Kimbroughtillery v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-085-15)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11699   KEIAL KIMBROUGHTILLERY  vs.  COMMONWEALTH.       Suffolk.     February 3, 2015. – May 26, 2015. Present:  Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ.     Practice, Criminal, Probation, Revocation of probation, Collateral estoppel.  Collateral Estoppel.       Civil action commenced in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on April 24, 2014.   The case was reported by Cordy, J.     Rebecca Kiley, Committee for Public Counsel Services, for the petitioner. Shoshana E. Stern, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.     SPINA, J.  In this case, here on a reservation and report from a single justice of the county court, we consider whether principles of collateral estoppel bar a second probation revocation proceeding on the same charged misconduct that was litigated in an earlier probation revocation proceeding in a different county and was resolved in favor of the petitioner, Keial Kimbroughtillery.  We conclude that principles of collateral estoppel bar the second proceeding. 1.  Background.  On February 28, 2013, the petitioner was charged by criminal complaint in the New Bedford Division of the District Court Department (New Bedford District Court) with unarmed robbery, G. L. c. 265, § 19 (b), and assault and battery, G. L. c. 265, § 13A (a) (new offenses).  The complaint was based on allegations that on February 26, 2013, while the victim was sitting in the driver’s seat of her vehicle, the petitioner leaned over her, grabbed an envelope containing $ 630 from her right coat pocket, and fled the scene.  At the time the complaint issued, the petitioner was serving probationary sentences imposed by the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department (Boston Municipal Court), the New Bedford District Court, and the Fall River Division of the District Court Department (Fall River District Court).[1]  A notice of probation violation and hearing was issued to the petitioner from the Boston Municipal Court on March 4, 2013.  Similar notices were issued to him from the New Bedford District Court on March 5, 2013, and from the Fall River District Court on May 15, 2013.  Each notice alleged that the petitioner had violated the terms of his probation by committing the new offenses.[2] The first probation revocation hearing was held in the Boston Municipal Court on June 12 and August 20, 2013.  During the hearing, the petitioner’s probation officer testified, as did the alleged victim of […]

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