Commonwealth v. Cavanaugh

An interlocutory appeal by a criminal defendant brings to us an issue, as to the legality of a warrantless search of his automobile. Police officers stopped him for traffic offenses at night on a Boston street, and asked him to step out of his car. While he was on the sidewalk with one officer, another officer shined his flashlight into the car and saw several hundred slugs and what looked like and were the handles of a boltcutter. The officer reached in and pulled the tool from under the front seat. He then reached under the seat and pulled out other burglar’s tools. The judge ruled that the…