Should Hearsay Be Admissible at a Motion to Suppress?
Is a defendant's constitutional right, provided by the Confrontation Clause, violated by the admission of hearsay evidence at a motion to suppress?
May 29, 2015 at 09:26 AM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on New Jersey Law Journal
The dictum, of Appellate Division Judges Fisher and Accurso, in the Oct. 17, 2014, per curiam opinion State v. Bacome, is more significant than the actual decision.
In Bacome, the court remanded a denial of the defendant's motion to suppress narcotic evidence, seized as the result of a warrantless motor vehicle search which required an occupant, other than the driver, to exit the vehicle. However, the more interesting issue, which could not be decided by the Appellate Division, because not decided below, was whether a defendant's constitutional right provided by the Confrontation Clause is violated by the admission of hearsay evidence at a motion to suppress.
On April 29, 2011, based upon “information received from concerned citizens about a lot of traffic coming and going from defendant's apartment,” and because the owner/passenger was allegedly not wearing a seat belt (although a summons was never issued), the vehicle was stopped by the police. Because of the defendant's alleged furtive movement (“reaching forward … under his seat”), the defendant was asked to exit the vehicle, which he did. A subsequent search, consented to by the owner, revealed 13 vials of crack cocaine and narcotics paraphernalia.
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