Commonwealth v. Gelfgatt (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-112-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11358 COMMONWEALTH vs. LEON I. GELFGATT. Suffolk. November 5, 2013. ‑ June 25, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Forgery. Uttering Forged Instrument. Larceny. False Pretenses. Witness, Compelling giving of evidence, Self-incrimination. Evidence, Information stored on computer, Testimonial statement. Search and Seizure, Computer. Constitutional Law, Self-incrimination. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on May 7, 2010. A pretrial motion to compel evidence was heard by Raymond J. Brassard, J., and a question of law was reported by him. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. Randall E. Ravitz, Assistant Attorney General (Thomas D. Ralph, Assistant Attorney General, with him) for the Commonwealth. Paul Joseph Davenport (Stanley D. Helinski with him) for the defendant. The following submitted briefs for amici curiae: Daniel B. Garrie, of Washington, & Daniel K. Gelb, for Daniel K. Gelb & others. David H. Margolis, of Florida, for Florida Department of Law Enforcement & others. Mark R. Gage & Christian J. Desilets, of West Virginia, for National White Collar Crime Center. David W. Opderbeck, of New Jersey, for David W. Opderbeck & others. Nathan F. Wessler, of New York, Hanni M. Fakhoury, of California, & Matthew R. Segal, Jessie J. Rossman, & Kit Walsh, for American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Massachusetts & others. Victoria L. Nadel, for Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. SPINA, J. On May 5, 2010, a State grand jury returned indictments charging the defendant with seventeen counts of forgery of a document, G. L. c. 267, § 1; seventeen counts of uttering a forged instrument, G. L. c. 267, § 5; and three counts of attempting to commit the crime of larceny by false pretenses of the property of another, G. L. c. 274, § 6. The charges arose from allegations that the defendant, through his use of computers, conducted a sophisticated scheme of diverting to himself funds that were intended to be used to pay off large mortgage loans on residential properties. On November 21, 2011, the Commonwealth filed in the Superior Court a “Motion to Compel the Defendant to Enter His Password into Encryption Software He Placed on Various Digital Media Storage Devices that Are Now in the Custody of the Commonwealth” (motion to compel decryption). The […]