Commonwealth v. Stoute

Rule of Law:

Under Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, a person is considered 'seized' when a police officer initiates a pursuit with the obvious intent to stop and detain the person for questioning, regardless of whether the person has been physically apprehended or has submitted to the officer's authority.

Facts:

• On July 22, 1991, at approximately 10:45 p.m., three plainclothes police officers in an unmarked car were driving in a high-crime area of Roxbury, Boston.
• The officers observed two young men on bicycles, one of whom was Dion L. Stoute and the other wore a hooded sweatshirt.
• A young woman in a group on the sidewalk yelled to the officers that the man in the hooded sweatshirt had a gun.
• The officers turned their vehicle around, pulled alongside the bicyclists, and stated, 'Police, hold up a minute.'
• The bicyclist in the hooded sweatshirt stopped and was frisked by an officer, but no weapon was found.
• Dion Stoute, the other bicyclist, continued to ride down the street at an increased speed.
• The officers followed Stoute in their car, again pulled alongside him, and an officer again asked him to stop.
• Stoute then rode onto the sidewalk, jumped off his bicycle, ran, and threw a white plastic bag over a fence while vaulting it.

Procedural Posture:

• Dion L. Stoute was charged in Superior Court with trafficking in cocaine and possession of marihuana.
• Prior to trial, Stoute filed a motion to suppress the drug evidence, arguing it was obtained through an illegal seizure.
• The Superior Court judge held an evidentiary hearing and subsequently denied the motion to suppress.
• Following a trial, a jury convicted Stoute on both charges.
• Stoute appealed the denial of his suppression motion to the intermediate appellate court.
• The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts transferred the appeal to itself on its own motion before the intermediate court could hear it.