Commonwealth v. Wright (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-056-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 13‑P‑199 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT. No. 13‑P‑199. Hampshire. March 11, 2014. ‑ May 29, 2014. Present: Trainor, Brown, & Meade, JJ. Search and Seizure, Motor vehicle, Reasonable suspicion, Threshold police inquiry. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Reasonable suspicion. Threshold Police Inquiry. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress. Controlled Substances. Indictment found and returned in the Superior Court Department on November 15, 2011. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by C. Jeffrey Kinder, J., and the case was tried before Richard J. Carey, J. Jennifer Petersen for the defendant. Thomas H. Townsend, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. BROWN, J. The defendant was convicted by a jury of trafficking in cocaine.[1] On appeal, he challenges only the motion judge’s order denying his motion to suppress, contending that the State trooper exceeded the permissible scope of a routine traffic stop. We affirm. Background. We summarize the facts the motion judge found, supplemented with uncontested evidence from the motion hearing merely to provide context. See Commonwealth v. Johnson, 82 Mass. App. Ct. 336, 337 (2012). On September 20, 2011, Trooper Brendan Shugrue observed a grey Nissan following very closely behind a white Toyota. Shugrue followed the Nissan, and further observed that the vehicle had tinted windows and New Jersey license plates. Shugrue pulled over the vehicle for following too closely. While at the side of the vehicle, Shugrue smelled a strong odor of air freshener. The defendant was driving, and Mitchell Degroat was a passenger. Shugrue explained why he had pulled over the vehicle and asked the defendant for his driver’s license. The defendant produced a New York license and stated that he and the passenger were traveling to Vermont to visit the defendant’s niece. Degroat professed to own the vehicle, but produced a New Jersey registration indicating that a leasing company was the owner. When Shugrue asked Degroat for identification, he produced an expired, faceless New York driver’s permit. Throughout this encounter, Degroat did not make eye contact with Shugrue. Shugrue then returned to his cruiser to issue the defendant a written warning. Before completing the paperwork, he called for backup to watch the Nissan, as he could not see into the vehicle while sitting in his cruiser, due to the tinted windows on the Nissan. Trooper William Loiselle […]