Commonwealth v. Cruz (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-044-18)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 16-P-1299 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. ROBERTO CRUZ. No. 16-P-1299. Essex. November 8, 2017. – April 13, 2018. Present: Milkey, Blake, & Singh, JJ. Indecent Assault and Battery. Practice, Criminal, Required finding. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on June 15, 2015. The cases were tried before Richard E. Welch, III, J. Daniel P. Tarlow for the defendant. Marcia H. Slingerland, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. SINGH, J. Following a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant was convicted of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child,[1] subsequent offense,[2] and sentenced to fifteen years to fifteen years and one day in State prison.[3] On appeal, the defendant argues that there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions. We agree and therefore reverse the judgments and set aside the verdicts. Facts. In the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the jury could have found the following facts. Jane (a pseudonym), a thirteen year old girl, was an intern at an aviation company in the summer of 2014. While she was working one day, the defendant, an almost sixty year old man who she had met before at the airport, waved her over to him. After a brief conversation, the defendant told her he would like to get her a gift for her upcoming birthday. He said that he would like to give her a hug, but that they should do it in another room. Jane went into a nearby hallway for a while, and waited, then returned to work after a couple of minutes. When she later saw him again in the airplane hangar, she asked if the defendant still wanted the hug,[4] and he hugged her briefly around the shoulders. The defendant then asked if Jane wanted another hug, and said that they should go into another room. He led her to a separate room, with no one else present. He gave her a second hug, a little tighter, with a kiss on the neck. This was not “anything that necessarily alarmed [her]” because she believed it was consistent with the way people of “European descent” greeted each other.[5] The defendant then gave Jane a third hug without her permission, which was lower down, on her waist and hips. […]