Commonwealth v. Catanzaro

• Decision Date: 07 October 2003
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. SHANE W. CATANZARO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

441 Mass. 46

803 NE 2d 287

COMMONWEALTH v. SHANE W. CATANZARO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Barnstable.

October 7, 2003.

February 13, 2004.

Present: MARSHALL, C.J., GREANEY, IRELAND, SPINA, COWIN, SOSMAN, & CORDY, JJ.

Julia K. Holler, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

Edward F.X. Lynch for the defendant.

SPINA, J.

The Commonwealth was granted leave to appeal from an order of a judge in the Superior Court suppressing over twenty-eight grams of cocaine seized from the purse of the defendant's girl friend, Meredith Gravina. Police seized the evidence during a search of the couple's apartment pursuant to a warrant that expressly authorized police to search "any person present." Police had detained the defendant and Gravina in the driveway outside their apartment building in Hyannis, shortly after they saw them leave through the front door. During their conversation with the officers, both the defendant and his girl friend acknowledged that the apartment was theirs. After showing them the warrant, reading them both their Miranda rights, and placing the defendant in handcuffs for safety purposes, police walked the pair back to the apartment for the ensuing search.

The motion judge, relying on Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692 (1981), determined that the detention of Gravina outside the apartment did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He concluded, however, that art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights required the police, when applying for a search warrant, to obtain judicial authority to detain people encountered outside as well as inside the premises. Finding that the police failed to request such authority, the judge ruled that the detention of Gravina was illegal, and suppressed the evidence seized from her purse.¹

A single justice allowed the Commonwealth's application under G. L. c. 278, § 28E, and Mass. R. Crim. P. 15 (a) (2), as appearing in 422 Mass. 1501 (1996), to pursue an interlocutory appeal from the order granting the motion to suppress, and the appeal was reported to the full court. We affirm the judge's decision as to the Fourth Amendment, and because we conclude that the police acted reasonably in the circumstances, conformably with art. 14, we vacate the order for suppression and remand the case to the Superior Court for entry of an order denying the motion to suppress.

1. Facts. We recount the facts as found by the motion judge, supplemented by uncontroverted testimony from the hearing on the motion. See Commonwealth v. Watson, 430 Mass. 725, 726 n.5 (2000). In September, 2000, Detective Sean E. Balcom of the Barnstable police department began investigating the defendant after an informant reported that the defendant sold cocaine out of the apartment he shared with his girl friend.² Another informant, who had provided information in the past resulting in another individual's conviction of trafficking in cocaine, also told Barnstable police that the defendant sold cocaine out of his apartment. This informant additionally reported that the defendant had purchased a handgun for protection after he was robbed at gunpoint by other drug dealers. The robbery was verified by Barnstable police department records.

Following two controlled purchases of cocaine from the defendant using an informant, the Cape Cod drug task force obtained a "no-knock" warrant to search the defendant's apartment for cocaine. The warrant, which permitted police to conduct the search at night as well as to enter the premises without announcement, also authorized them to search the defendant specifically and "any person present who may be found to have such property [cocaine] in his or her possession or under his or her control or to whom such property may have been delivered."

Balcom testified that on October 5, 2000, he and other members of the task force arrived in the vicinity of the apartment building with the search warrant at approximately 4:15 P.M. They set up surveillance to determine whether anyone was inside. The apartment was on the lower level of a two-story, multi-unit building located behind a restaurant on Main Street in Hyannis. An alley or driveway approximately one hundred feet long runs alongside the restaurant and ends in a parking area in front of the apartment building.

Balcom further testified that at approximately 4:50 P.M., he saw the defendant and a woman, later identified as Meredith Gravina, the defendant's girl friend, leave the apartment. The two were on the front step "for a short period of time," according to Balcom, and then began walking toward Main Street.³ After Balcom radioed the other officers, he and two lieutenants approached the pair when they were about one-half to three-quarters of the way down the driveway, just "[a]bout three minutes" after they left the apartment, according to the judge.⁴

The motion judge found that as Balcom, Lieutenant John Allen of the State police, and another lieutenant converged on the defendant and Gravina, Allen immediately informed the pair that police had a warrant to search apartment no. 5. Gravina "blurted out" that it was her apartment. Allen testified that he then showed the search warrant to the defendant and Gravina, and read them both their Miranda rights. At that time, the defendant (but not Gravina) was patted down and handcuffed for safety reasons.⁵

Gravina told the officers she had a puppy inside the apartment and expressed concern about the police going in, according to the officers' testimony. Allen testified that he asked her to accompany them back to the apartment and she agreed to do so. The group, which now included three more police officers, began making its way up the driveway. Balcom and a State trooper led the defendant, while Gravina, Allen, and two other officers walked behind them. As they walked, Allen asked Gravina for a key to the apartment, which she produced. Allen unlocked the door and the group, led by one of the officers, entered the apartment.

Once inside, Balcom testified that he and another officer took the defendant into the bathroom to be searched more thoroughly, while other officers interviewed Gravina in the kitchen. Balcom found $108 in cash and a plastic bag of marijuana on the defendant and placed him under arrest. Balcom testified that he then asked the defendant "where the cocaine was." He replied that it was in Gravina's purse, but that it belonged to him and "she had no idea about his drug dealing." As a result of the disclosure, officers searched Gravina's purse, where they discovered two bags containing over twenty-eight grams of cocaine. A further search of the premises turned up $1,170 in cash a bedroom closet and $2,174 inside an envelope in a bureau drawer.

The defendant was charged with trafficking in cocaine, G. L. c. 94C, § 32E (b) (2), and possession of marijuana, G. L. c. 94C, § 34.⁶ He filed a motion to suppress the evidence, arguing that police lacked probable cause to detain Gravina and search her purse. The defendant also claimed in a supplemental memorandum that he and Gravina were illegally detained under Massachusetts law.

2. Discussion. When reviewing a motion to suppress evidence, we adopt the motion judge's subsidiary findings of fact absent clear error, but we independently determine the correctness of the judge's application of constitutional principles to the facts as found. See Commonwealth v. Haas, 373 Mass. 545, 550 (1977), S.C., 398 Mass. 806 (1986), and cases cited. See also Commonwealth v. Eckert, 431 Mass. 591, 592-593 (2000).

The motion judge found, and the Commonwealth does not dispute, that Gravina was seized outside the apartment for purposes of the Fourth Amendment and art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.⁷ The Commonwealth argues that upholding the detention of Gravina under the principles articulated in Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692 (1981), would not offend art. 14. The defendant, on the other hand, argues that the judge erred in ruling that under Michigan v. Summers, supra,

the seizure did not violate the Fourth Amendment.⁸ We address each issue separately.

a. Fourth Amendment. The motion judge ruled that because Gravina was an occupant of the apartment, her detention while police executed the search warrant did not violate the Fourth Amendment. See Michigan v. Summers, supra at 705. Contrary to the defendant's claim, the judge did not err in finding that Gravina was an occupant.⁹ Black's Law Dictionary 1106 (7th ed. 1999) defines "occupant" as "[o]ne who has possessory rights in, or control over, certain property or premises." Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1560 (1993) defines "occupant" as "one who takes possession under title, lease, or tenancy at will" and "one who occupies a particular place or premises: TENANT, RESIDENT."¹⁰ On learning of the search warrant, Gravina stated, "That's my apartment," and the defendant does not challenge that Gravina made that statement.¹¹ Thus, the judge's finding that Gravina was an occupant of the apartment is supported by the record.

The United States Supreme Court has held that "a warrant to search for contraband founded on probable cause implicitly carries with it the limited authority to detain the occupants of the premises while a proper search is conducted." Michigan v. Summers, supra at 705. In Michigan v. Summers, supra at 693, police officers who were about to execute a warrant to search the defendant's home for narcotics encountered the defendant going down his front steps. They asked him to let them in, and detained him while they searched the home. Id. On discovering drugs in the basement, the police arrested the defendant and searched him, finding an envelope containing heroin in his pocket. Id.

The Court stated that both the law enforcement interests and the nature of "articulable facts" to support the detention of the occupants are relevant in evaluating the seizure. Michigan v. Summers, ...