Commonwealth v. Gonsalves

We are concerned in this case with an assertion by the office of the district attorney for the Plymouth district (district attorney), that an order entered under Mass. R. Crim. P. 15 (d), as appearing in 422 Mass. 1501 (1996), directing that office to pay the attorney’s fees and costs of the defendant’s private counsel, is unconstitutional. We reject the argument.

*614The following summarizes the background of the case. The defendant was charged in the Superior Court with trafficking in cocaine. A judge in that court allowed the defendant’s motion to suppress the cocaine, and his statements to a…