Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Warrantless Search of Cell phones declared Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

June 28, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

The Supreme Court has just issued a landmark ruling banning law enforcement officers from searching an arrestee’s cell phone or mobile device without a warrant. According to all nine justices of the Supreme Court, a warrantless search of a mobile device, even a search incident to an arrest, is unconstitutional as a direct infringement on an arrestee’s sacred Fourth Amendment protections.

The Cases on Appeal

The ruling arrived as a decision on two companion cases: Riley v. CA and U.S. v. Wurie. In the matter of U.S. v. Wurie, which was litigated here in the U.S. District Court in Boston, police officers arrested the defendant after observing him sell two bags of crack cocaine out of a car. After the arrest, the officers performed a routine warrantless search of the defendant’s person (known as a “search incident to arrest”) and seized more than $1000 cash, keys, and two cell phones. One of the cell phones – a flip phone – was repeatedly receiving calls from a number labeled “my house;” the officers recorded the calling number and entered it into an online telephone directory. Their investigation led to a residence alleged to belong to the defendant, where they discovered more crack cocaine, marijuana, cash, a firearm, and ammo. Defendant was charged with three federal offenses.

Lawyers for Aaron Hernandez argue that the prosecution taint the Grand Jury proceeding in motion to dismiss

June 20, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

Defense attorneys for Aaron Hernandez appeared before the Fall River superior court on Monday to ask the court to dismiss the murder indictment against Hernandez. The defense attorneys premised their motion to dismiss on the argument that the prosecutors injected unfair prejudice into the grand jury proceeding to bias the grand jury against Hernandez without meeting their burden of proof to establish probable cause. From the perspective of a Massachusetts criminal defense attorney, this is a common motion filed by defense lawyers.

According to one of the defense attorneys, the prosecutors presented highly harmful and irrelevant evidence before the grand jury in 2013 to portray Hernandez as a violent individual who does not abide by the law. In doing so, argued the defense attorney, the prosecutors predisposed the grand jury against Hernandez without truly establishing probable cause to charge Hernandez with the murder of Odin Lloyd. The underlying premise is that in predisposing the grand jury against a defendant, the defendant is deprived of his constitutional right to due process of law. My Fox Boston reported on the motion to dismiss and had video footage of the argument.

Hernandez’s defense attorneys have a very heavy burden to meet in order to succeed on this motion. Courts will not generally look into the validity or quality of the evidence presented to a grand jury. A court will only review a grand jury indictment if there is insufficient evidence to support a finding by the grand jury that the defendant likely committed the alleged offense, or if the defendant argues that the prosecutor has impaired the integrity of the grand jury proceeding. See Commonwealth v. Freeman, 407 Mass. 279 (1990), This second claim is the one raised by the prosecutors in the Hernandez matter, and it essentially alleges that there was prosecutorial misconduct at the time of the grand jury proceeding.

OUI Defense to breath test evidence: Time of Driving vs. Time of Breath test

June 16, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

In a recent blog, I discussed a problematic decision by the Massachusetts Appeals Court in Com. v. Dacosta upholding a defendant’s conviction on the charge of unlawful operation with a BAC of .08 or greater, when the defendant’s BAC level was tested approximately an hour after the traffic stop. In so ruling, the Appeals Court denied the defendant the right to present “retrograde extrapolation” evidence, which may have relieved the defendant of criminal culpability in this case.

The defendant in Dacosta asked the trial judge to require the Commonwealth to present retrograde extrapolation evidence confirming that the defendant’s BAC level did not rise between the time of the stop and the time the breath test was taken. Without such evidence, argued the defendant, no reasonable jury could infer the BAC level at the time the defendant was actually operating the vehicle. And since the jury convicted on a per se charge only, the conviction must be vacated since the Commonwealth failed to establish the defendant’s precise BAC level at the time of operation. You can read the DaCosta decision by following this link.

The doctrine of retrograde extrapolation essentially stands for the scientific phenomenon whereby an individual’s BAC level in the past can be determined from a later measurement by factoring the amount of alcohol consumed, the timing of the consumption, the individual’s weight, and any food he may have eaten while or after he consumed the alcohol. In some instances where the doctrine is applied, the individual’s BAC level at a point in time soon after consumption may be lower than the BAC level later in time. That is because BAC is a measure of the amount of alcohol that is absorbed in the blood at the time it is measured; as time passes, the body (liver) metabolizes and eliminates alcohol absorbed in the blood at a consistent rate, while the rate at which the alcohol is absorbed in the blood may vary depending on the amount of food consumed and the weight of the individual. Therefore, as in the Dacosta matter, the defendant’s BAC may have actually been below the statutory limit at the time of operation an hour earlier than when he was tested, depending on his meal earlier that evening.

When Can Police order Field Sobriety Tests in a Massachusetts OUI Arrest?

June 15, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

You were stopped for speeding after having consumed alcohol? Can a police officer order you to take field sobriety tests in Massachusetts. This Blog will explain under what circumstances field sobriety tests can be ordered and the type of legal motion a DUI Defense Lawyer can make to challenge the officer’s conduct.

Can Police Officer Request Field Tests Merely Because I consumed Alcohol?

Police officers have the authority to conduct field sobriety tests if they reasonably suspect that the driver was operating his or her vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. This standard, known as the “reasonable suspicion” standard, is the lowest criminal standard used by courts, and its application to roadside sobriety tests makes drivers much more vulnerable to arrest.

Motion to Suppress Next Step in Aaron Hernandez Fall River Superior Court Murder Charge

June 13, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

This past Thursday there was another important development in the prosecution of Aaron Hernandez. The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office filed a response to Hernandez’s earlier motion asking the court to prevent evidence discovered at Hernandez’s home from coming into trial. According to a recent article, the Fall River Superior Court will hear arguments on the motion and the prosecutor’s response this coming Monday, June 16.

Filing a Motion to Suppress

The prosecutor’s submission Thursday was in opposition to what is referred to as a “Motion in Limine” or a “Motion to Suppress,” filed by Hernandez’s attorneys. In short, both motions are mechanisms by which a party asks the court to preclude certain evidence or statements/testimony from being presented at trial because the evidence was not obtained lawfully or the statements were coerced and/or are unreliable.

Colorado State drug lab denounces lab test results used in prosecution of DUI cases

June 12, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

A state forensic lab has just announced that it will no longer endorse several of its test results used in the prosecution of DUI cases. The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment’s Chief Medical Officer stated last Thursday that the State’s blood test lab will not stand by 33 of the 12000 test results reviewed during the investigation. Experienced defense attorneys may soon take advantage of this breaking news to possibility vacate their client’s OUI convictions or dismiss the charges all together if the prosecution has relied on lab reports released from the state’s lab.

The Department’s Chief Medical Officer sent a letter to a local police chief stating that an internal investigation led to the discovery of an incorrect procedure followed by one of the lab’s employees over the span of 7 months in 2013-2014. According to the letter, this was strictly an isolated incident of human error, and does not effect the results of any other test conducted by the lab.

This news comes less than a year after the criminal sentencing of Annie Dookhan who pleaded guilty to more than two dozen counts of filing false reports, tampering with evidence, and misleading police officers.

Breath Test Manual Appeal Heard by Massachusetts Appeals Court

June 7, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

A panel of Justices of the Massachusetts Appeals Court heard oral arguments this Thursday, June 5th, on the admissibility of breathalyzer test results where Commonwealth failed to comply with defense counsel’s discovery request for the operator’s manual to the breathalyzer device used. The arguments were raised in the matter of Com. v. Kristopher Cormier (2013-P-1923. This issue is of critical importance for Massachusetts OUI Lawyers as a result for the defendant in this case could result in the suppression of breath test results.

The issue is whether the Commonwealth should be allowed to rely on breathalyzer test results during trial where the test results were offered through a testifying police officer who administered the test, and without allowing defense counsel an opportunity to review the manual in preparing his case for trial.

This case was brought to the Appeals Court on an interlocutory appeal filed by the defendant after a trial judge of the Fitchburg District Court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the breathalyzer test results.

Breathalyzer test results struck down by Massachusetts Appeals Court as unreliable

June 5, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

In the recent matter of Commonwealth v. Hourican, the Appeals Court reversed a trial judge’s denial of a motion to suppress breathalyzer test, ruling that the test results were invalid under state regulations. The Appeals Court’s decision is a significant victory for Massachusetts OUI defense attorneys as the Court placed a greater burden on the Commonwealth requiring prosecutors to offer more reliable evidence to establish a defendant’s BAC level to reach a conviction.

The defendant in Hourican was operating a pickup truck late at night when he collided with a Boston police patrol wagon. A Boston police officer observed signs of intoxication and arrested the defendant after the defendant failed multiple field sobriety tests. The defendant later consented to two breathalyzer tests, the first read a BAC level of .121 percent, and the second read .143 percent. The breathalyzer device used was the “Alcotest 9510”.

Although both results were above the statutory limit of .08 percent, the results were problematic in that they differed by .022 percent. Massachusetts state regulations provide that a breath test sequence (two consecutive tests with a time lapse of a few minuets in between) is only valid if the results are within +/- .02 percent of one another.

Time lapse and admissibility of breath test evidence in DUI trial

June 1, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

The Massachusetts Appeals Court addressed the issue of proving a motorist has a blood alcohol content over .08 under the per se law when there is a substantial time lapse between the time of the breath test and driving observations. This issues frequently arises as one of the many defenses in an OUI charge with breath test results.

The Appeals Court in Commonwealth v. Dacosta recently upheld a defendant’s conviction on the “per se” charge of operating a vehicle with a BAC level of .08 or greater when the defendant’s BAC level was tested approximately an hour after the traffic stop. According to the Court, no “retrograde extrapolation” evidence was required where a breathalyzer test was administered 55 minutes after the traffic stop. To learn about the science behind retrograde extrapolation see the attached Article by Kurt Dubowski.

The defendant was stopped when an officer noticed a faulty inspection sticker on the windshield. During the stop, the officer observed that the defendant had red glassy eyes and so administered two sobriety field tests. The defendant failed both tests, and so was arrested and transported to a nearby police station.

Confrontation Clause challenge in DUI case before the Supreme Court

May 27, 2014 | by Michael DelSignore

The United States Supreme Court will soon consider the case of Yohe v. Pennsylvania involving a DUI arrestee’s right to confront the lab technicians who analyzed his blood sample. The petition for writ of certiorari was filed by Attorney Justin McShane and is scheduled for conference later this week.

In the matter of Yohe, the defendant was arrested for operating under the influence during a traffic stop. The defendant subsequently provided a blood sample which was shipped to a 3rd party forensic lab for analysis for blood alcohol content. The lab then reported its findings to the prosecutor’s office, which offered them into evidence during trial through the testimony of an assistant director at the lab.

The forensic lab’s analysis consisted of three tests on three different portions of the defendant’s blood sample. The first analysis was an enzymatic assay test, conducted by one lab technician; another technician retrieved two more portions from the blood sample and conducted a Headspace Gas Chromatography test on each. The results of all three tests were reported to an assistant lab director who compared the results against certain lab protocols and electronically signed the reports certifying their accuracy.