Cooper v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-046-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-12024 SCOTT COOPER vs. COMMONWEALTH. April 1, 2016. Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts. Practice, Civil, Notice of appeal. Notice, Timeliness. Scott Cooper appeals from a judgment of the county court denying, without a hearing, Cooper’s petition for relief under G. L. c. 211, § 3, or for relief in the nature of mandamus. We affirm. In 2002, Cooper was convicted of forcible rape of a child and other offenses. His convictions were affirmed by the Appeals Court in an unpublished decision. Commonwealth v. Cooper, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 1110 (2007). In 2013, Cooper filed a motion for a new trial, which was denied by a judge in the Superior Court (motion judge). He filed a late notice of appeal and was advised that he must file a motion for an extension of time to do so. He filed such a motion shortly thereafter, but apparently it was misplaced in the clerk’s office and was not acted on for over two months. Once it was found, the motion judge allowed the motion and gave him forty-five days to file his notice of appeal. Cooper did not file a new notice of appeal at that point, nor did he request that his original notice of appeal be deemed filed. The record has not been assembled, and no appeal has been docketed in the Appeals Court. It appears that Cooper discovered this when he filed a motion to file his brief late in the Appeals Court and was informed that he had no matter pending in that court. He wrote to the Chief Justice of the Trial Court seeking assistance. His request was forwarded to various court personnel, but no further action on his appeal was taken. Ultimately, Cooper filed his petition in the county court for relief pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3, or for relief in the nature of mandamus pursuant to G. L. c. 249, § 5. He subsequently filed a motion in the single justice session to transfer the matter to a single justice of the Appeals Court, stating that he was seeking only leave to file a late notice of appeal. The single justice denied all relief without a hearing. Cooper has filed a memorandum and appendix pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001), which requires a petitioner seeking relief […]
Commonwealth v. Drapaniotis (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-038-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 14-P-754 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. ALEXANDRIA DRAPANIOTIS. No. 14-P-754. Middlesex. December 30, 2015. – April 1, 2016. Present: Kafker, C.J., Cypher, Berry, Green, & Blake, JJ.[1] Firearms. Evidence, Firearm, Hearsay. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on September 28, 2010. The cases were tried before Thomas A. Billings, J., and following a mistrial, the remaining cases were tried before Bruce R. Henry, J. David J. Rotondo for the defendant. Emily Kathleen Walsh, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. BERRY, J. Presented in this appeal are the defendant’s three convictions arising out of her stealing firearms owned by her father,[2] and then selling or trading the firearms for drugs. There were five indictments, involving three different firearms. There were two trials. The first trial resulted in one conviction, one verdict of not guilty, and a mistrial by jury deadlock on the three other indictments. In the second trial, convictions entered on those three remaining indictments, and those convictions are pending in this appeal.[3] The three convictions on appeal and the two particular firearms at issue are as follows: (a) on one indictment (count 3), the defendant was convicted under G. L. c. 266, § 30(1), of larceny of a Smith and Wesson .45 caliber pistol (hereinafter the .45); (b) on another indictment (count 1), the defendant was convicted under G. L. c. 266, § 30(1), of larceny of a .38 caliber handgun (hereinafter the .38); and (c) on yet another indictment (count 4), the defendant was convicted under G. L. c. 269, § 10(a), of unlawful possession of the .45 without a license, whether said firearm was loaded or unloaded. Each applicable firearm statute — G. L. c. 266, § 30(1), and G. L. c. 269, § 10(a) — requires proof that the subject firearm was operable, i.e., that it was a firearm “from which a shot or bullet can be discharged.”[4] In this case, the sole issue on appeal is directed to whether the Commonwealth met its burden of proof on operability of the .45 and the .38 by sufficient and competent evidence. Because the two firearms were never recovered following the defendant’s selling or trading of them, there was no ballistics analysis. Nor, of course, was either the .38 or the .45 introduced in evidence as an exhibit. Thus, proof of operability rested on Drapaniotis’s trial testimony.[5] Having reviewed […]
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