 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Commonwealth v. Fortune4/8/2003
al at its destination near 30 Monroe Street. It accorded with the duty of the police to check out what was happening on Monroe Street. The officers, as noted, could lawfully ask questions of people in the street or of persons whose door bells they rang, so long as those persons, objectively, could decline to be interviewed, were free to leave, or shut their doors. At the location on Monroe Street to which the police officers had been directed, they saw, i.e., through independent investigation, the heedless manner in which the white truck was parked. Those observations reinforced the report of impairment of the driver who had deposited the vehicle there. The flat tire confirmed the report of a hard landing. All this warranted reasonable suspicion that whoever had driven and parked the white truck in front of 28 Monroe Street was under the influence of alcohol. Beyond the baseline questioning in which the police could engage before they could entertain a reasonable suspicion based on articulable facts, the officers now were in a position to make threshold inquiries of the resident of 28 Monroe Street and of Fortune in circumstances where the object of questioning was not free to leave. Commonwealth v. Hilton, 398 Mass. 63, 68 (1986). Commonwealth v. Smigliano, 427 Mass. 490, 492 (1998). Commonwealth v. Manning, 41 Mass. App. Ct. 18, 21-22 (1996). It was reasonable to knock on the door of 28 Monroe Street to ask who owned the errantly parked truck. It would have been reasonable for the officers to insist on talking to Fortune, if for no other reason, to require him to move the truck from the fire hydrant and driveway entrance. As things developed, Fortune appears to have come to the door of his own accord. When Fortune and the officers were face to face, the evidence, taking it in the light favorable to the prosecution, was sufficient for probable cause to make an arrest.
The order allowing the motion to suppress is vacated. The case is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings.
So ordered.
Page 1 2 Massachusetts DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|