 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Commonwealth v. Alvarez4/7/1998
and a companion case.
Worcester.
November 6, 1997.
Two State troopers stopped the defendants at about 9:20 P.M. on November 19, 1992, for speeding. One of the troopers asked the operator of the car for his driver's license and the car registration, and then asked the front seat passenger for identification. The second request, that of the passenger, set off a chain of inquiry that led to the discovery of approximately $24,000 to $25,000 worth of cocaine. Both the operator, Benjamin Alvarez, and the passenger, Diomedes Crespo, were convicted of trafficking in cocaine. We decide that under the line of cases culminating in Commonwealth v. Torres, 424 Mass. 153 (1997), asking the passenger for identification, in the circumstances, violated art. 14 of the Declaration of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution, i.e., the request amounted to an unlawful seizure. Accordingly, we vacate the order of the Superior Court denying the defendants' motions to suppress evidence, and we reverse the convictions of both defendants.
1. Facts. While on patrol on Interstate 84 near Sturbridge, State Troopers Brooks and Sullivan clocked a car, a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, going between seventy and seventy-two miles per hour in a fifty-five mile per hour zone. The troopers signaled the car to pull over, and the driver did so. Trooper Brooks approached the car on the driver's side, while Trooper Sullivan approached on the passenger's side. The car was being driven by the defendant Benjamin Alvarez. Diomedes Crespo, a co-defendant, was in the front passenger's seat and a third person, Sumilda Molina, was in the back seat.
Trooper Brooks asked Alvarez for his license and registration through the open driver's side window. Alvarez complied by producing a Florida driver's license and obtaining a Massachusetts registration for the car he was driving from Molina. Trooper Brooks then asked Molina for identification. In broken English, she replied that she had none, but gave her name, address, and birth date in response to further questioning from the trooper. Turning his attention to Crespo, Trooper Brooks asked him for identification. Crespo produced a Florida driver's license and gave it to Brooks.
Back in his cruiser, Trooper Brooks ran the licenses and registration through his computer to determine whether they were valid, and also checked to see whether there were outstanding warrants for the arrest of Crespo or Alvarez. His computer verified that the licenses and registration were valid and turned up no adverse information. There were data on the licenses, however, that attracted Brooks's special attention. He noticed that the licenses produced by Crespo and Alvarez were both issued in Florida on the same date, that the sequential license numbers were only three apart, and that the home address of Crespo resembled that of Alvarez, except that the street number on one was 1244 and on the other was 1422, i.e., they seemed to be mirror images of each other. His suspicion aroused, Brooks returned to the car to question Crespo and Alvarez.
As to the car registration check, it had reported Molina's birth date as June 8, 1964. Brooks remembered her as having told him her birth date was July 8, 1963, but Brooks did not attach significance to the discrepancy. He testified at the suppression hearing that the peculiar similarities of the driving licenses had aroused his suspicion and had spurred his further questioning of Crespo and Alvarez. Brooks did not return to the car to interrogate Molina. There is, therefore, no occasion to consider whether the difference in Molina's birth date as given and confirmed was a sufficient indicator of illegal activity to justif
Page 1 2 3 4 Massachusetts DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|