Commonwealth v. Augustine
Annotate this CaseDefendant was indicted for murder. Defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence of his cell site location information (CSLI) relating to his cellular telephone. The Commonwealth had obtained Defendant’s CSLI for a fourteen-day period beginning August 24, 2004 pursuant to the Federal Stored Communications Act under an order of the superior court judge. The superior court allowed the motion to suppress, concluding that obtaining Defendant’s CLSI constituted a search. In Augustine I, the Supreme Judicial Court agreed, holding that search a search would be permissible only upon a showing of probable cause. The Court vacated the allowance of the motion to suppress and remanded for consideration of whether the affidavit that the Commonwealth had submitted in support of the order demonstrated probable cause. On remand, the superior court again allowed Defendant’s motion to suppress evidence, ruling that the affidavit did not meet the probable cause standard required under Augustine I. The Supreme Judicial Court reversed, holding that the Commonwealth demonstrated probable cause for obtaining Defendant’s CSLI records for the period from August 24 to August 26, 2004.
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