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Com. v. Manning8/5/1996
top of a toppled traffic control signal, alone was sufficient to raise an inference of operating under the influence. See Commonwealth v. Hilton, 398 Mass. 63, 68, 494 N.E.2d 1347 (1986) ("The manner in which the automobile was parked, half on the street and half on the sidewalk, was evidence that it may have been driven by a driver under the influence of alcohol").
Even if the Federal approach or that intimated in Commonwealth v. Adams, 421 Mass. at 291, were to be applied, there is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable inference that the defendant operated the Pontiac. Its location, coupled with evidence of a recent fire, support the Conclusion that it had been driven shortly before the officer arrived. The peculiar circumstances in which the defendant was observed while standing alone, not far from the Pontiac, coupled with his knowledge of the fact that it "was a rental" reasonably could connect him to the vehicle. Such circumstances and facts combined with "the defendant's cooperation with the field sobriety tests" permit an inference of operation. Commonwealth v. O'Connor, 420 Mass. 630, 632, 650 N.E.2d 800 (1995). See Commonwealth v. Towers, 35 Mass. App. Ct. 557, 561, 623 N.E.2d 489 (1993). Such an inference is also supported by the failure of the bystanders at the scene to dispute the defendant's identity as the operator when the officer obviously was treating him as such by administering the field sobriety tests. Commonwealth v. Adams, 421 Mass. at 291. "The fact that there were other persons present at the scene, unsupported by evidence tending to suggest that someone other than the defendant was operating the [Pontiac], cannot serve to undermine the probative value of the corroborative evidence previously discussed." Id. at 291-292. That an item of evidence reasonably supporting operation may not be compelling does not render it fatally ambiguous or unduly speculative, especially when considered with other equally reasonable inferences tending to the same Conclusion.
Judgment affirmed.
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