Commonwealth v. Dinardo (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-014-18)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-816 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. CHARLES DINARDO. No. 16-P-816. Middlesex. November 3, 2017. – February 7, 2018. Present: Hanlon, Massing, & Wendlandt, JJ. Sex Offender. Evidence, Sex offender, Expert opinion, Medical report. Witness, Expert, Psychologist. Practice, Civil, Sex offender, Instructions to jury. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on July 5, 2012. The case was tried before Kenneth W. Salinger, J. David H. Erickson for the defendant. Jessica Langsam, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. WENDLANDT, J. This appeal presents the question whether, in connection with a trial to civilly commit an individual as a sexually dangerous person,[1] the written report of a qualified forensic psychologist (who is neither a designated qualified examiner nor the defendant’s treating psychologist) is admissible as a “psychiatric and psychological record[] and report[] of the person named in the petition.” G. L. c. 123A, § 14(c), inserted by St. 1999, c. 74, § 8. Concluding that it is and that the defendant’s other arguments lack merit, we affirm. Background. We briefly summarize the relevant facts as found by the trial judge. In 1989, the defendant, Charles Dinardo, was convicted in Connecticut of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault of a child, and risk of injury to a minor. The victim was the defendant’s daughter, whom he sexually abused continuously from when she was six years old until she was eighteen, with the exception of a one year hiatus when the victim’s mother took her abroad. The abuse began when she was six or seven years old. He would place a wire in his own and then the victim’s anus while he masturbated. When she was eight or nine years old and continuing until she was twelve, he engaged in weekly oral and anal sex with her. Over the next six years, he engaged in weekly sexual contact with the victim. On one occasion, the defendant told an adult male friend that he could have sex with the victim; the friend proceeded to have oral sex with her. The defendant expressed disappointment that he was not afforded the opportunity to watch. The victim was afraid to tell anyone about the abuse, but when she was eighteen, she began to resist the defendant and ultimately reported the sexual abuse to her therapist. The defendant was arrested, […]