Commonwealth v. J.V.

Police responding to a radio call observed J.V. matching the description of the person they were looking for and holding a screwdriver. Officers told him to drop the screwdriver and as they were handcuffing him saw narcotics in his hoodie pocket. They recover 14 packets of crack cocaine and arrest him for possession of narcotics. At the motion to suppress evidence the police claimed that they were responding to a “person with a weapon” radio call. However, the defense produced evidence that it was actually a radio call for narcotics. Because the information the police had came from an anonymous source and because the police could not articulate a legal basis for stopping J.V., the drugs were suppressed and the DA was forced to withdraw prosecution of drug possession.