Com. v. Foley
| Decision Date | 02 November 1970 |
| Citation | 263 N.E.2d 451,358 Mass. 233 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH v. William P. FOLEY. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Reuben Goodman, Boston, for defendant.
Terence M. Troyer, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.
Before SPALDING, CUTTER, SPIEGEL, REARDON and QUIRICO, JJ.
The defendant was convicted on a complaint charging him with being in possession of an altered motor vehicle license. He was also convicted on two counts of an indictment. The first count charged him with buying, receiving or aiding in the concealment of twenty-eight interest coupons, the property of The First National Bank of Boston. The second count charged him with buying, receiving, or aiding in the concealment of two United States Treasury bonds, the property of one Raco (sic) Theodore. The cases were tried under the provisions of G.L. c. 278, §§ 33A--33G, and are here on appeal. Although the defendant filed eleven assignments of error, he argued only four of them. Of course, those not argued are deemed waived. Only two of the assignments argued are based on exceptions taken at the trial.
We summarize relevant portions of the evidence. Joseph Gibbons, a detective of the Boston police department, was investigating the loss of seven bags of mail which on June 4, 1968, were stolen from a truck en route to an office of The First National Bank. Included in these bags were the twenty-eight interest coupons referred to in the indictment. During the course of and as a result of the investigation, Gibbons went to the area of Isabella Street in Boston looking for one Ugo Saitto, whom he wanted to question about stock certificates which Saitto had allegedly attempted to use as collateral for a loan. He was unable to locate him whereupon he went to the defendant, who managed the apartment building where Saitto lived. The defendant told Gibbons that he would be glad to send Saitto to see him. Subsequently, the defendant brought Saitto to the police station at which time Gibbons questioned Saitto about the stock certificates as well as the missing coupons. Saitto spoke little English, whereupon the defendant acted as interpreter. Before the interview ended Gibbons stated to the defendant,
Several weeks later Gibbons was informed by Lieutenant Daley of the State police that someone had opened an account in the name of Reiko Theodore at the Middlesex County National Bank. No one named Reiko Thodore lived at the address which had been given. On July 18, 1968, Daley told Gibbons that someone would attempt that day to make a deposit of the missing coupons in the Theodore account. Gibbons did not conduct an independent investigation of Daley's 'tip,' nor did he know the basis of Daley's information. He went to the bank and waited there until the defendant entered and handed a clerk some coupons and two United States Treasury bonds to deposit in the Theodore account. The defendant identified himself to the clerk as Joseph Russo. Gibbons then arrested the defendant without a warrant and searched him. During the search, an altered motor vehicle license was discovered. The defendant told Gibbons that he carried the altered license because his license had been suspended and he needed it to drive his children to school.
At the trial an assistant vice-president of the bank testified that he had identified the coupons as those that were missing by checking their numbers with the individual depositors. The bonds were identified by one Philip Theodore, who testified that they had been stolen from his father, Reiko Theodore of Manchester, New Hampshire, in April of 1968. 1
At the outset we comment regarding the assignments based on alleged errors to which no exceptions were taken at the trial. The defendant asks us to consider these assignments and cites our opinion in the case of Commonwealth v. Freeman, 352 Mass. 556, 564, 227...
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