Commonwealth v. Depiero
Annotate this CaseDefendant was stopped by a state police trooper, who was prompted by the receipt of an anonymous 911 call concerning an apparent drunk driver. After a bench trial, Defendant was convicted of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Defendant appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the evidence obtained during the warrantless stop of his vehicle because the stop was neither supported by reasonable suspicion nor made pursuant to an ongoing emergency. The appeals court affirmed the denial of Defendant’s motion to suppress, concluding that the information bore sufficient indicia of reliability, and therefore, the trooper could rely on the information in establishing reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory stop. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding that the information gathered from the anonymous call, corroborated by other information, was sufficiently reliable to warrant a finding that the trooper had reasonable suspicion to stop Defendant’s vehicle.
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