Commonwealth v. Arruda

This authorized interlocutory appeal by the Commonwealth, see Mass. R.Crim.P. 15(a)(2), as appearing in 422 Mass. 1501 (1996), presents the question whether the District Court judge correctly concluded that the defendant’s refusals, while in police custody, to comply with requests from medical personnel to supply them with a sample of his blood for medical purposes were protected from admission in evidence by the second sentence of G. L. c. 90, § 24(l)(e). Concluding that the second sentence pertains to refusals to consent to blood-alcohol testing obtained through State action and that there…