The Massachusetts Appeals Court today reversed a district court judge’s decision to suppress a firearm recovered during a motor vehicle stop by Boston Police, citing the officers’ “reasonable concern for safety” when they searched the vehicle in 2008, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

WILLIAM A. GRAHAM (D.O.B. 1/11/86) of Roxbury and ROBERT KINES (D.O.B. 5/10/88) of Mattapan were arrested on gun and drug charges on July 22, 2008, after Boston Police stopped their vehicle on Perrin Street. Officers patrolling the area after a recent shooting had observed a group of people on a sidewalk shrink back from the defendants’ vehicle as it passed by them slowly and stopped the car for a traffic violation.

Upon conducting the motor vehicle stop, the officers observed in the vehicle a group of young men they knew to be gang members, including a third occupant passenger who had a history of firearms offenses. Kines, who was driving, defied the officers’ orders to keep his hands in sight; when they ordered him from the vehicle they also observed him lock the glove compartment and leave the key on his seat after retrieving his registration. Patfrisks led to the recovery of knives from both defendants and several bags of marijuana from Kines.

“Taken together, those circumstances were sufficient to give the officers a reasonable concern for their own safety,” Justice James F. McHugh wrote. “That concern was not limited to what the occupants might do while under the officers’ immediate control. Instead it extended to threats that might arise from retrieval of a weapon in the vehicle by an occupant who was not placed under arrest …. The glove compartment, which Kines had locked as police approached the car, was large enough to contain a weapon. The keys remained in the vehicle, accessible to any passenger the police released. Under those circumstances, police were entitled to open the glove compartment for the limited purpose of determining whether it contained a weapon.

Conley said he was pleased with the higher court’s decision and the skill of his Appeals Division.

“Part of our commitment as prosecutors is to appeal a decision when the facts, the evidence, and the law warrant reversal,” Conley said. “And part of our strength in that capacity is a top-notch team of appellate lawyers.”

Assistant District Attorney Abigail Holland of the DA’s Major Felony Bureau is prosecuting the underlying gun case. Assistant District Attorney David McGowan of the Appeals Division argued the case before the Appeals Court. Graham is represented by attorney Krista Larsen and Kines by attorney Alexandra Deal.