Commonwealth v. Figueroa (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-023-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11099 COMMONWEALTH vs. LUIS FIGUEROA. Middlesex. October 2, 2012. ‑ February 8, 2013. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Parole. Habitual offender. Practice, Criminal, Parole, Required finding. Words, “Criminal proceeding.” Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on July 1, 2008. The cases were heard by Raymond J. Brassard, J. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Andrew S. Crouch for the defendant. Jamie Michael Charles, Assistant District Attorney (David Marc Solet, Assistant District Attorney, with him) for the Commonwealth. GANTS, J. The issue presented on appeal is whether it is a crime under G. L. c. 268, § 13B, as appearing in St. 2006, c. 48, § 3, for a parolee to mislead a parole officer who is investigating the parolee’s possible failure to comply with parole conditions. We conclude that it is, and therefore affirm the defendant’s convictions. Background. In October, 2007, the defendant was on parole from his State prison sentence for armed robbery, and on probation for his conviction of rape of a child. Among the conditions of the defendant’s parole were that he not go to areas where children under eighteen years of age would congregate, that he not enter into a relationship with someone who had children without informing his parole officer, that he wear a global positioning system (GPS) monitoring unit that recorded his whereabouts at all times, and that he keep a calendar recording where he went each day. On October 29, 2007, the defendant’s parole officer, Kathryn Kozak, informed the defendant that he was not to leave his home in Marlborough after 6 P.M. on Halloween night, October 31, 2007, and was not to participate in any Halloween activities. On November 1, 2007, Kozak checked the defendant’s GPS location from the previous night and determined that he had been to Framingham after 6 P.M. When she called him to ask why he had gone to Framingham, the defendant stated that he had taken a bus there to attend a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Kozak determined from GPS records that, while in Framingham, the defendant had been at an apartment complex two to three miles away from the location where he claimed he had attended the AA […]