Commonwealth v. Douglas (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-140-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11824 COMMONWEALTH vs. JASON DOUGLAS (and five companion cases[1]). Suffolk. April 6, 2015. – August 14, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Stop and frisk, Reasonable suspicion. Search and Seizure, Motor vehicle, Protective sweep, Threshold police inquiry, Reasonable suspicion. Threshold Police Inquiry. Firearms. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on September 28, 2011. Pretrial motions to suppress evidence were heard by Janet L. Sanders, J. An application for leave to prosecute an interlocutory appeal was allowed by Cordy, J., in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk, and the appeal was reported by him to the Appeals Court. After review by that court, the Supreme Judicial Court granted leave to obtain further appellate review. Daniel R. Katz for Wayne Steed. Michael Tumposky for Jason Douglas. Donna Jalbert Patalano, Assistant District Attorney (Joseph F. Janezic, III, Assistant District Attorney, with her) for the Commonwealth. DUFFLY, J. Following a traffic stop for a civil motor vehicle infraction (failure to use a directional signal) of a motor vehicle that they had had under surveillance, Boston police officers ordered first the rear seat passenger sitting behind the driver, then the rear seat passenger on the passenger’s side, to get out of the vehicle, and pat frisked each for weapons, on the suspicion that they were armed and dangerous. No weapons were found. While the rear seat passengers remained outside the vehicle, as instructed, the front seat passenger, defendant Jason Douglas, got out of the vehicle and was ordered to return to his seat. After he did so, he moved the gear shift in the center console to the “drive” position, while the driver kept her foot on the brake. Douglas was ordered from the vehicle and pat frisked, and the driver also was ordered from the vehicle. Finding no weapon on Douglas’s person, officers conducted a protective sweep of the vehicle. They discovered a loaded firearm under the front passenger seat. Douglas and his codefendant, Wayne Steed, who had been seated behind him, were charged with unlicensed possession of a firearm and related offenses.[2] Both defendants moved to suppress the evidence seized as a result of the search. After […]