Commonwealth v. Ilya I., a juvenile (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-022-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC-11637 COMMONWEALTH vs. ILYA I., a juvenile. Suffolk. October 6, 2014. – February 13, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ. Controlled Substances. Probable Cause. Juvenile Court, Delinquent child. Practice, Criminal, Juvenile delinquency proceeding, Complaint, Dismissal. Complaint received and sworn to in the Suffolk County Division of the Juvenile Court Department on June 4, 2012. A motion to dismiss was heard by Leslie E. Harris, J. After review by the Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court granted leave to obtain further appellate review. Gail S. Strassfeld for the juvenile. Cailin M. Campbell, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. HINES, J. After a street encounter in the Dorchester section of Boston, a police officer arrested the juvenile and charged him with possession of a class D substance with the intent to distribute in violation of G. L. c. 94C, § 32C (a). A clerk-magistrate issued a delinquency complaint formally charging the juvenile with the offense. A judge in the Juvenile Court allowed the juvenile’s motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of probable cause. The Commonwealth sought review in the Appeals Court, which reversed the dismissal in an unpublished decision. See Commonwealth v. Ilya I., 84 Mass. App. Ct. 1128 (2014). We granted the juvenile’s petition for further appellate review and now affirm the dismissal of the complaint. Background. Our review of the judge’s order of dismissal is confined to the four corners of the application for complaint, which in this case is essentially the police incident report detailing the facts underlying the juvenile’s arrest.[1] Following is a summary of the police incident report.[2] On June 1, 2012, members of the youth violence strike force, a unit within the Boston police department, were conducting surveillance in Codman Square in Dorchester. The police officers were familiar with that area as being one where drug and gang activity took place. Shortly before 5 P.M., the officers observed four black teenagers in the vicinity of Washington Street and Talbot Avenue. A male and a female approached the teenagers and engaged them in a “brief conversation.” Two of the teenagers walked up Washington Street toward Southern Avenue with the couple. The other two teenagers remained in the location where the first encounter with the couple occurred and appeared to look up […]