Commonwealth v. Garcia-German (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-176-16)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-947                                        Appeals Court   COMMONWEALTH  vs.  JASON A. GARCIA-GERMAN.     No. 15-P-947.   Plymouth.     October 13, 2016. – December 20, 2016.   Present:  Cypher, Cohen, & Green, JJ.     Search and Seizure, Motor vehicle, Probable cause, Administrative inspection.  Probable Cause.  Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Probable cause.       Complaint received and sworn to in the Plymouth Division of the District Court Department on September 2, 2014.   A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Brian F. Gilligan, J.   An application for leave to prosecute an interlocutory appeal was allowed by Robert J. Cordy, J., in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk, and the matter was reported by him to the Appeals Court.     Gail M. McKenna, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Darla J. Mondou for the defendant.     GREEN, J.  The Commonwealth appeals from an order by a judge of the District Court allowing the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence seized during a warrantless search of his vehicle while it was parked in a parking lot outside the Plymouth County correctional facility (facility).[1]  We conclude that the motion judge correctly ruled that the search was not justified by probable cause, and reject the Commonwealth’s alternative suggestion that the presence of the vehicle on correctional facility grounds, in these circumstances, furnished “special needs” to justify an exception to the warrant requirement, as a permissible administrative search. Background.  We summarize the facts found by the motion judge, which we supplement, for the purpose of furnishing context, with uncontroverted evidence the motion judge implicitly credited.  See Commonwealth v. Isaiah I., 448 Mass. 334, 337 (2007), S.C., 450 Mass. 818 (2008). At approximately 7:30 P.M. on Friday evening, August 29, 2014, Officer James Creed of the Plymouth County sheriff’s department was on patrol in the parking lot of the facility, when he saw two motor vehicles — a gray BMW and a gray Volvo — enter the visitor’s lot.  Two Hispanic males, the defendant and a companion, emerged from the BMW, and a white male, later identified as an attorney, emerged from the Volvo.  All three men entered the bail lobby of the facility.  At the time of their arrival, visiting hours at the facility had ended; the three men had come to the facility for the purpose of posting bail for […]

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