Commonwealth v. Grahame

OPINION

Justice ORIE MELVIN.

The issue presented on appeal is whether the Superior Court correctly determined that a police officer had reasonable suspicion to conduct a warrantless search of a woman’s handbag for safety reasons based solely on the fact that the owner of the handbag was located inside a residence where another individual had been selling illicit drugs. For the reasons that follow, we hold that the Superior Court erred in adopting a “guns follow drugs” presumption in order to justify a protective search for weapons pursuant to Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d…