Commonwealth v. White (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-122-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11497 COMMONWEALTH vs. WILLIAM T. WHITE, JR. Middlesex. March 4, 2014. – July 11, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly & Lenk, JJ. Search and Seizure, Arrest, Container, Inventory, Plain view, Protective frisk, Search incident to lawful arrest. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Arrest. Controlled Substances. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Warrant. Complaint received and sworn to in the Cambridge Division of the District Court Department on April 13, 2007. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Severlin B. Singleton, III, J., and the case was heard by Michele B. Hogan, J. After review by the Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court granted leave to obtain further appellate review. Edward R. Molari for the defendant. Crystal Lee Lyons, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. GANTS, J. The issues presented in this case concern the lawful scope of a search incident to arrest, an inventory search, and a seizure under the plain view doctrine where a defendant is arrested on outstanding arrest warrants. Because we conclude that, in the circumstances of this case, the police exceeded the lawful scope of a search under each of these exceptions to the warrant requirement, we reverse the denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress, vacate the defendant’s conviction, and remand the case for a new trial. Background. We summarize the facts as found by the motion judge, supplementing those findings with evidence in the record that is uncontroverted and that was implicitly credited by the judge. See Commonwealth v. Isaiah I., 448 Mass. 334, 337 (2007), S.C., 450 Mass. 818 (2008). On the morning of April 13, 2007, Officers Steven Bikofsky and Brian Hussey of the Cambridge police department, while on patrol in a marked cruiser, learned that the registered owner of a motor vehicle they observed had two outstanding arrest warrants, one for violation of a protective order under G. L. c. 209A and another for a drug offense. They stopped the motor vehicle by pulling behind it and activating the cruiser’s blue lights. Officer Bikofsky approached the motor vehicle on foot and asked the driver for his driver’s license. After confirming that the driver (the defendant) was the registered owner, Officer Bikofsky ordered him out of the vehicle, handcuffed him, and placed him under arrest on the […]