Com. v. Crawford
| Decision Date | 09 May 1991 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH v. Vincent CRAWFORD (and three companion cases.) 1 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Carmel Motherway, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Com.
William F. Fahey, Cambridge (Francis J. Hurley, Boston, with him), for Gail Pina.
Thomas J. Amoroso, Boston, for Vincent Crawford.
Before LIACOS, C.J., and WILKINS, NOLAN, O'CONNOR and GREANEY, JJ.
This matter involves an interlocutory appeal by the Commonwealth from the Superior Court's order of suppression of evidence. Police seized the evidence in a warrantless search at the scene of an arrest. The judge determined that the arresting officer did not have probable cause to believe either that a crime was being committed or that contraband would be found in the automobile which was searched. We reverse the order and remand for a new hearing on the issue of the reliability of the information provided by an unidentified informant.
1. Facts. The motion judge found the following facts: On the evening of October 21, 1987, State Trooper Stephen Matthews met with a confidential informant concerning the activities of the defendant Vincent Crawford. The informant had learned from Crawford that Crawford was planning to replenish his supply of cocaine that evening. The informant also told Officer Matthews that Crawford would have with him cocaine which would be readily available for sale. According to the informant, Crawford had sent his girl friend to New York that day to pick up a large amount of cocaine. Crawford told the informant that the woman would return to Boston by rail, arriving sometime around midnight. The informant said Crawford was planning to meet the woman at South Station, Boston, and would be driving his grey Datsun Maxima automobile, Massachusetts registration 217MPC.
As a result of this information, Officer Matthews confirmed with the Registry of Motor Vehicles that Crawford owned a grey Datsun Maxima, Massachusetts registration 217MPC. Officer Matthews also discovered that Crawford's driver's license had been suspended.
At about 11:30 P.M. on October 21, 1987, Officer Matthews and four other officers established a stakeout at the South Station Amtrak terminal in Boston. Shortly after midnight, the officers noticed Crawford. Crawford was not driving the Maxima described in the tip, but he was driving a Datsun Sentra automobile, which he parked near South Station. The Maxima, driven by another man, followed the Sentra. Crawford then conversed with the driver of the Maxima.
Shortly after 1:00 A.M., the Amtrak train from New York arrived at the station. Officer Matthews had learned that the train was scheduled to arrive at midnight but had been delayed. Crawford got into the Sentra and the driver of the Maxima approached two women who had come from the train. One of these women was the defendant Gail Pina. The three walked toward Crawford and the vehicles. Officer Matthews observed Pina carrying a handbag and a pink travel bag. Pina and the other women started to get into the Sentra, the car occupied by Crawford.
At this point, Officer Matthews and the other officers intervened. All of the individuals were frisked for weapons, and Officer Matthews seized the pink travel bag from Pina. In the bag was a large blue object which Officer Matthews knew from his experience to be consistent with a packaged kilogram of cocaine.
Officer Matthews told all four individuals that they were under arrest for trafficking in cocaine and advised each of them of their rights. Pina then told Officer Matthews that the other woman had nothing to do with the cocaine. Officer Matthews opened the pink bag and discovered two wrapped kilograms of cocaine inside. Officer Matthews then searched the Sentra. On the floor behind the seat, he discovered a shoe box containing a large amount of cocaine. A search of Crawford revealed cocaine in his socks.
Crawford and Pina moved to suppress the evidence on the grounds that there was no probable cause sufficient to support either the arrest or the search of the car. The trial judge held an evidentiary hearing to determine whether there was probable cause.
Officer Matthews relied heavily on the information provided by the confidential informant in determining that there was probable cause. During the inquiry into the credibility of the informant, Officer Matthews stated that information from this informant had, in the past, led to the arrest of persons and the seizure of controlled substances. The officer refused to reveal the names of those individuals arrested out of fear that doing so would effectively identify the informant and subject the informant to grave danger. On the Commonwealth's suggestion, the judge held an in-camera hearing, at which only the judge, the officer and the court reporter were present, and during which the judge inquired into the credibility of the informant. He emerged from the hearing and announced that the information provided therein, combined with the open court testimony, had satisfied both the basis of knowledge test and the veracity test.
The judge later reconsidered his actions. He held that the in-camera hearing violated the defendant's confrontation rights and was thus illegal. Disregarding the in-camera testimony, the judge held that there was not sufficient corroboration of the details of the tip to allow it to give rise to probable cause. He therefore excluded the evidence. The Commonwealth applied for leave to file an interlocutory appeal. A single justice of this court allowed the application. We vacate the order of suppression and remand for an additional hearing.
2. Probable cause. Probable cause to arrest exists when the facts and circumstances in the arresting officer's knowledge, and of which he has reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution to believe that an offense was or is about to be committed. Commonwealth v. Gullick, 386 Mass. 278, 283, 435 N.E.2d 348 (1982). The tip, if it could properly be relied upon, supplied the officer with reason to believe that a crime (trafficking in cocaine) was being committed at South Station. See Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959). In the absence of the tip, there was no such probable cause. The crux of the case, therefore, is whether the officer could properly rely upon the information provided by the informant.
In order to be deemed reasonably trustworthy, information provided by a confidential informant must satisfy the two-pronged test first set forth in Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and Spinelli...
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