MA: Police remaining in def’s house after he went to hospital after a well-being check led to an unreasonable search

“In this appeal, the defendant challenges the denial of a motion to suppress the two tequila bottles seized during the well-being check. We conclude that the police had objectively reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant may have been injured or in need of immediate medical assistance but that the seizure of the evidence was unreasonable for two reasons: (1) the seizure occurred after the defendant departed for the hospital in an ambulance and while the police remained in his home without his consent; and (2) the police retained the evidence for investigative purposes without verifying its relevance to the emergency justifying their entry into the defendant’s home. Therefore, the motion to suppress should have been allowed. … We reject … remand for a new trial because of the error in the denial of the motion to suppress.” Commonwealth v. Kaeppeler, 2015 Mass. LEXIS 903 (Dec. 30, 2015).