According to an article in the MetroWest Daily News, attorneys for a New Hampshire man charged with murder are seeking to prevent the prosecutor from admitting the man’s statements at trial, as well as all of the evidence derived from those statements. The man allegedly murdered 19 year-old woman from…
According to an article in the MetroWest Daily News, a Framingham District Court judge ordered a Rhode Island man held without bail in relation to several sexual assault charges. The article states that the man is accused of sexually assaulting and raping the alleged victim over a period of years,…
According to a recent article in the MetroWest Daily News, the state’s Office of Alcohol Testing (OAT), which certifies breath testing machines used around Massachusetts, appears to have known about a software issue that complicated dozens of drunken driving cases months before anyone moved to fix the problem. The article…
In Commonwealth v. Mulgrave, the Supreme Judicial Court held for the first time that a text message could constitute an excited utterance under Massachusetts law. An excited utterance is an exception to the rule prohibiting the admission of hearsay. A statement qualifies as an excited utterance if it: (1) follows…
According to an article in the MetroWest Daily News, a Norfolk County Agricultural High School teacher was recently charged with raping a child. The teacher is specifically charged with (1) rape of a child with force; (2) aggravated rape of a child; and (3) indecent assault and battery of a…
Under Massachusetts G. L. c. 123A, § 12, if the Commonwealth has reason to believe a person convicted of a sex offense is likely to re-offend, it may file a petition in the Superior Court alleging the person is a “sexually dangerous person,” and request that the person be civilly committed.…
In August of 2014, the Massachusetts state legislature passed An Act Relative to Domestic Violence, which was signed into law by then Governor Deval Patrick shortly thereafter. The Act made various changes to the state’s domestic violence laws. Among other modifications, the Act created a first offense domestic violence assault…
During the process of a criminal case, the trial court judge makes a number of different rulings, all of which may be appealed by a defendant. There are several different types of appeals. The most common type of appeal is a direct appeal, which is an appeal to the Appeals…
According to an article in the MetroWest Daily News, a man was recently arrested in Framingham for allegedly assaulting three other individuals in alley behind the Tedeschi’s on Waverly Street. The article states that the man reportedly lunged at one of the alleged victims while armed while a knife. At…
Last week, the Supreme Judicial Court issued a decision – Commonwealth v. Camblin – that calls the admissibility of breath test evidence into question in operating under the influence cases. The facts of the case are as follows: Camblin pulled over in the breakdown lane on Route 495 to urinate. A…