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Appeals court hears challenge to police wellness check, inventory and arrest in Walpole stop
Summary
Attorneys argued at the Massachusetts Appeals Court over whether a 2019 wellness check in Walpole became an unlawful search and arrest after officers opened a car, smelled alcohol and impounded the vehicle; appellant urged suppression and a hearing on racial-profiling data.
Attorney Ian Kahanowitz, arguing for the appellant in Commonwealth v. Lewis (Docket 24-P-825), told an Appeals Court panel that a 2019 stop in Walpole began as a community caretaking “wellness check” and became an unconstitutional search and seizure when officers opened a car, turned off the engine and ultimately arrested his client. "There was no probable cause to think that a crime was being committed to begin with," Kahanowitz said, and he argued the subsequent arrest and inventory flowed from that allegedly unreasonable intervention.
Counsel for the Commonwealth, Caleb Schoelter, urged the court to uphold the trial judge’s factual findings and to treat the initial response as…
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