Articles Posted in Important Massachusetts Court Decisions

Is it Constitutional to Conduct Evidentiary Hearings Over Zoom? In John Vasquez Dias v. Commonwealth the question before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was whether a criminal defendant’s constitutional rights are violated by a court choosing to pursue an evidentiary hearing, over the defendant’s objections, over Zoom. Vasquez Diaz was…

The case of Commonwealth v. Josiah Zachery that is current before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court raises the issue of whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in data from the Charlie Card, which is used to ride the commuter rails in Boston. This issue is likely to reoccur…

The Supreme Judicial Court holds that universities have a duty to protect their intoxicated students The SJC has recently decided in Helfman v. Northeastern University, that colleges have a special duty of care to their students and must protect them even when they are voluntarily intoxicated. What happened in Helfman?…

First Circuit finds no right to cross-exam witness in sexual misconduct disciplinary hearing.  On any given day, when schools are in session, university students can end up wandering around as they wonder what to do.  Groups of friends and acquaintances meet up at a local hangout and run into strangers…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the case of Commonwealth v. Carrillo based on the defendant allegedly causing the victim to overdose on heroin.  Massachusetts’s highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”), vacatedUMass Amherst grad student Jesse Carrillo’s involuntary manslaughter conviction, who, in October 2013, Jesse…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in the case of Commonwealth v. Hardy that failure to strap a child in properly to a car seat appropriate to the child’s age did not constitute involuntary manslaughter or reckless endangerment of a child, reversing the defendant’s conviction on those counts.  One of the…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will be asked to decide whether clerk magistrate hearings where the clerk finds probable cause but declines to issue the complaint should be open to the public.  As a criminal defense lawyer that has handled many clerk magistrate hearings, clerks do sometimes find probable cause…

 The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the dismissal of an OUI charge by a Superior Court judge after the officer did not issue a citation until 9 days after and the defendant did not receive notice until five or six months later.        The defendant in Commonwealth v.…

In the case of Commonwealth v. Alphonse, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals awarded a new trial based on the improper argument of the prosecutor. One of the more common grounds to appeal a criminal conviction is based on improper arguments during closing. In this case, the prosecutor argued that the…