Commonwealth v. Pearson (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-088-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-1649 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. PETER PEARSON. No. 13-P-1649. Plymouth. November 3, 2014. – August 4, 2015. Present: Green, Wolohojian, & Blake, JJ. Rape. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Severance. Identification. Constitutional Law, Identification, Search and seizure. Due Process of Law, Identification. Evidence, Identification, First complaint. Search and Seizure, Automobile, Consent, Inevitable discovery, Inventory. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on November 21, 2008. A motion to sever was heard by Joseph M. Walker, III, J., motions to suppress evidence were heard by Richard J. Chin, J., and the cases were tried before Frank M. Gaziano, J. R. Bradford Bailey for the defendant. Mary E. Lee, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. GREEN, J. On appeal from his convictions of five counts of aggravated rape, and related charges,[1] the defendant claims error in (i) the denial of his motion to suppress out-of-court identifications made by one of his victims in a one-on-one showup, and by his other victims from photographic arrays; (ii) the denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized during a search of the trunk of his car; (iii) the admission of testimony regarding a first complaint made by one of his victims; and (iv) the denial of his motion to sever the various charges for trial. We affirm. Background. We summarize the findings of fact made by the motion judge in his thorough written memorandum of decision on the defendant’s motions to suppress.[2] On July 1, 2008, Brockton police arrested Stephanie Smith[3] for being a common night walker. See G. L. c. 272, § 53; Thomes v. Commonwealth, 355 Mass. 203, 207 (1969). The following day, Smith reported to Officer Amaral of the Brockton police department that she had been raped by a State Trooper. Later, in a statement she gave to Brockton police Detective Erin Cummings, she elaborated that about one week earlier she had gotten into a small silver four-door vehicle in the area of Haverhill Street, driven by a man who took her to D.W. Field Park and forced her at gunpoint to perform oral sex on him. The man (whom she described as approximately five feet, four inches tall, with bright blue eyes and grayish hair) told her he was a State Trooper, showed her a badge, and had a hand-held radio […]