, 432 F. 2d 647 (D. C. Cir. 1970) (warrant for search of store does not authorize search of upstairs apartment with separate street entrance). United States v. One 1949 Buick Sedanette, 112 F. Supp. 218 (D. Mass. 1953) (warrant for search of "first building on the left hand side" does not authorize search of third building as well). United States v. Zovluck, 274 F. Supp. 385 (S. D. N. Y. 1967) (warrant for search of hotel room does not authorize search of mail box in lobby). State v. Mills, 246 N. C. 237 (1957) (warrant for search of dwelling does not authorize search of room in adjacent house rented to same person). Clanton v. State, 59 Okla. Crim. 365 (1936) (warrant for search of service station does not authorize search of cafe operated by same person in separate building). See Commonwealth v. Lillis, 349 Mass. 422 (1965) (warrant for search of one apartment does not allow search of second apartment, in which different family resided, simply because occupant of first apartment occasionally visited second apartment). See also Commonwealth v. Todisco, 363 Mass. 445 (1973) (necessary particularity in description of apartment afforded by reading the warrant together with the affidavit).
[Note 11] It is not intended to lay down a rule that the description in a warrant of the location and area to be searched may never be construed more liberally than in the present case. For example, the evidence when the warrant is executed may show that the illegal activities spill over into a directly adjacent or contiguous area under the same control, in which case a liberalized reading of the warrant may be proper. Thus in United States v. Evans, 320 F. 2d 482 (6th Cir. 1963) (distinguishing the Keiningham case, supra, at 483 n. 2), a search under a warrant for 1000 Baldwin Street revealed that a common wall between its attic and the attic of the adjacent building 1004 had been broken through, the connection of the 1004 attic with the lower floors of that building sealed, and the two attic areas used as one. The warrant was held to cover the attic of 1004. The record before us does not present such a case.
[Note 12] The assumption is questioned by Mr. Justice Black in dissent, 399 U. S. at 40 (1970).
[Note 13] See United States v. Rubin, 474 F. 2d 262 (3d Cir. 1973); United States v. Blake, 484 F. 2d 50 (8th Cir. 1973).
[Note 14] For example, in the Rubin case, suspects were inside the building in question, and the police were aware of a specific attempt by someone outside to warn them of their peril. See also Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 42 (1963) (occupant of apartment might distribute or hide drugs); Theobald v. United States, 371 F. 2d 769 (9th Cir. 1967) (people inside the room might destroy the evidence); Dorman v. United States, 435 F. 2d 385 (D. C. Cir. 1970) (armed fugitive believed to be inside residence); United States v. Bradley, 455 F. 2d 1181 (1st Cir. 1972) (suspects in dwelling in the midst of cutting heroin preparatory to going out on the street with it); United States v. Evans, 481 F. 2d 990 (9th Cir. 1973) (specific risk that a suspect would get a warning and act to destroy evidence); State v. Patterson, 192 Neb. 308 (1974) (suspects inside, and attempts to arrest as they left singly could alert those inside).
[Note 15] See United States v. Goldenstein, 456 F. 2d 1006, 1010 (8th Cir. 1972); United States v. Nelson, 459 F. 2d 884, 887 (6th Cir. 1972); United States v. One 1949 Buick Sedanette, 112 F. Supp. 218, 221 (D. Mass. 1953); United States v. Costa, 356 F. Supp. 606 (D. D. C. 1973). Cf. United States v. Small, 297 F. Supp. 582 (D. Mass. 1969) (lock changed on storage locker so owner could not remove drugs inside).
The strictness with which courts construe the exigent circumstances exception is emphasized by cases in which warrantless searches are held to be invalid despite the presence of people inside the dwelling in question, either because no evidence was presented to suggest that they were aware of any imminent raid, see Ludlow v. State, 262 Ind. 266 (1974), or because though they were related to the suspect, it was not claimed that they themselves engaged in criminal activity. See United States v. Carignan, 286 F. Supp. 284 (D. Mass. 1967) (mother at home); United States v. Wilcox, 357 F. Supp. 514 (E. D. Pa. 1973) (estranged wife at home).
[Note 16] Compare Commonwealth v. Haefeli, 361 Mass. 271 , 281 (1972), which allowed search of an automobile where the trial judge found that only one officer was on the scene who could not both return for a search warrant and watch the automobile to prevent its removal.
We are far from saying that exigent circumstances cannot be found where more than one officer is on the scene; the decision will always depend on an evaluation of all the circumstances. Cf. United States v. Pino, 431 F. 2d 1043 (2d Cir. 1970), which found an immediate warrantless search of an apartment justified when two officers arrested two men at 1 A.M., citing the possible danger of leaving a single officer to guard the site for an extended time until a warrant could be obtained.
[Note 17] The leeway now allowed the police to conduct immediate searches of automobiles in lieu of holding them pending a warrant, see Commonwealth v. Rand, 363 Mass. 554 (1973); Commonwealth v. Miller, ante, 387, 389 (1974), is based on Supreme Court cases emphasizing the special nature of automobiles and the lesser expectation of privacy one may have with respect to them. See Cardwell v. Lewis, 417 U.S. 583, 590-591 (1974); Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 48, 52 (1970). There is therefore no basis for automatically extending an automobile rule to cover dwelling searches, see Chambers v. Maroney, supra, at 52, and the Vale line of cases makes clear that it should not be so extended.
[Note 18] See United States v. Rubin, 474 F. 2d at 268 (3d Cir. 1973).

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