Court Opinion

ID: 9721066
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:47:43.785036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:23.248098
License: Public Domain

Nolan, J.
(dissenting, with whom Lynch, J., joins). I dissent. Admittedly, Chief Berkel was lawfully in the basement area at the defendant’s home. The defendant had no legal interest in such space. The court concludes, however, that the defendant could reasonably expect that nobody would be in the area, or if somebody were there, the defendant could deal in drugs and have no fear that his incriminating conversations could ever be used against him. How reasonable is this?
After conceding that the defendant would not have a reasonable expectation of privacy if the basement were an adjoining room in a motel or hotel, quite gratuitously and without citation of any authority, the court concludes that the area is not analogous to an adjoining motel or hotel room. Equally gratuitous is the court’s conclusion, despite the absence of any authority, that seizure of the defendant’s conversation violated art. 14 of the Declaration of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution. No authority is cited. No analysis is advanced to support this conclusion. It is simply a naked ipse dixit without logic. This is a strange result.