Commonwealth v. Meneide

Before us is the Commonwealth’s interlocutory appeal from an order allowing, in part, the defendant’s motion to suppress. At issue is the search of an automobile after a routine traffic stop during which a noncriminal amount of marijuana was found. The motion judge found that safety concerns justified the exit order and patfrisk of the driver, but that once the patfrisk resulted in the discovery of only a noncriminal quantity of marijuana, safety concerns did not justify searching the back seat armrest. We affirm.

Background. We summarize the findings of the motion judge, none of which are…