MA: Failure to complete the inventory paperwork does not ipso facto void an inventory search; must be shown to be otherwise valid and reasonable

Failure to complete the inventory paperwork does not ipso facto void an inventory search if it can otherwise be shown to be valid and reasonable. Commonwealth v. Torres, 85 Mass. App. Ct. 51, 5 N.E.3d 564 (2014):

We reaffirm our view that the case law on search warrant returns provides a useful analogy. Here, as there, if the Commonwealth is able to demonstrate that its search was both justified and otherwise properly executed, then excluding the evidence discovered based on after-the-fact procedural deficiencies would not serve the purposes for which the exclusionary rule was established. See Commonwealth v. Aldrich, 23 Mass. App. Ct. 157, 162-163, 499 N.E.2d 856 (1986). See also Freiberg, supra. Finally, we note that courts in other jurisdictions that have addressed the same issue have come to the same conclusion. See, e.g., United States v. Loaiza-Marin, 832 F.2d 867, 869 (5th Cir. 1987) (“[T]he agent’s failure to complete the inventory forms does not mean that the search was not [a valid] inventory search”).5

5 In Loaiza-Marin, as here, no inventory search form was completed after the officer who was conducting the inventory search turned the contraband over to another officer upon discovering it. See also United States v. Trullo, 790 F.2d 205, 206 (1st Cir. 1986) (declining to “hold that the officer’s failure, technically, to follow the inventory form procedures for valuables meant it was not an inventory search”).

Conclusion. The Commonwealth was able to demonstrate that its inventory search was justified, was not undertaken as a pretext, and was conducted in accordance with the town’s written policies. Because we agree with the motion judge that the failure by police to complete the required documentation does not by itself void an otherwise valid inventory search, we conclude that the motion to suppress was properly denied.

Note: Several recent cases on this issue on this blog have found that inventories were not valid because of the failure of the paperwork, but it was apparent that was another important fact that the inventory was pretextual. Note also that it is hard to argue with the analogy to the lack of a property return almost never being sufficient to void a search.