Commonwealth v. Coronel

This appeal concerns a police search incident to the arrest of the defendants in a high crime area of Lynn after codefendant Richard Eaton was observed leaving a car operated by codefendant Oscar Coronel. A joint motion to suppress drugs and certain other evidence2 was allowed, and the Commonwealth now brings this interlocutory appeal.

Search incident to arrest. The parties agree that this aspect of the case is controlled by Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 426 Mass. 703 (1998), but disagree as to whether the factors in that case supporting probable cause to arrest are present here.3 The motion judge…