Commonwealth v. Johnson

The defendant appeals from his conviction of larceny from a person after a trial by a jury of six in the Boston Municipal Court Department. The sole issue on appeal is whether the judge erred in denying the defendant’s motion to suppress the victim’s pretrial identification after concluding that the identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive. We granted the defendant’s application for direct appellate review. We reverse.

We recite the facts found by the judge. On April 7, 1992, Leopoldino Goncalves1 was working at a parking lot on the corner of Traveler Street and Washington Street…