Commonwealth v. Ramirez

22 Mass. L. Rptr. 511
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedFebruary 27, 2007
DocketNo. 06815
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 22 Mass. L. Rptr. 511 (Commonwealth v. Ramirez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Ramirez, 22 Mass. L. Rptr. 511 (Mass. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

Lu, John T., J.

INTRODUCTION

The defendant, Edwin Ramirez (Ramirez), moves to suppress statements, observations, and physical evidence seized on March 22, 2006, from Ramirez and from the property at 73 Boutelle Street in Fitchburg; and evidence, statements or observations from telephone calls on March 22 and 23, 2006, to a cell phone seized from Ramirez on March 22, 2006.

Ramirez moves to suppress because he claims the search warrant fails to satisfy the particularity requirement; the search warrant application failed to establish a sufficient nexus between drug dealing and Ramirez’s apartment at 73 Boutelle Street; the searches and seizures exceeded the scope of the search authorized by the warrant; in answering the cell phone, police employed an illegal wiretap in violation of G.L.c. 272, §99; and, statements by the defendant were obtained without the required Miranda warnings and were involuntary.

On November 20, 2006, the court heard testimony from Sergeant-Detective Gary Ouellette (Ouellette), Detective John Mackey (Mackey), Detective Perry Pappas (Pappas), and Ramirez.

The court agrees that certain of Ramirez’s statements must be suppressed. Otherwise, the court declines to adopt Ramirez’s arguments.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Based on the evidence presented and reasonable inferences from the evidence, the court makes the following findings of fact.

1. On March 18, 2006, the Fitchburg District Court issued a warrant to search the second-floor apartment and its curtilage, and the common area at 71/73 Boutelle Street, and to search Ramirez, for the following items:

[512]*512heroin in any form as described in MGL 94C and/or any other controlled substance which [has] been manufactured, delivered, distributed, dispensed, or acquired in violation of 94C of the MGL. all paraphernalia used in the cutting, weighing and bagging for the distribution of controlled substances; all materials, products, and equipment of any kind which are used or intended for use in the manufacture, compounding, processing, delivering, dispensing, distributing, importing or exporting of said controlled substances in viol, of c. 94C. all books, papers, ledgers and notes showing dealings in controlled substances; all monies which are the proceeds of the sale of said controlled substances; any keys, media, pagers, cell phones, keys to safes, safes or keys to safety deposit boxes.

2. Between 9:00 and 9:30 A.M., on March 22, 2006, numerous police officers including Ouellette, Mackey and Pappas were outside the building preparing to execute the warrant.

3. Ouellette was an experienced drug investigator.

4. After using heroin, Ramirez, a long-time heroin addict, walked out of the apartment, placed a Dunkin’ Donuts bag on top of a trash container, walked to his Ford Expedition, got in and started the engine. The trash container was located in an area where trashcans were kept. The trashcans were not locked, fenced-in, or shielded from public access in any way, and Ramirez or the occupants of the apartment he exited from did not have exclusive access to them.

5. A police officer in a police car pulled behind the SUV and Ouellette went to the driver’s side of Ramirez’s SUV, opened the door, told Ramirez that he was a police officer and to get out.1

6. Ramirez reached to the middle console of the SUV and did not get out. Ouellette grabbed Ramirez’s left wrist and saw that Ramirez had a clear plastic bag containing a light tan, brownish substance in his right hand. Ouellette thought that the plastic bag contained heroin and that the SUV, which was running, might be in gear.

7. Ramirez tossed the bag into his mouth and tried to grab a Gatorade bottle in the console to drink from to assist in swallowing the heroin. Ouellette and Detective Fitzpatrick pulled him out of the car, struggling, while he continued to chew. After a violent struggle in which police were trying to stop Ramirez from driving off and injuring one of them, as well as trying to stop him from swallowing the drugs, by punching him in the face and hitting him, police got him on the ground and handcuffed him. This took about thirty seconds. He succeeded in swallowing the baggie. When police were able to handcuff him, they stopped hitting him. They did not use weapons. Given that the engine of the Expedition was running and police thought it might be in gear, they used reasonable force.

8. Ramirez said that he was going to sue them. Police told him that they gave him time to stop and that he had decided to “go with Carlito,” a reference to selling heroin and crime.

9. The parking space in which the truck was parked was either on the edge of private property and bordering on public property or on public property. It was not in a parking space shielded, in any significant way, from public access or view.

10. Ouellette went to a trash container by the side of the house and retrieved a crumpled up Dunkin’ Donuts bag lying on the top of the can, in plain sight, where Ramirez had placed it on his way to the SUV; inside was a cellophane bag with 29 smaller cellophane bags, similar in appearance to the one Ramirez swallowed.

11. Police searched Ramirez and found $857 cash in his pocket; they also found a cell phone on him and another four cell phones in the truck, all from areas under the control of Ramirez from where he was seated. The cell phone on Ramirez and a Sony Ericsson phone they found on the passenger seat worked. The Sony Ericsson phone was constantly ringing. Pappas answered it and the caller said, “Edwin, this is Kelly, I need two and I’ll be at the Burbank Hospital.” In a second call, the caller said, “Edwin, this is Justin, do you have the good stuff yet?” Pappas told him to call back later. Half an hour later Justin called back and Pappas again told him to call later.

12. Pappas participated in entry into the second-floor apartment. Police found cash in a bedroom and drug residue, scissors, a knife, and a box of clear baggies on a kitchen counter. The residue field-tested positive for heroin. In the trash they found a Blockbusters bag with cut comers from plastic baggies. They also found a receipt in the name of Edwin Ramirez.

13. Ouellette told police in charge of Ramirez’s booking that he had medical concerns about him. While in the booking area of the Fitchburg Police Department, Officer Dean Romano was assigned to escort Ramirez to get medical attention. He took him to Burbank Urgent Care about a mile and a half from the police station. A nurse asked why they were there. Romano told Ramirez to tell her why. Ramirez said, “Because I ate a bundle.” The nurse did not understand and Ramirez said, “Ten bags.” Romano said, “heroin.” Later, before leaving, Ramirez said that he wanted to go to court, that he had eaten a bundle when he was startled by a police officer at the door to his car and that it was “shit” and was not strong enough to cause a problem.

14. After about 30 to 45 minutes, facility officials told Romano that they would not treat him for swallowing dmgs and that Ramirez should be transferred to Leominster Hospital. An ambulance took Ramirez to the hospital, about ten miles away, as Romano followed. Upon arriving at the hospital, Romano saw [513]*513that Ramirez was very sick and appeared to be overdosing on drugs.

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Related

Commonwealth v. Diaz
26 Mass. L. Rptr. 94 (Massachusetts Superior Court, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
22 Mass. L. Rptr. 511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-ramirez-masssuperct-2007.