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Appeals court probes whether a brief seizure tainted consent to search a car
Summary
In the Wheeler argument the court questioned whether officers’ early contact (grabbing the suspect’s arm and crowding him) rendered a later "you can search everything" volunteered statement involuntary; counsel debated whether the pat frisk and timing vitiated consent under Massachusetts precedent.
At argument in the Wheeler matter, counsel and the panel focused on whether the defendant’s statement "you can search everything" was voluntary or the product of coercion after officers surrounded and grabbed him during a traffic stop.
Kenneth Steinfeld, appearing for the Commonwealth with trial prosecutor Michael Thomasini at counsel table, acknowledged the encounter was tense but urged the court that the defendant volunteered the statement and that there was no exercise of authority to search the car before the statement. He argued the defendant’s subsequent actions…
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