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Appeals court considers whether officers needed probable cause or reasonable suspicion to send man to hospital under drug‑rehab law
Summary
Counsel disputed whether Massachusetts’s drug‑rehabilitation protective‑custody statute requires probable cause (as under the older alcohol statute) or only reasonable suspicion to place someone in an ambulance for hospital evaluation; testimony and precedent including O'Brien, Alfano and McCaffrey were argued.
In Commonwealth v. Verrier, the Appeals Court heard competing legal views about the standard police must meet to place a person into protective custody under Massachusetts’s drug‑rehabilitation statute (commonly cited as Chapter 111E). Defense counsel argued the statutory protective‑custody power requires probable cause—relying on SJC precedent construing the older alcohol statute—while the Commonwealth urged a lower reasonable‑suspicion standard when the officer’s objective is to send the person to a…
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