Court Limits Police When Stopping Cars

Boston, MA -- Police can't order people out of cars during traffic stops unless they reasonably believe their safety or the public's is endangered, the state Appeals Court has ruled.

Defense lawyers say the rulings protect the public from police harassment.

However, prosecutors want the state Supreme Judicial Court to review the court's two decisions Tuesday, saying they will benefit criminals.

In one ruling, the court said John Gonsalves cannot be convicted of possessing cocaine for which he was charged after a state trooper ordered him out of a taxi.

The court said Trooper William Serpa's report that Gonsalves was "highly nervous" did not justify his being ordered out of the car, and that 78 grams of cocaine found could not be used against him.

"I'm absolutely applying for further appellate review," Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney John E. Bradley told the Boston Herald. "Police officers are entitled to know what the law is, and have our courts clearly interpret the law."

THREW OUT

In the other case, the Appeals Court threw out the conviction of a woman found to have two bags of crack after she was stopped by a Boston police officer.

The court said it did not matter that the woman, Marchania Williams of Boston's Roxbury section, admitted in court that she was guilty.

The court said the evidence should not have been admitted because it was obtained after the officer illegally ordered her out of the car after stopping her for allegedly failing to use a directional signal.

The court said the officer's finding that she was nervous was not enough reason to order her from the car.

"The reasons articulated by the police were she was acting suspiciously. She was moving around and appeared to be nervous," said Williams' lawyer, Pedro Jaile.

"SHE WAS BLACK'

"They really ordered her out of the car because she was black," Jaile said.

Authorizing police to order nervous people out of their cars would allow them to order anyone out of a car, and lead to "random and unequal treatment of motorists," he said.

Copyright 1999 Worcester Telegram & Gazette

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