The Massachusetts Court of Appeals held that pretextual inventory searches do not comport with the Fourth Amendment in the case of Commonwealth v. Lek. In the Lek case from Lowell the police detective conceded that he was using traffic infractions in order to detective gang activity.  In other words, traffic stops were being made not to enforce the traffic laws but with the hopes that guns, drugs or other evidence of gang activity would be discovered during the stop.

What happened in the Lek case?  

The Detective and his partner were in plainclothes in an unmarked police car. According to the Detective, he and his partner were looking for motor vehicle violations to address gang suppression through motor vehicle stops. the Detective testified that he was not required to do traffic enforcement that night and was doing it by his own free will.

Do You Have A Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in the Basement of a Multifamily Home That You Do Not Own?

The Fourth Amendment protects against places in which they have a subjective reasonable expectation of privacy. But when is this expectation unreasonable? The Appeals Court of Massachusetts, Bristol answered this question in Commonwealth v. DeJesus.

What happened in the DeJesus case?

On the same day as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided, Commonwealth v. Long, lowering the burden for a defendant to prove a stop was the result of racial profiling, the SJC also released a decision involving race and police interactions with a young black male in the context of a seizure rather than a motor vehicle stop.  The case of Commonwealth v. Tykorie Evelyn involves a street encounter between the police and a young black male who the police suspected was involved in a shooting.  While the SJC ruled against the defendant Evelyn, the SJC indicated that past and current social realties regarding how young black males perceive the police should factor into how Court analysis Constitutional questions such as whether someone has been seized by the police.  

The Evelyn case involved the following circumstances:  

What Happen in the case of Tykorie Evelyn?  

As a Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer, often the most promising defense in a case of drug distribution or a gun possession charge, is an attack on the Constitutional basis for the stop.  In many cases, police came that a quick transaction was an illegal drug sale and use that as a basis to seize a person and search their person.  When these cases make it to court, it is because the person had some illegal substance on them or illegally possessed a firearm.

That was the legal issue under the Fourth Amendment and Article 14 that the Massachusetts Appeals Court had to address in the case of Commonwealth v. Kearse, decided on April 9, 2020.

What happened in the Kearse Case?  

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral argument in a case that addresses the issue of when a warrant is stale in the case of an alleged seizure of child pornography from a defendant’s computer.  The case of Commonwealth v. Robert Guastucci, argued on March 5, 2020 raised this issue before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

A warrant under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights may only issue on probable cause.  The information contained in the warrant must be based on facts closely related in time to the issues raised in the warrant to justify probable cause.  The Massachusetts SJC has looked to two particular factors in evaluating whether a warrant is stale:

1. The age of the facts;