Commonwealth v. Moore
Annotate this CaseDefendant was on parole when his parole officer and others searched his apartment without a warrant and seized cocaine from his bedroom door. Defendant was indicted for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized from his home, arguing that the search was unconstitutional under both the United States and Massachusetts Constitutions. The motion judge allowed Defendant’s motion to suppress, holding that the search did not violate the Fourth Amendment but did violate article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Specifically, the judge concluded that article 14 offers the same protections for parolees as it does for probations and that searches of a parolee’s residence must be supported by both reasonable suspicion and either a search warrant or a traditional exception to the search warrant. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the allowance of Defendant’s motion to suppress, holding (1) article 14 does not offer as much protection to parolees as it affords to probationers, and therefore, reasonable suspicion is sufficient to justify a warrantless search of the parolee’s home; and (2) the officer in this case had reasonable suspicion that a search of Defendant’s home would produce evidence of a parole violation.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.