Opinion ID: 2054485
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Findings of Fact by the Motion Judge.

Text: We review the facts found by the judge on the motion to suppress to the extent necessary to our disposition of this appeal. On February 20, 1976, about 1:57 P.M. the branch office of The First National Bank of Boston, at Government Center, was the subject of an attempted armed robbery by two white males wearing wigs and sunglasses. One of the robbers accosted the bank guard and shot him twice in the chest. The other robber, also armed and carrying a shopping bag, vaulted over the counter into the tellers' area, dropped his gun, retrieved it, and after a few seconds jumped back over the counter without taking any money. Both robbers fled on foot. A shopping bag containing gold-rimmed eyeglasses was found behind the bank counter. A wig and a pair of sunglasses were found behind a column a short distance from the bank. Debra Mark (Mark) was on duty as a teller at the bank at the time of the robbery attempt. She testified at the hearing on the motion to suppress that she observed the second robber (referred to by the police as the vaulter) for three to four seconds as he ran toward her, and for an additional nine to fourteen seconds while he was behind the counter, within two feet of her. During this time she was extremely scared and nervous. She described the vaulter as a white male, five feet eight inches to five feet nine inches tall, 140 pounds, with curly flyaway hair, light brown in color with blond streaks, wearing sunglasses, white gloves, a blue waist-length jacket and blue trousers. She noticed that he had a fair complexion, was agile in his movements, and was carrying a gun. The wig of light brown hair with blond streaks which was found a short distance from the bank was identified by Mark as similar to the wig worn by the vaulter she saw in the bank. Within a day or two after the incident she further described the vaulter to an F.B.I. agent as a white male in his early twenties, no taller than five feet eight inches, with fair eyebrows, a light complexion and standard features, wearing blue pants, shoes (not sneakers) and sunglasses that kept sliding off his face, and carrying a gun in his right hand. She subsequently described the person to a different F.B.I. agent as a white male, early twenties, approximately five foot six inches to five foot seven inches, husky but not fat, light complexion, light brown curly hair, might have worn a wig, sunglasses, blue jacket and blue pants, good teeth, needed a shave. Mitchell Fischman (Fischman), a customer in the bank when the incident occurred, heard a shot and immediately crouched down where he stood near a customer counter at the far end of the bank lobby. He saw the vaulter run toward the tellers' windows, leap through one, and then leap back out and run toward the door. He observed the vaulter from the rear as the latter approached the windows and from the side as he left, and saw him in all for a total of about six seconds. He was then unable to tell with certainty whether the person he saw was male or female, but he obtained a general impression of the face. He later described the person as a white male in his early twenties, with a thin, elongated face, possibly dark hair, and wearing a dark jacket. Neither Mark nor Fischman had viewed the robber who had fired the shots.
Almost immediately after the robbery attempt and shooting, members of law enforcement agencies arrived at the bank and began an investigation, including interviewing witnesses to the crime. That same afternoon a detective of the Boston police department showed Debra Mark three books containing together over two hundred mug shot photographs. In showing the photographs to Mark the detective indicated that she should view the photographs carefully since participants in bank robberies frequently wore disguises. In mentioning this, he pointed as an example to two photographs of the defendant appearing on the first page of one book, one depicting him without a disguise and the other showing him wearing sunglasses and a black wig. The picture showing the defendant with no disguise had been taken some years earlier when he was slimmer and more youthful appearing and had shorter hair. Mark discounted the pictures immediately as not showing the man she had seen. Other bank employees also viewed the photograph books and gave descriptions of varying generality to the police, but none made any identification of possible suspects.
As a result of further information and investigation not put in evidence, the suspicion of law enforcement officers began to rest on the defendant and one Stanley Ulatowski as the perpetrators of the crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) prepared two photographic arrays of relevance here. The first was a display consisting of ten photographs of persons wearing wigs and sunglasses (exhibit 2), and included one photo each of the defendant and Ulatowski. This photographic display did not unduly highlight either suspect. The photograph of the defendant was the same one which had been included in the Boston police book of photographs. The motion judge found that, [d]espite this, it is so dissimilar from the other photos of Correia as to not readily cause a mental correlation and in effect to constitute a separate and distinct photo of him. The second F.B.I. photographic display (exhibit 3) consisted of various photographs of undisguised individuals, and also included one picture each of the defendant and Ulatowski. The picture of the defendant was the same one which appeared on the first page of the Boston police photograph book. This display was found to show a fair composition of various faces, hair styles, profiles and complexions consistent with some of the descriptions given by witnesses, and was not unduly suggestive with respect to the defendant. On February 23, 1976, three days after the crime, Mark viewed exhibits 2 and 3, and was unable to identify anyone shown therein. Fischman was shown exhibit 3 on February 27, 1976, but he too was unable to make any identification. The judge found that the viewing of these arrays had no particular impact on either witness.
A security agent of the bank prepared a photographic array (exhibit 15) consisting of fourteen photographs. Three of these were of the defendant and three were of Ulatowski. Two of the pictures of the defendant were those included in the Boston police and F.B.I. arrays, and the third depicted him with longer hair and a moustache. Of the other pictures in the display, one was of a black man, although no witness had said that a black man had been involved, and another showed a white man with a crewcut hairstyle. Thus the judge found that the display functionally consisted of twelve photographs, of which three were of the defendant and three of Ulatowski. The judge found this display to be unduly suggestive of the defendant. Mark viewed this display on February 24, 1976, and again was unable to make an identification.
On June 15, 1977, lineups were arranged at District One headquarters of the Boston police department, which were to be viewed by some thirty-six witnesses to five different bank robberies for which the defendant and Ulatowski were under suspicion. Mark and Fischman viewed two lineups, as did other witnesses to the First National Bank incident at issue here. One lineup was for the purpose of seeing if anyone could identify the defendant. Before the lineups the witnesses were instructed not to talk to the others, and to think back and recreate in their minds what they had viewed at the incident. They were told to take as much time as they needed in viewing the lineup, and that after each part of the lineup was completed the witnesses could request the standees to perform such exercises as might assist them in making an identification. They were instructed that they could make identifications even though they were not a hundred per cent positive if they felt that certain characteristics of the standees resembled those of the perpetrators, and were told that two suspects would be participating in the lineups. The witnesses were given identification sheets which they were to complete at the end of the lineups, and were told to place the number of any standee they could identify on the sheet, along with the reasons supporting the identification. The sheet also included a place to indicate that no identification had been made by the witness. The first lineup consisted of six males, including Ulatowski and persons who resembled him. The second lineup, also of six males, included the defendant as standee number five (a position requested by defendant's counsel), and five others more or less resembling him. The standees could not see the witnesses, who were separated from them by a two-way mirror. The other standees in the defendant's lineup resembled him in height, build, weight, complexion and facial profile, so as to make the lineup a fair composition. Although the defendant had the lightest hair of any in his lineup, the hair of some of the other standees was sufficiently light to fairly comport with his hair, so that the lineup was not unduly suggestive of the defendant by reason of this factor. The lineups consisted of three parts. First, the participants were viewed straight on, and then turned to their left and to their right. Second, each standee individually approached the mirror behind which the witnesses were stationed. Third, each standee was required to put on a black wig and a pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses, and again approach the mirror individually. At the end of the defendant's lineup, Mark requested that each standee extend his right hand and adjust the sunglasses on his nose with his left hand, as she had seen the vaulter do. Fischman requested that each participant in both lineups approach a table and jump up on it, as the vaulter had done. Other witnesses to other robberies requested that participants in both lineups be required to repeat certain phrases which the criminals they had seen had spoken. [1] In the course of making these statements, the defendant was requested to repeat certain of such statements two or three times, because he did not say them loudly enough to be heard the first time. One or two other standees were also required to repeat certain of the phrases for the same reason. At another point, the defendant was required to repeat an exercise because one of the videotape cameras filming the lineup had run out of film. Mark made no identification from the first lineup. As soon as she viewed the defendant in the second lineup, she immediately was sure that he was the person she had seen in the bank, and became scared upon seeing him because of her recognition. The exercise with the wigs confirmed her identification. On her lineup identification sheet she indicated that she based her identification on the defendant's facial features, his height, build, coloring and high forehead. She accordingly marked standee five as the person she identified, but she also indicated that another standee also resembled the person she had seen in the bank, because she believed that her instructions were to put down anyone who might have any similarity to the person she saw. Despite this, the judge found that she was absolutely sure that the defendant was the person. After viewing the lineups Fischman identified the defendant as resembling the person he had seen in the bank.
Beginning in October, 1977, Mark met two or three times with an assistant district attorney and an investigator from the district attorney's office, at which meetings they showed her photographs of the lineup, particularly the second lineup, for the purpose of confirming her identification of the defendant, in light of her earlier failure to identify him. At one or more of these meetings she expressed reservations about testifying in court and fear of the defendant. The representatives of the district attorney indicated to her that the defendant was a suspect in the case and had been indicted, that her identification was significant because she had had the best opportunity to view the vaulter, and that other identifications were less firm than hers. Sometime in December, 1977, Fischman was also visited by an assistant district attorney, shown pictures of the two lineups, and asked to confirm his selection. He was told that the person he had selected, the defendant, would be the subject of later court proceedings, and that Fischman would be called as an identification witness. The following are additional findings of fact by the judge relevant to the alleged suggestiveness surrounding the Mark and Fischman identifications.
1. Viewing of the criminal. Mark observed the vaulter for about two seconds as he ran toward her teller window, about 1:57 P.M., when the bank was well lit. She viewed his full face for three to four seconds, and the left side of his face for an additional six to eleven seconds, from a distance of one and one-half to two feet. She gave the description recited above shortly after the incident. 2. Viewing of the first ( Boston police ) array. When she viewed the three books of photos of the Boston police, Mark was extremely emotional, and cried continually, due to the impact of the recent crime. Although the remark of the detective that she should look carefully because robbers often wore disguises, and his action in pointing to the two pictures of the defendant as an example, contained some suggestiveness, the two pictures were sufficiently dissimilar as not to focus Mark specifically on the defendant. The comment was made in good faith by the detective as general advice, and he was not attempting to accentuate the defendant (although the defendant was the only person whose pictures appeared in the books both in disguise and without). Because of the large array of pictures (200) and Mark's emotional state, the remark had no impact upon her. 3. Viewing of the final ( bank security ) array. This display was found to be suggestive both of the defendant and of Ulatowski, both of whose pictures appeared three times in it. However, it apparently made no impression on Mark, since she was unable to make an identification from the display. All photographic displays had been shown to Mark within the week following the incident. Despite the slightly suggestive remark of the Boston police detective and the suggestive display of photographs shown to her by the bank security agent, no impact was made upon her. Her descriptions were consistent as given to different government agents, and were reasonably approximate to the defendant as he appeared in the courtroom in profile, build, and color of skin. 4. Viewing of the defendant at the lineup. Although she was told that there would be a suspect in both of the lineups, she felt under no compulsion to make an identification, and her state of mind in viewing them was that there might not be anyone whom she would recognize. She viewed the Ulatowski lineup and knew immediately that she recognized no one in it, and so marked her sheet. As the Correia lineup was being set up, she observed the first four participants and knew immediately that she could identify none of them. She then viewed participants five and six, and immediately recognized the defendant, because of the face, his height, his build, his high forehead, and his light coloring. The wig exercise helped to confirm her identification. The fact that the wig used in the lineup was different in color and texture from the one found near the bank, and differed sharply from the description of hair color she had given, was of no consequence to her since she based her identification on the other attributes. She placed no reliance on the exercise regarding the sunglasses, which she had requested, in making her identification. The judge found that Mark's identification was made at a lineup which was fairly conducted, was based upon an adequate opportunity to view the person present in her teller's cage, and was made entirely apart from any suggestiveness that might have existed in the photographic displays. 5. Post-lineup conversations. The conversations which the representatives of the district attorney had with Mark were not purposefully calculated by the agents of the Commonwealth to be suggestive, but were attempts to assuage her fear of testifying in court. Though the subsequent meetings to confirm the identification taken alone would be suggestive, the judge found that they were not sufficient to require suppression of her identification, because it was definite and firm as of the date of the lineup. Whatever suggestiveness existed in the conversations that took place at a later date had no effect on her observations and conclusions as to the identification. Her identification was not influenced in any way by these conversations. The judge therefore permitted her identification to stand.
1. Viewing of the vaulter. Fischman, as noted above, viewed the vaulter for about six seconds, including a rear view for three seconds and a side view for three seconds. The judge found that, brief as it was, Fischman's opportunity to observe was adequate, and that the impressions that the vaulter made on him were such that would cause him to be able to make an identification particularly from the characteristics of the person jumping. 2. Viewing of the photographic arrays. Fischman viewed the photograph books of the Boston police department immediately after the incident. He picked out a picture of Ulatowski as resembling one of the robbers (although the only robber he saw was the vaulter). He later was shown exhibits 2 and 3 by an F.B.I. agent, but made no identification. The judge found that the photographic displays, to the extent that they may have repeated the defendant's picture, had no bearing on [Fischman] in his identification by his own statement and from the lapse of time from the last display to the lineup. 3. Viewing of the defendant at the lineup. When brought to the lineup, despite being told that there would be two suspects there, Fischman was not of a state of mind where he felt he would have to make an identification. After viewing the jumping exercise, he made an identification of Correia as resembling the person, based primarily on his general recollection of what he had seen in the bank and the manner in which Correia had jumped up on the table at the lineup. His identification was also based on the shape of the defendant's face, the length of his arms, and the color of his hair. The use of the wig played no part in his identification. 4. Further findings. The judge made further findings with respect to Fischman, which are repeated in the margin below, [2] and then ruled that the identification could stand.