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Judge rejects motion to throw out evidence in Entwistle case
By Globe Staff
A judge has rejected claims by lawyers for Neil Entwistle that police violated their client's rights when they entered his Hopkinton home without a warrant in January 2006 and discovered the bodies of his wife and infant daughter.
In a decision dated Aug. 30, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Diane M. Kottmyer sided with prosecutors, who argued that police were justified in entering the house on Jan. 21 and 22 because Rachel Entwistle had not responded to phone calls from family members and friends and they feared for her safety.
"The officers never stepped out of their community caretaking role," Kottmyer wrote in a 22-page decision. "In these circumstances, I find the entries into the Entwistles' home were reasonable and did not violate ... the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures."
Defense motions to throw out evidence are common in cases in which police search without a warrant and discover evidence of an apparent crime, such as illegal drugs in a car. In some cases, judges agree that officers had no right to make the searches.
Entwistle is accused of shooting his 27-year-old wife and their 9-month-old daughter, Lillian, with his father-in-law's handgun before fleeing to his native England. Prosecutors have theorized that Entwistle killed them because the unemployed engineer was despondent about his finances and family situation and had planned a murder-suicide, but did not take his own life.
