MA: Inventory was not shown to be pretextual and was within policy

The suppression hearing judge found the officer credible on the question of whether the inventory was pretextual and concluded it was not. As a credibility determination, it can’t be reversed on appeal. The inventory was otherwise reasonable. Commonwealth v. Ehiabhi, 2017 Mass. LEXIS 763 (Oct. 13, 2017).*

Defendant was parked on a convenience store parking lot in a high crime area right in front of a “no loitering” sign. After ten minutes of him not getting out of the car, the officer approached to talk to him, and defendant said he was just “hanging out.” The officer at that point had probable cause to arrest for loitering. The patdown incident to the arrest produced heroin, and that created probable cause to search the car under the automobile exception. State v. Acoff, 2017-Ohio-8182, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 4546 (1st Dist. Oct. 13, 2017).*