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MA: "sooner [is] better" no exigency; seizure of bloody clothes from ER violated REP

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Seizure of defendant’s clothing from a hospital ER was without exigent circumstances and violated his expectation of privacy. “Nor does the record reflect that obtaining a warrant before the police seized the clothes was impracticable. The detective's generic testimony that ‘sooner [is] better’ is insufficient to establish the exigency.” Commonwealth v. Williams, 2010 Mass. App. LEXIS 384 (March 31, 2010): In the circumstances presented here, the police presumptively violated the defendant's rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution when they removed his clothing from the hospital over his objection. See United States v. Neely, 345 F.3d at 370. We agree with the motion judge that the defendant retained a possessory interest in the clothing, regardless of his status as a hospital patient...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 01, 2010 (boomark / email).