Commonwealth v. Dorelas (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-007-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-11793 COMMONWEALTH vs. DENIS DORELAS. Suffolk. April 7, 2015. – January 14, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Probable cause. Search and Seizure, Warrant, Probable cause. Probable Cause. Cellular Telephone. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on September 27, 2011. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Patrick F. Brady, J. An application for leave to prosecute an interlocutory appeal was allowed by Botsford, J., in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk, and the case was reported by her to the Appeals Court. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Nancy A. Dolberg, Committee for Public Counsel Services, for the defendant. John P. Zanini, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Robert E. McDonnell, John Frank Weaver, Arcangelo S. Cella, Matthew R. Segal, Jessie J. Rossman, & Mason Kortz, for American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. CORDY, J. In this case we consider whether, where there was probable cause for the issuance of a warrant to search an Apple iPhone,[1] the search and seizure of certain photograph files conducted in reliance thereon was reasonable. The warrant authorized a search of the defendant’s iPhone for evidence of communications that would link him and another suspect to a shooting that occurred in the Hyde Park section of Boston. The search tool used to extract data from the iPhone was programmed to extract not only contact lists and text messages (texts), but also photographs. Among the photographs extracted and examined by the police were photographs depicting the defendant holding a gun and dressed in the same color jacket described by witnesses to the shooting. We conclude that where there was probable cause that evidence of communications relating to and linking the defendant to the crimes under investigation would be found in the electronic files on the iPhone, and because such communications can be conveyed or stored in photographic form, a search of the photograph files was reasonable. Finally, we conclude that the photographs in question were properly seized as evidence linking the defendant to the crimes under investigation. Background. On July 3, 2011, at approximately 7 P.M., Detective Richard Walker and […]