prepare an “office memorandum” to be used by members of your law firm in determining how best to represent your client.
Your first research project of the semester is to prepare an “office memorandum” to be used by members of your law firm in determining how best to represent your client.
Your senior partner has been appointed to represent an indigent defendant in a criminal case. The facts of the case are as follows: Your client is named Butler Diddit. At about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, 2015, Diddit was a rear seat passenger in a motor vehicle traveling west on Route 9 in Framingham. The car was a green 2001 Honda Civic with Massachusetts license plates. Diddit was traveling with his friends Moe, who was driving, and Larry and Curley, who like Butler were passengers. At approximately 5:15 p.m., Officer Joe Friday of the Framingham Police Department had received a radio transmission from the police dispatcher. Friday was advised to be on the lookout for an older model, red Toyota Corolla with Rhode Island license plates. The Toyota was last seen leaving the scene of an armed robbery of a store at the Natick Mall and heading west on Route 9. It was also reported that witnesses had observed two robbers, one armed with a handgun, fleeing in the Toyota. At about 5:30 p.m., Friday spotted the green Civic as it passed his marked cruiser. The Civic was heading west on Route 9. He observed that, as soon as the vehicle had passed him, it slowed down considerably. Friday noticed that the occupants seemed to start waving their arms, shouting at each other, looking back at the cruiser, and crouching down in their seats. Based on what he considered to be suspicious behavior, Friday signaled for the Civic to pull over to the side of the road. The driver complied.
Friday approached the vehicle and Moe rolled down the driver’s window. Friday asked Moe for his driver’s license and registration, which Moe produced promptly. Both appeared to be valid and in order. Friday then instructed Moe and all of the passengers, including Diddit, to get out of the car. He performed a pat down on each of them. Feeling a “hard” object in Diddit’s shirt pocket, Friday reached into the pocket and pulled out a wad of $20 bills. He then used his flashlight to look into the Civic. While doing so, he observed a handgun wedged between the seat and backrest where Diddit had been seated. When Friday asked who owned the gun, Curley blurted out, “I told you we should have ditched that gun outside the mall!” Friday immediately placed all four occupants of the Civic, including Diddit, under arrest in connection with the robbery.
Your firm represents Diddit only. Your senior partner believes that the allegedly “suspicious” behavior of the occupants of the Civic did not justify Friday in stopping the car and conducting a threshold inquiry; therefore, all incriminating evidence obtained after the stop (i.e., the $20 bills, the handgun, and Curley’s statement) should be inadmissible in court as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” If the evidence is admissible, then Diddit is sure to be convicted. You have been asked to write an office memorandum (at least four full pages, no more than six full pages, typed, double spaced) reviewing the issues of law involved in the case, examining the pros and cons of your firm’s argument that the initial stop was unjustified, and providing an objective assessment of the chances for success on a motion to suppress the incriminating evidence.
Here are a couple of cases for you to read to get started; however, do not rely exclusively on them:
Commonwealth v. Gonsalves, 429 Mass. 658, 660-65 (1999)
Commonwealth v. Emuakpor, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 192 (2003)
As you can see from Gonsalves, federal law on this issue differs from the law in Massachusetts. You are to focus on Massachusetts law.
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