Opinion ID: 2716496
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Officer Almeida's Course

Text: Having received the dispatch, Officer Almeida headed east on Samoset Street towards the liquor store with his police cruiser's blue lights activated. As he approached the intersection of Samoset and Court, he saw a westbound Toyota Camry stopping at the traffic light. The light in Officer Almeida's direction was red, but turned green as he approached the intersection. Simultaneously to the eastbound light turning green, the westbound Camry turned left, and headed south on Court Street. Believing various traffic violations had been committed, Officer Almeida decided to pull over the Camry.2 He took a right on Court Street, 2 At this point, Officer Almeida thought the Camry had made an illegal left turn on a red light -- as it was his understanding that the eastbound green light (his light) had a ten second head start on the westbound green light (the Camry's light) -- and had not yielded to an emergency vehicle. Further, he had noticed the Camry had a single commercial license plate, rather than the two required of commercial vehicles, and no commercial markings. At the summary judgment hearing before the district court, McGrath's counsel agreed Officer Almeida could legally stop the Camry once he had called in the plate and received information that the plate did not belong to that particular car. -3- turning on his cruiser's siren and wigwags.3 He radioed dispatch, informing them he had spotted a vehicle leaving the liquor store's vicinity, and was trying to pull it over. Officer Almeida headed south behind the Camry, but the car did not pull over. It did eventually slow down at an intersection roughly four city blocks later, at which point Almeida was able to get a quick look at the driver. But the Camry then took off again. Officer Almeida -- still with his police cruiser's lights, siren, and wigwags on -- was now in active pursuit.4 He radioed dispatch, advising that the driver he was attempting to pull over was refusing to do so, and was on the run. Officer Almeida witnessed the Camry drive through a bank's drive-through teller window in the wrong direction. Almeida's lone pursuit of the Camry continued through the streets of Plymouth until Officer Tavares (who had heard the earlier liquor store alarm broadcast) entered the fray.