Commonwealth v. Hyde (and seven companion cases) (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-192-15)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-867                                        Appeals Court   COMMONWEALTH  vs.  JAMES C. HYDE (and seven companion cases[1]).   No. 12-P-867. Essex.     June 12, 2015. – December 21, 2015.   Present:  Cohen, Green, & Trainor, JJ. Insurance, Motor vehicle insurance, Fraud and concealment, Defrauding insurer.  Motor Vehicle, Insurance.  Fraud. Larceny.  Practice, Criminal, Instructions to jury, Grand jury proceedings, Indictment.  Grand Jury.  Evidence, Intent, Inference, Grand jury proceedings, Relevancy and materiality, Prior misconduct, Testimony before grand jury, Credibility of witness.  Probable Cause.  Witness, Credibility.     Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on April 4, 2008.   The cases were tried before Howard J. Whitehead, J.     Edward Foye (David Meier with him) for James C. Hyde. Sarah E. Dolven for Omar Castillo. Argie K. Shapiro, Assistant Attorney General (William R. Freeman, Special Assistant Attorney General, with her) for the Commonwealth.      COHEN, J.  Following a multi-year inquiry by investigators from the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau and the city of Lawrence police department, a grand jury indicted the defendants, James C. Hyde, Michael H. Kaplan, and Omar Castillo, for crimes arising from the submission of fraudulent automobile insurance claims.[2]  The defendants later were tried together before a Superior Court jury.  Hyde, an attorney at the law firm of Berger & Hyde, P.C., was convicted of two counts each of motor vehicle insurance fraud (see G. L. c. 266, § 111B), larceny over $ 250 (see G. L. c. 266, § 30), and attempted larceny over $ 250 (see G. L. c. 274, § 6).  Kaplan, a chiropractor and owner of the Kaplan Chiropractic clinic, was convicted of three counts of motor vehicle insurance fraud, and two counts each of larceny over $ 250 and attempted larceny.  Castillo, an employee of Kaplan Chiropractic, was convicted of one count each of motor vehicle insurance fraud and larceny over $ 250.  Before us are the appeals of Hyde and Castillo.[3] Hyde’s convictions resulted from insurance claims submitted on behalf of clients purporting to have been injured in two staged automobile accidents — one alleged to have occurred on October 1, 2002, and the other alleged to have occurred on December 20, 2002.  Hyde’s primary contention on appeal is that the Commonwealth failed to establish at both the grand jury and petit jury stages of the case that he knew that these particular accidents were staged.  On this ground, he maintains that both his […]

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