Commonwealth v. Ocasio

A judge in the Superior Court suppressed evidence obtained pursuant to a search warrant that had been lost. A single justice of this court granted the Commonwealth leave to take an interlocutory appeal to the Appeals Court. We transferred the case to this court on our own motion. On appeal, the Commonwealth argues that it should be allowed to establish the contents of the warrant through secondary evidence, and therefore its failure to return the original warrant does not require suppression. We agree, and vacate the order of suppression.

I. Facts. During the summer of 1998, the…