Police Need ‘Particularized Evidence’ to Seize Electronic Devices Without a Search Warrant and Must Diligently Apply for a Warrant After the Seizure

In Commonwealth v. White, 475 Mass. 583, 59 N.E.3d 369 (2016), a Boston police detective investigated an armed robbery and shooting at a convenience store.  His investigation led him to the defendant as one of the suspects.  Visiting the defendant’s high school, the detective learned from one of the administrators that, under the school’s policy, she was holding the defendant’s cell phone.  At the time,

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Reardon, Joyce & Akerson, P.C. Prevails in Important Civil Service Case Establishing EPO Probationary Periods and Resulting in a Significant Award of Back Pay

A Massachusetts Environmental Police Officer (“EPO”) with the foresight to have joined the Massachusetts Police Association’s Legal Defense Fund found out just how valuable a resource the Fund is after being terminated from his EPO positon, and then being abandoned by his Union when he wanted to challenge that termination. Soleimani was sworn in by the Massachusetts Environmental Police (“MEP”) as an EPO in May

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First Circuit Court of Apeals Affirms Judgment in Favor of Fall River Police Chief in Case Involving Allegation of Rape by a Police Officer

In a recent First Circuit decision concerning civil liability for police supervisors, Saldivar v. Racine, 818 F.3d 14 (2016), Reardon, Joyce & Akerson, P.C. (“RJA”) successfully represented the Fall River Chief of Police in a civil rights lawsuit in which the plaintiff, who sought $750,000.00 in damages, claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by a Fall River police officer.  According to the plaintiff,

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According to SJC, Police Need Only Notify Suspects of the Recording of the Interview; You Do Not Need Suspect’s Permission to Record the Interview

In Commonwealth v. Alleyne, ___ Mass. ___ (2016), the Supreme Judicial Court clarified that police officers do not need a suspect’s permission to record the suspect’s interview as long as the suspect has actual knowledge of the recording.  The Court recommended that police departments do away with their interview forms that advise a suspect of a right to refuse recording and that require the suspect

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