Commonwealth v. Sheridan

Summary

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that police lacked probable cause to search a vehicle after observing approximately one ounce of marijuana, a civil rather than criminal quantity under Massachusetts law. The court also suppressed text messages obtained from the defendant's cellular telephone because the vehicle search and resulting arrest were unlawful, and a cell phone search was not justified as a search incident to arrest or under inevitable discovery.

Holdings

1. Police may not conduct a warrantless automobile search based solely on observing approximately one ounce or less of marijuana, because that observation establishes at most a civil infraction and does not establish probable cause to believe that the vehicle contains a criminal quantity of marijuana or evidence of a crime.
2. The plain view doctrine did not authorize police to enter the minivan and seize the visible marijuana because the officers lacked a lawful right of access to the object; the civil forfeiture provision did not independently authorize the otherwise impermissible entry.
3. The exit order and patfrisk were impermissible because the judge did not find, and the record did not establish, a reasonable suspicion that Sheridan was armed and dangerous.
4. The text messages obtained from Sheridan's cellular telephone had to be suppressed because the vehicle search was unlawful and, independently, a search incident to arrest does not authorize a warrantless search of a cellular telephone.

Questions Presented

1. Whether police had probable cause to conduct a warrantless search of the minivan after observing a bag containing approximately one ounce of marijuana, a noncriminal quantity under Massachusetts law.
2. Whether the plain view doctrine or the civil forfeiture provision authorized police to enter the minivan and seize the marijuana without probable cause to believe that the vehicle contained evidence of a crime.
3. Whether the seizure and search of Sheridan's cellular telephone and its text messages were permissible after the vehicle search and arrest.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded