Massachusetts Appellate Court to Decide Constitutionality of Traffic Stop and Frisk 

The Fourth Amendment and the state equivalent have many exceptions. Officers are generally permitted to patdown the outer layer of a person’s clothes during a traffic stop if the officer fears that the person may be armed and dangerous. But what if the officer only finds pills, not weapons? The appellate court heard oral arguments on October 1st requiring this issue in Commonwealth v. Wade. 

What happened in the Wade case? 

As a Worcester Criminal Defense Lawyers. a recent case from Worcester Country decided by the Massachusetts Appeals Court raised important issues of search and seizure in drug cases.  Drug cases often involve confidential informants and whether police can establish a nexus between the location of the search and drug distribution activity.

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals recently decided a case concerning a search and seizure of a home in Commonwealth v. Andre-Fields No. 19-P-846, 2020 WL 5648611 (Mass. App. Ct. Sept. 23, 2020).

Two defendants, Milano Andre-Fields, and his girlfriend Mindy Doherty, had their home raided and a large number of firearms and illegal drugs were confiscated.  Prior to trial, Andre-Fields and Doherty filed motions to suppress this evidence.  The Superior Court granted this motion on the basis that search warrants failed to establish the requisite nexus between the objects sought and the premises to be searched.

Those facing a Massachusetts Drug Distribution or Trafficking charge often contest the Constitutional basis of the search and seizure as part of the defense to the case.  This was the case in Commonwealth v. Costa, which began as a drug distribution case out of the New Bedford District Court and was decided by the Massachusetts Appeals Court on April 10, 2020.

The Appeals Court found that a search warrant was not based on probable cause as it did not establish the relialbiity of the confidential informant.  In drug distribituion and trafficking offenses, it is very common that the police will obtain a warrant to search a house based on information provided by a confidential informant.  The informant will provide information that results in the police obtaining a warrant.  The Costa case involved this type of investigation by the New Bedford police department where they seek to search a house based on probable cause being established as a result of a controlled drug buy.

I have handled many drug cases where the New Bedford police have used an informant to attempt to get a warrant.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral argument on April 2 in the Commonwealth v. Long. This case raises the issues of the detection of marijuana and probable cause to search a commercial building.  

In this case, two officers were conducting patrol when they noticed two vehicles parked behind a commercial building. Another officer arrived on scene, and all three secured a perimeter around the building. Upon doing so, the officers detected an overwhelming odor of unburnt marijuana. The officers also noticed that the ventilation inside the building was covered with plywood. The building was being leased to Defendant Long, who had a criminal drug history. The owner of one of the vehicles also had a prior drug history. Using these facts as support for probable cause, an application for a search warrant was made and a search warrant was issued. Defendant Long was charged with trafficking more than fifty but less than one hundred pounds of marijuana. Long filed a Motion to Suppress and the case is currently before the SJC.

The Justices will have to determine whether the untrained nose can reliably detect, based on odor, the presence of a criminal amount of marijuana in a building as opposed to in a vehicle. The Justices also have to determine whether the presence of a vehicle registered to an owner who has a marijuana conviction is sufficient to establish probable cause. The answer to these questions will provide useful guidance to law enforcement officers.

Recently, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court addressed a plan to handle the numerous potentially-tainted drug cases that are a result of Annie Dookhans mishandling of evidence. Originally, there were several indications that the criminal justice system would adopt a blanket approach to handling the cases; many people called for complete and utter dismissal of all convictions tied to Annie. However, the Supreme Judicial Court ultimately declined this method, and outlined a process to put the scandal in the past.

Massachusetts District Attorneys are going to have the responsibility of sorting through and dismissing any cases that would not be able to be re-prosecuted in a court of law. In accordance, District attorneys across the state will have 90 days to accomplish this task, and notably have to follow a three-step process in doing so; defendants whose cases would not be dropped will be alerted, and will have an opportunity to obtain counsel if they want to dismiss their plea or request a new trial. If you want to stay informed make sure to read the latest news on the Annie Dookan case at the Bostonherald.com.

Dookhan was a chemist at a Boston Laboratory utilized frequently by the Massachusetts State Police, the Hinton State Laboratory Institute; where she was eventually caught and admitted to faking drug results, forging paperwork and mixing false samples. There are allegedly more than 24,000 defendants that, through a process, have been linked to Dookhan.

The Massachusetts drug lab scandal impacted thousands of drug cases and resulted in new trials and convictions overturned in many.  Now New Jersey faces a similar scandal.

Lab technician Kamalkant Shah was found to have “dry labbed” suspected marijuana samples. Shah was observed writing ‘test results’ for suspected marijuana that was never actually tested. Shah recorded anticipated results and recorded those anticipated results without properly conducting the analysis. This disclosure has called thousands of test results into question.

In May 2015, a case of ‘dry labbing’ was reviewed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court to determine how many cases need to be looked over again. Over 40,000 cases may have been tainted by Annie Dookhan may have been tainted by Annie Dookhan, a forensic scientist who pleaded guilty to forging initials of other chemists, intentionally contaminating samples, and just glancing at samples during analysis, instead of actually testing them. Dookhan pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in 2013, and is serving 3 to 5 years.

Last month the House voted unanimously for a bill that would repeal the 1989 Massachusetts law requiring automatic license suspensions for drug offenses, regardless of whether or not offenses had a driving component. The Bill was passed by the Senate last year. However, Republican House members added an amendment to the Bill restoring the five year license suspension for drug trafficking charges. In an effort to uphold the purpose behind the Bill, the Senate added an amendment abolishing the drug trafficking exception, effectively repealing the House’s amendment and stalling the Bill.

The automatic license suspension for drug charges arose under a federal law created during the “War on Drugs” that called for automatic license suspensions for drug offenders but allowed states to opt out. 34 other states have repealed similar suspensions. As the law stands now anyone who has been convicted of a drug offense faces a six month to five year license suspension and additional fees to reinstate. The license loss is also reported on their Registry of Motor Vehicles record, which can be accessible by employers.

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