Commonwealth v. M.J.

Police conducting a narcotics surveillance observed M.J. and 6-7 other men involved in a dice game on the sidewalk. During a thirty minute period, police claim three different individuals approach M.J. and hand him money. Each time M.J. would then enter a nearby car and retrieve “objects” and hand those objects to the “buyers.” All three “buyers” were stopped and police recovered packets of marijuana from each of them. M.J. was arrested in possession of $150. The car was searched with negative results. M.J. turned down an “offer” of state incarceration and elected to go to trial. The defense attacked the police officer’s ability to observe the transactions, lack of information regarding the 6-7 other people in the area, absence of a “stash”, and questions regarding the ownership of the car (which belonged to the true dealer who walked off before poliuc made arrests). M.J. was found not guilty.