Court Opinion

ID: 9743821
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:45:09.917198+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:44.144319
License: Public Domain

Nolan, J.
(dissenting). Just two years ago, in Commonwealth v. O’Connor, 406 Mass. 112 (1989), this court ruled (on facts frighteningly similar to the ones we now face) that *617the evidence found would be admitted under the doctrine of inevitable discovery. In that case, a police officer had decided to take the intoxicated defendant into “protective custody.” The officer conducted a pat-down search for weapons while the defendant was standing on the side of the road. While searching the defendant, the officer “saw a portion of a clear plastic bag protruding from the defendant’s vest.” As in our case, the officer in O’Connor admitted that he could feel that the bag did not contain a weapon. Nevertheless, the officer removed the bag, which contained contraband.
In O’Connor, we determined that the evidence would inevitably have been discovered during the inventory search while booking the defendant at the police station. Id. at 115. We ruled that the principles of deterrence underlying the exclusionary rule would not be undercut by the application of an inevitable discovery exception in the circumstances of that case. Id. We concluded that the officer in O’Connor did not act in bad faith. Id. at 118. Indeed, we determined that if the officer had given any thought to the lawfulness of the search, he would have determined that it would be better to await the lawful inventory search.
In the case before us, the constitutional violation is even less serious. The officer pulled the protruding plastic bag out of the defendant’s jacket pocket while chasing him. Certainly even less thought went into the lawfulness of the search than in O’Connor. Thus, the inevitable discovery exception is more compelling in this case. I would remand the case for a specific finding as to whether the defendant would have been taken into custody for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. An inventory search of the jacket during booking would likewise have turned up the contraband.
We stated in O’Connor that, under the facts of that case, the inevitable discovery doctrine met the standards of both the State and Federal Constitutions. Id. at 113. Today we face a case with similar facts. I am unaware of any amendment to either art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights or the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution in the last two years. Accordingly, I dissent.