Commonwealth v. Yardley Y., a juvenile (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-013-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11071 COMMONWEALTH vs. YARDLEY Y., a juvenile. Hampshire. October 1, 2012. ‑ January 29, 2013. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, & Duffly, JJ. Practice, Criminal, Plea, New trial, Interpreter, Transcript of hearing, Affidavit, Juvenile delinquency proceeding, Assistance of counsel. Constitutional Law, Plea, Assistance of counsel. Due Process of Law, Plea, Assistance of counsel. Interpreter. Complaint received and sworn to in the Hampshire County Division of the Juvenile Court Department on August 2, 1995. A motion for a new trial, filed on November 16, 2009, was heard by Lillian Miranda, J., and a motion for reconsideration was heard by her. After review by the Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court granted leave to obtain further appellate review. Barbara Kaban for the juvenile. Steven Greenbaum, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. IRELAND, C.J. We granted the defendant’s application for further appellate review to consider whether the Juvenile Court judge properly denied the defendant’s motion for a new trial. The defendant sought to vacate his plea because he did not knowingly and voluntarily admit to sufficient facts where no interpreter was present during his plea colloquy and where he was denied effective assistance of counsel. The Appeals Court, in a memorandum and order issued pursuant to its rule 1:28, Commonwealth v. Yardley Y., 79 Mass. App. Ct. 1123 (2011), affirmed the denial of the defendant’s motion. Because the defendant did not provide sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption of regularity of his plea proceedings and did not demonstrate he was denied the effective assistance of counsel, we affirm the denial of the defendant’s motion. Facts and procedure. We present the facts as found by the judge, supplemented by uncontested facts in the record. The defendant and his mother, Cambodian refugees and native Khmai speakers, came to the United States when the defendant was four years old. In 1995, when the defendant was fourteen years old, he was living at a Buddhist monastery with Cambodian monks in Amherst, where Khmai, rather than English, was generally spoken. On August 2, 1995, a complaint issued from the Hampshire County Division of the Juvenile Court Department charging the defendant with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of fourteen. It appears […]