Commonwealth v. Escalera

I write separately because our case law on the issue of nexus and probable cause no longer appears to provide useful precedent. This case illustrates that certain assumptions underlying our rescript decision in Commonwealth v. Smith, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 907 (2003), and thereafter adopted by the Supreme Judicial Court in Commonwealth v. Pina, 453 Mass. 438 (2009), and Commonwealth v. Medina, 453 Mass. 1011 (2009), would benefit from reexamination.1

A known drug dealer is observed leaving his residence, *269proceeding directly to a controlled buy, and then returning directly home. This does not…