The clerk magistrate’s decision has produced a criminal case. Brockton Mayor Moises Rodrigues will be arraigned on September 28 in Hingham District Court on a charge of assault and battery, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday, after a clerk magistrate found probable cause to issue a complaint over an alleged encounter with a 17-year-old Brockton High School student at a parade in May. The case has been transferred to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office. Rodrigues has said he does not recall contact with the teenager. He is presumed innocent.
We wrote about this case in August, when the hearing that produced the complaint was held in a room the public could not enter, before an official who is not a judge. That piece explained the mechanism. This one explains what happens now: why a complaint issued over the mayor’s objection, why the case left Plymouth County, why it is in a Hingham courtroom rather than a Brockton one, and what a pending misdemeanor does and does not do to a sitting mayor.
How the case got here
The allegation concerns the Huntington Day parade in May. According to the State Police account presented at the August hearing and reported by GBH and NBC10 Boston, the student reported that Rodrigues approached her while she was performing with the Brockton High marching band, put his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, and that the interaction made her uncomfortable. Police presented video clips and photographs from the parade and argued they supported probable cause. The mayor’s attorney argued the videos do not show an assault and that the mayor was celebrating during the parade.
The matter became public in June, when the student’s mother confronted Rodrigues during the Brockton High graduation ceremony as he addressed the graduates.
A clerk magistrate found probable cause in August. The complaint has now issued, and the arraignment is set.
The hearing that decided it
Massachusetts gives a person accused of a misdemeanor who has not been arrested the right to be heard before a criminal complaint issues. The provision is G.L. c. 218, § 35A, and it says the accused “shall” be given an opportunity to be heard personally or by counsel in opposition to the issuance of process, unless there is an imminent threat of bodily injury, of the commission of a crime, or of flight. These are called show cause hearings, or clerk magistrate hearings. They are ordinarily closed to the public and produce no public record when the clerk declines to issue.
The standard is probable cause, which is far below the standard at trial. The clerk magistrate asks whether there is reason to believe a crime was committed and that this person committed it, not whether the Commonwealth can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. A finding of probable cause is not a finding of guilt and is not evidence of anything at trial. We set out how these hearings work, and why so few people know they exist, in the Massachusetts show cause hearing, explained.
The clerk also has discretion to decline to issue even where probable cause exists, which is the outcome most people who go through the process receive and the reason the hearings are sometimes criticized as a second system for people with lawyers. Here the clerk issued.
Why the Norfolk DA has the case
The alleged conduct happened in Brockton, which is in Plymouth County, and the Plymouth County District Attorney would ordinarily prosecute it. The office confirmed the transfer to Norfolk County on Tuesday. Neither office has publicly stated the reason.
Cross-county transfers of this kind are how Massachusetts prosecutors handle a conflict of interest, or the appearance of one. A district attorney’s office that has a working relationship with a defendant, that has handled matters involving the defendant’s administration, or that has some personal connection within the office will hand a case to a neighboring district attorney so that no one can say the decision was made by someone with a stake in it. The mechanism is not a statute so much as a practice, and it is used for police officers, for elected officials, and for court personnel.
The practical effect is that the charging decisions, the plea posture and any trial will be run by prosecutors who do not work in the county the defendant governs a city in.
Why Hingham District Court
Because that is the Norfolk County court assigned to handle it. A case prosecuted by the Norfolk District Attorney is ordinarily heard in a Norfolk County courthouse, and Hingham District Court is one. Brockton District Court, the court that would normally hear a Brockton case, sits in Plymouth County.
The move has a side effect worth naming. Arraignments are public. A Brockton arraignment would have taken place a short walk from City Hall, in front of the local press and any resident who wished to attend. A Hingham arraignment is 20 miles away. That is a consequence of the venue, not a purpose of it.
What the charge is
Assault and battery under G.L. c. 265, § 13A, a misdemeanor punishable by up to two and a half years in a house of correction or a fine of up to $1,000. The statute expressly permits a summons rather than an arrest where the court believes the person will appear, which is what happened here.
Battery in Massachusetts is the intentional and unjustified touching of another person, however slight. It does not require injury, and it does not require force in the ordinary sense. An unwanted touching is enough if it was intentional and not consented to or otherwise justified. That is why the defense argument at the show cause hearing was that the video does not show an assault: the dispute is about what the contact was and what accompanied it, not about whether a bruise resulted.
The charge as issued is the base offense under subsection (a). The statute’s aggravated forms, which carry state prison exposure, apply to serious bodily injury, to a pregnant victim, and to a victim protected by a restraining order. None is charged.
What it means for the mayor’s office
Nothing automatic. Massachusetts law does not remove a municipal officeholder on the issuance of a criminal complaint, and a misdemeanor charge is not grounds for removal under any general statute. A mayor’s removal, where a city charter provides for it at all, is a charter question, and Brockton’s charter governs. Conviction of certain felonies can trigger forfeiture of office for some positions; assault and battery is a misdemeanor and would not.
The political consequences are separate from the legal ones and are for Brockton voters and the City Council.
What to watch
The September 28 arraignment, at which Rodrigues will be formally charged and a plea entered, and which is open to the public. Whether the Norfolk District Attorney’s office files any additional charge, which it may do independently of the clerk magistrate’s finding. Whether the defense moves to dismiss, which in a case built substantially on video is a realistic filing. And whether the student’s family pursues a civil claim, which would be separate and would carry a lower standard of proof.
Common questions
What is Brockton Mayor Moises Rodrigues charged with?
Assault and battery under G.L. c. 265, § 13A, a misdemeanor carrying up to two and a half years in a house of correction. He is scheduled to be arraigned September 28 in Hingham District Court and is presumed innocent.
What is a clerk magistrate hearing?
A closed hearing under G.L. c. 218, § 35A at which a person accused of a misdemeanor who has not been arrested may contest the issuance of a criminal complaint. The standard is probable cause, and the clerk may decline to issue even when it is met.
Why is the Norfolk DA prosecuting a Brockton case?
The Plymouth County District Attorney’s office confirmed the transfer but did not state a reason. Cross-county transfers are the standard Massachusetts practice for avoiding a conflict of interest or its appearance when the defendant is a public official.
Can he be removed from office over this?
Not automatically. A misdemeanor charge triggers no removal under general Massachusetts law. Any removal question would be governed by Brockton’s city charter.
Does probable cause mean he is guilty?
No. Probable cause is a threshold far below proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It permits a case to begin and is not evidence at trial.
Confirmation of the complaint, the transfer and the arraignment date from the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office as reported by NBC10 Boston and Boston 25 News, September 15 and 16, 2026. Account of the August clerk magistrate hearing and the State Police presentation as reported by GBH, August 7 and August 17. G.L. c. 218, § 35A and c. 265, § 13A read at malegislature.gov. Moises Rodrigues is presumed innocent. General information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice.