Commonwealth v. Bynoe (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-016-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 12‑P‑319 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. KEITH BYNOE. No. 12‑P‑319. Suffolk. February 7, 2013. ‑ February 26, 2014. Present: Wolohojian, Hanlon, & Agnes, JJ. Practice, Criminal, Probation, Revocation of probation, Sentence. Due Process of Law, Probation revocation. District Court Rules for Probation Violation Proceedings. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on December 18, 2008. A proceeding for revocation of probation was heard by D. Lloyd Macdonald, J. Michael B. Roitman for the defendant. Sarah H. Montgomery, Assistant District Attorney (Julie S. Higgins, Assistant District Attorney, with her) for the Commonwealth. AGNES, J. The defendant, Keith Bynoe, appeals from the revocation of his probation and imposition of a sentence of imprisonment to State prison. The principal issue he raises on appeal concerns the time within which a probationer must complete a treatment program, ordered as a condition of probation, when a date for completion is not otherwise specified. For the reasons that follow, we hold that in such a case the treatment program must be completed within a reasonably prompt period of time as determined initially by the probation department. As a result, we affirm. Background. The defendant pleaded guilty in Superior Court in 2010 to five charges including kidnapping, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, assault and battery, and malicious destruction of property. The judge sentenced him to a State prison term of two years to two years and one day on the assault charge, to a concurrent three month house of correction incarceration on the negligent operation charge (deemed served), and to concurrent terms of probation for five years on the remaining charges, to be served from and after his release from incarceration. The defendant’s terms of probation commenced in August, 2010, when he was released from State prison. Approximately four months later, on January 4, 2011, the defendant appeared before a magistrate in the Superior Court in response to a “Notice of Surrender and Hearing(s) For Alleged Violation(s) of Probation” (notice of violation). In open court and in the defendant’s presence, the probation officer informed the magistrate that the defendant was in violation of the conditions of his probation because he had failed to report to probation every fourteen days, to pay the required probation service fee, and to […]