Commonwealth v. Olsen

The sole issue on appeal is whether evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights should be excluded from a proceeding to revoke probation. We transferred the appeal to this court on our own motion. We conclude, as do a majority of jurisdictions that have considered the issue, that, where the police who unlawfully obtained the evidence neither knew nor had reason to know of the probationary status of the person whose property was seized, the evidence is admissible in a proceeding to revoke…