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Criminal – Rape – Force clause
Where a single justice ruled that rape qualifies as a predicate offense for pretrial detention under the force clause of the pretrial detention statute, that ruling should be upheld because rape is a crime of physical violence requiring unwanted forceful penetration of another person.
Appeals – G.L.c. 211, §3
Where a petitioner whose motion to dismiss indictments on double jeopardy and collateral estoppel grounds was denied sought extraordinary relief pursuant to G.L.c. 211, §3, his request for relief is premature, so a single justice’s decision to deny the petition should be affirmed.
Criminal – Confrontation – Third-party abuse
Where a defendant was convicted of sexual assault offenses against two minor girls, he should be granted a new trial because the trial judge erred by foreclosing all cross-examination about one complainant's prior allegations of sexual abuse by a third party.
Criminal – Probation – Exclusion zones
Where (1) a defendant moved to vacate the global positioning system (GPS) condition of his probation and (2) a judge denied the motion, finding that the condition was reasonable, and ordered the imposition of exclusion zones for the cities of Framingham and Marlborough, which the defendant was prohibited from entering, a remand is necessary because the scope of the exclusion zones went beyond both[...]
Criminal – Murder
Where a jury convicted a defendant of first-degree murder on a theory of felony-murder, the conviction should be affirmed despite the defendant’s contention that (1) the trial judge abused his discretion by admitting evidence concerning a type of DNA analysis known as Y-chromosome short tandem repeat (Y-STR) testing, (2) the trial judge erred by admitting in evidence a document, derived from oth[...]
Criminal – Uttering – Forged check
Where a defendant was found guilty of uttering after cashing a single check from a person who did not know her, the conviction must be reversed because the commonwealth's evidence was insufficient as a matter of law.
Criminal – Uttering – Forged check
Where a defendant was convicted of uttering after she cashed a forged check drawn on the account of a person who did not know her, the conviction must be reversed because the commonwealth failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew the check had been forged.
Evidence – Text message – Social media posts
Where a jury convicted a defendant of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in concluding (1) that a text message and social media posts were probative of the defendant's animus toward the victims and thus relevant to both the element of intent and the defendant's claim of self-defense and (2) that the evidence's probative value was not ou[...]
Attorneys – Suspension
Where an attorney has been suspended for 18 months, the suspension was an appropriate sanction and not “markedly disparate from judgments in comparable cases,” so it should be upheld.
Constitutional – Commitment – Buildings and grounds restriction
Where a District Court order restricted a respondent to the buildings and grounds of the facility to which he was committed, that order deprived the respondent of his constitutional rights to substantive and procedural due process, so it must be vacated.
Civil practice – Commitment – Substance use disorder
Where two juveniles were involuntarily committed pursuant to G.L.c. 123, §35, the evidence was sufficient to support the order of commitment for one of the two juveniles, but not for the other.
Criminal – Murder
Where a jury verdict convicting a defendant of first-degree murder was later reduced to second-degree murder, that was an abuse of discretion, as the motion judge improperly considered the sentence for first-degree murder (life in prison without the possibility of parole) in reducing the verdict.
Verdicts & Settlements
- Injury during baby’s adenoidectomy leads to stroke
- Construction worker’s hand caught in cement mixer
- Worker trapped in freezer, dies during steam cleaning
- Pedestrian, 69, hit by motor vehicle while in crosswalk
- Four-vehicle pileup leaves driver with spinal cord injury
- Nursing home staff blamed for kidney-failure death
- Pharmacy’s late delivery blamed for patient’s death
- Man, 25, drowns after swimming lesson at fitness club
Opinion Digests
- Jurisdiction – Forum selection clause – Non-signatory
- Criminal – Responsibility
- Attorneys – Lien
- Landlord and tenant – Default judgment
- Zoning – Constructive grant – Comprehensive permit
- Fraud – False Claims Act – Settlement share
- Civil practice – Discovery – Cybersecurity
