Commonwealth v. McCarthy

This is an interlocutory appeal by the Commonwealth authorized by a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court pursuant to Mass.R.Crim.P. 15(a)(2), as appearing in 422 Mass. 1501 (1996). This appeal presents the question whether there was an emergency justifying the warrantless search of the defendant’s handbag by an officer of the Beverly police *592department. A District Court judge concluded that the officer’s search of the defendant’s handbag was not reasonable under the circumstances and that the “emergency exception” to the warrant requirement did not apply. The motion judge allowed the…