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MA: "Well being check" was criminal investigatory search, and it was suppressed

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

State's argument failed that an emergency well-being check or exigent circumstances justified the officer looking into defendant's trunk which was left open after defendant was told to back away from it. This was a criminal investigatory search, so these grounds did not apply. Commonwealth v. Knowles, 2008 Mass. LEXIS 211 (April 7, 2008): There is no objective basis present here for believing that the defendant's well-being or the safety of the public was in immediate jeopardy. Any objective view of the actions of the officer leads to the conclusion that he was in fact conducting a criminal investigation. After arriving at the scene, he quickly seized Knowles, made no inquiry about his well-being, and as soon as other officers arrived and took charge of Knowles, he proceeded to examine the contents of the open trunk for evidence of criminal activity...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 11, 2008 (boomark / email).