Commonwealth v. Pacheco (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-039-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 13-P-1821 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. MICHAEL PACHECO. No. 13-P-1821. Bristol. December 4, 2014. – April 17, 2015. Present: Cohen, Fecteau, & Massing, JJ. Constitutional Law, Waiver of constitutional rights by juvenile, Admissions and confessions. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Admissions and confessions, Waiver. Waiver. Complaint received and sworn to in the Bristol County Division of the Juvenile Court Department on September 28, 2012. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on November 1, 2012. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Lawrence Moniz, J., in the Bristol County Division of the Juvenile Court Department. An application for leave to prosecute an interlocutory appeal was allowed by Barbara A. Lenk, J., in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk, and the appeal was reported by her to the Appeals Court. Tara L. Blackman, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Joseph Maggiacomo, III, for the juvenile. MASSING, J. Following the execution of a search warrant, resulting in the discovery of a handgun and several bags of heroin in the defendant youthful offender’s bedroom, the Taunton police arrested the juvenile and took him to the police station to question him about his suspected involvement in a shooting that took place on the railroad tracks near his home. Because he was sixteen years old, the police arranged for the juvenile’s guardian to be present during questioning. A Juvenile Court judge found that the juvenile validly waived his Miranda rights at the outset of questioning, but that the police failed to honor his mid-interview request to consult with his guardian. Accordingly, the judge denied the juvenile’s motion to suppress statements made during the first part of the interview, but allowed the motion with respect to statements made after his request to consult. We affirm. Background. The facts found by the judge at the hearing on the motion to suppress, as amplified by uncontested evidence presented at the hearing and by the contents of the videotaped interview,[1] are as follows. On September 22, 2012, at approximately 8:30 P.M., two Taunton police officers went to the apartment where the juvenile lived with his guardian, Crystal Courtney,[2] to execute a search warrant for a firearm as part of an investigation into a shooting. After discovering a handgun and several […]