Appeals court OKs emergency search of woman's purse
By Globe Staff
A Beverly police officer who found drugs in a woman's purse was justified in the search because he was trying to help EMTs who believed she might be suffering from an overdose, the state appeals court ruled today.
Linda A. McCarthy, 54, was found "thrashing" on the floor of a Beverly restaurant in May 2006. A police officer called for EMTs, who told him they believed she had overdosed and asked whether he knew what she had taken.
The officer searched an open woman's handbag several feet from the defendant to see if he could find the drugs, which could help the EMTs in treating McCarthy. He found cocaine and marijuana.
McCarthy recovered, but she was charged with cocaine and marijuana possession. She challenged the search of her handbag in a pretrial motion.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court said there was no question that the officer had no probable cause to search the handbag and, under normal circumstances, the warrantless search would have been considered invalid.
But it said there was an "emergency exception" to the law, which applies when officers are responding "to an immediate need for assistance for the protection of life or property."
"In such medical emergencies, time is of the essence, requiring swift action," the court said, ruling that there were reasonable grounds for the officer to believe an emergency existed. "It was therefore reasonable for him to search the defendant's handbag."
