Commonwealth v. Moniz (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-064-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 11-P-954 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. ROBERT MONIZ. No. 11-P-954. Middlesex. February 12, 2015. – June 17, 2015. Present: Cohen, Green, & Massing, JJ. Rape. Assault with Intent to Rape. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Assistance of counsel, Admissions and confessions. Constitutional Law, Assistance of counsel, Admissions and confessions. Evidence, Admissions and confessions. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on September 2, 2004. The case was heard by Elizabeth M. Fahey, J., and a motion for a new trial, filed on January 14, 2014, was considered by her. James A. Reidy for the defendant. Jamie Charles, Assistant District Attorney (Kevin L. Ryle, Assistant District Attorney, with him) for the Commonwealth. MASSING, J. The defendant, convicted of eight counts of sex offenses committed against his adopted son when the boy was between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years old, appeals from the three convictions based on his conduct after the victim turned sixteen, one for rape in violation of G. L. c. 265, § 22(b), and two for assault with intent to rape in violation of G. L. c. 265, § 24, claiming insufficiency of the evidence.[1] He also appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial alleging that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move to suppress the defendant’s postindictment admissions to a person he asserts was acting in a law enforcement capacity. We affirm. Background. The victim was born in August, 1978. The defendant met the victim after he entered into a romantic relationship with the victim’s mother. In 1988, the victim’s family began living with the defendant in Enfield, New Hampshire. In April, 1989, the defendant married the victim’s mother and adopted the victim. The first sexual incident occurred when the defendant arranged to sleep alone with the victim in a cabin the defendant had built in the middle of the woods, approximately two hundred yards from the house in Enfield. The defendant touched the victim’s genitals over his clothing for a couple of minutes before they went to bed. The victim asked the defendant what he was doing, and the defendant told him, “[T]his is what all good friends do.” The defendant would “do the same thing” at the print shop that the defendant and the victim’s mother owned, where the victim sometimes worked. The defendant took the […]