{"id":63193,"date":"2026-02-14T12:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63193"},"modified":"2026-02-14T12:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:37:27","slug":"ma-unreasonable-exit-order-under-ma-law-led-to-invalid-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63193","title":{"rendered":"MA: Unreasonable exit order under MA law led to invalid consent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An unreasonable exit order here led to alleged consent, but the court finds consent tainted by the order. No factors of attenuation favor the state. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/doc\/commonwealth-v-robinson-sjc-t13756\/download\">Commonwealth v. Robinson<\/a>, 2026 Mass. LEXIS 49 (Feb. 13, 2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>b. Attenuation. Under the \u201cfruit of the poisonous tree\u201d doctrine, the exclusionary rule bars the admission of evidence derived from an unconstitutional search or seizure. Commonwealth v. Fredericq, 482 Mass. 70, 78, 121 N.E.3d 166 (2019). See Barreto, 483 Mass. at 724 (\u201cBecause the exit order was not lawfully issued, the evidence obtained from the subsequent search should have been suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree\u201d). The inquiry does not turn on a simple \u201cbut for\u201d test. See Commonwealth v. Long, 476 Mass. 526, 536, 69 N.E.3d 981 (2017). Rather, we ask whether the evidence was obtained \u201cby exploitation of [that] illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint\u201d (citation omitted). Commonwealth v. Damiano, 444 Mass. 444, 453, 828 N.E.2d 510 (2005). The Commonwealth bears the burden of proving attenuation. Id. at 454.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Commonwealth contends that the defendant\u2019s consent to search the vehicle broke the causal chain between the unlawful exit order and the discovery of the evidence. See Commonwealth v. Kipp, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 629, 634, 785 N.E.2d 403 (2003) (holding taint of prior unlawful entry had dissipated two hours later when defendant consented to subsequent search). It is true that, in some circumstances, voluntary consent may constitute an intervening act sufficient to dissipate the taint of prior police misconduct. See Fredericq, 482 Mass. at 80. Consent, however, \u201cdoes not automatically attenuate the taint of an illegality,\u201d particularly where the consent itself is the product of the unlawful conduct. Id. at 80-81. To determine whether the consent is tainted, we consider (1) the temporal proximity between the illegality and the consent; (2) the presence of any intervening circumstances; and (3) the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. Id. at 81. We address these factors in turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An unreasonable exit order here led to alleged consent, but the court finds consent tainted by the order. No factors of attenuation favor the state. Commonwealth v. Robinson, 2026 Mass. LEXIS 49 (Feb. 13, 2026):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attenuation","category-consent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63194,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63193\/revisions\/63194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}