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Appeals court weighs suppression claim over exit order, frisk in Commonwealth v. Stewart traffic‑stop appeal
Summary
The court heard an interlocutory appeal challenging lawfulness of a traffic stop, an officer’s order that the passenger exit the vehicle, and the subsequent frisk and searches. Defense counsel argued the officer lacked objective grounds; the Commonwealth responded that evolving facts and training justified safety measures.
Flannery Rogers, arguing for Josiah Stewart, asked the Appeals Court to reverse a trial‑court denial of Stewart’s motion to suppress evidence recovered after a traffic stop. Rogers told the panel the officer’s exit order and pat frisk were not objectively reasonable on the record and that the government’s theory rested on thin factual predicates: nervousness, a corner of a plastic bag seen in the passenger area, and the presence of a cash bundle. Rogers said the pat frisk exceeded its permissible scope and that evidence seized thereafter should be suppressed under governing…
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