Commonwealth v. Macias

The Commonwealth appeals from an order of a Superior Court judge allowing the defendant’s motion to sup*699press evidence seized during a search of the defendant’s apartment on the ground that the assistant clerk-magistrate who issued the warrant did not have sufficient basis to dispense with the “knock and announce” requirement. We affirm the order of the Superior Court.

I

On March 31, 1998, the Brookline police department applied for a warrant to search an apartment in a multi-unit building for evidence of cocaine and drug paraphernalia. The bases for the warrant, as set out in the affidavit of a…