Commonwealth v. Johnson (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-040-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 15-P-987 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. JAMIE B. JOHNSON. No. 15-P-987. Suffolk. May 3, 2016. – April 7, 2017. Present: Grainger, Meade, & Wolohojian, JJ. Global Positioning System Device. Bail. Due Process of Law, Pretrial detainees. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Required finding. Abuse Prevention. Protective Order. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure. Search and Seizure, Expectation of privacy, Consent. Consent. Complaint received and sworn to in the West Roxbury Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department on November 13, 2013. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Mary Ann Driscoll, J, and the case was heard by her. Travis J. Jacobs for the defendant. Matthew Sears, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. MEADE, J. After a jury-waived trial, the defendant was convicted of breaking and entering a building during the daytime with the intent to commit a felony, in violation of G. L. c. 266, § 18, and larceny in an amount more than $ 250, in violation of G. L. c. 266, § 30. On appeal, the defendant claims error in the admission of data generated from a global positioning system (GPS) tracking device he agreed to wear as a condition of his release after being charged with violating an abuse prevention order, see G. L. c. 209A, § 7, and that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions of breaking and entering a building during the daytime with the intent to commit a felony, and of larceny. We affirm. Background. a. Agreed-to GPS monitoring. On July 8, 2013, the defendant was charged with having committed various crimes stemming from an incident of domestic violence on Nancy Jones[1] that took place two days earlier in the Dorchester section of Boston (Dorchester case).[2] At the defendant’s arraignment, a judge of the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department (Dorchester judge) determined that, for various reasons,[3] the defendant should not be released on personal recognizance without surety, and instead required that he post bail in the amount of $ 2,500. The Dorchester judge imposed several conditions of pretrial release, which were reflected on a printed form provided to, and signed by, the defendant. The conditions included GPS monitoring, staying away from Jones’s home address in Dorchester, and staying away from Jones herself. The defendant signed this form on July 8, 2013, and, by […]