One sentence in the Associated Press account of the Clavicular case describes a procedure that exists almost nowhere else in the country and that decided whether this prosecution would happen at all.
“A clerk-magistrate found probable cause for the charges on Sept. 4, and a criminal complaint was issued Sept. 8.”
That is a Massachusetts show cause hearing. It is not an arraignment, not a grand jury, and not a preliminary hearing as other states use the term. It is a proceeding in front of a court employee who is usually not a judge, frequently closed to the public, and it is the reason Braden Peters was never arrested.
What is now known about the case
The AP reported Tuesday that Peters, 20, is charged with raping a 17-year-old girl who told Chatham police she became heavily intoxicated after he gave her alcohol at his family’s home on Morris Island in Chatham on May 23, 2025. The charges are rape, administering a substance for sexual intercourse, and procuring alcohol for a person under 21.
That resolves the gaps we flagged when the charges first surfaced. The conduct is alleged to have occurred in Chatham, which sits in the Orleans District Court jurisdiction along with Dennis, Eastham, Orleans, Harwich, Truro, Wellfleet and Provincetown. The complainant was 17, which is why the general rape statute applies rather than the statutory offense, since the age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.
Peters lives in Florida, is not in custody, and is scheduled to be arraigned October 14. His lawyers in a related Florida civil case have said the encounter was consensual and called that lawsuit a “publicity grab.” He has not entered a plea in the criminal case and is presumed innocent.
How a Massachusetts criminal case starts without an arrest
Most people assume a criminal case begins with handcuffs or a grand jury. In Massachusetts district courts, a very large share of cases begin with an application for a criminal complaint and a hearing in front of a clerk-magistrate.
The governing statute is G.L. c. 218, § 35A. When a complaint application is received and the accused “is not under arrest for the offense for which the complaint is made,” that person “shall, in the case of a complaint for a misdemeanor or a complaint for a felony received from a law enforcement officer who so requests,” be “given an opportunity to be heard personally or by counsel in opposition to the issuance of any process based on such complaint.”
There is an exception written into the same sentence. No opportunity to be heard is required where “there is an imminent threat of bodily injury, of the commission of a crime, or of flight from the commonwealth by the person against whom such complaint is made.” In deciding whether that threat exists, the clerk must consider the named defendant’s criminal record and the records in the statewide domestic violence record keeping system.
For a felony that does not come from a law enforcement officer, the hearing is discretionary rather than required.
The standard, and why it is so easy to meet
Read the operative sentence carefully, because it is written backwards from how people expect.
“The court, or said officer thereof, may upon consideration of the evidence, obtained by hearing or otherwise, cause process to be issued unless there is no probable cause to believe that the person who is the object of the complaint has committed the offense charged.”
Not “if there is probable cause.” Unless there is none. Probable cause is already the lowest evidentiary standard in criminal law, well below proof beyond a reasonable doubt and below the preponderance standard used in civil cases. The clerk is not weighing whether the accused is guilty, or even whether the Commonwealth is likely to win. The clerk is asking whether there is enough to justify putting the person into the system.
Note also the phrase “obtained by hearing or otherwise.” The clerk can rely on the police report alone. Live testimony is common but not required.
Why it matters that this happened in private
Show cause hearings are the part of the Massachusetts court system the public knows least about, and that obscurity is by design rather than neglect.
These hearings are routinely closed. A person who wins one walks away with no public record of an accusation, which is the point: the procedure exists so that a neighbor dispute, a shoplifting allegation or a bar fight does not automatically produce a criminal record entry for someone the clerk concludes should not be charged. Defense lawyers consider a show cause hearing one of the most valuable opportunities in district court practice, because it is the only stage at which a case can be stopped before it publicly exists.
The other side of that design is that a great many serious allegations are resolved with no public accounting of why. Whether the public and the press have a right of access to these hearings and their records has been litigated in Massachusetts, including in Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co. v. Clerk-Magistrate of the Lawrence Division of the District Court Department, 448 Mass. 647 (2007), which addressed whether a right of public access attaches to show cause hearings that precede the initiation of a criminal case. We cite that case by its reporter citation rather than summarizing its reasoning, because we were unable to retrieve a reliable copy of the opinion.
What can be said from the statute itself is that nothing in § 35A requires a hearing to be public, and nothing requires the clerk to explain a decision either way.
What the clerk had in front of him
The police report, as described by the AP, is detailed.
The complainant told Chatham police she and Peters began messaging on Instagram and that he later paid her to appear in “looksmaxxing” videos he streamed. She said he knew she was 17 but told her to tell viewers she was 18 and that the vodka he gave her was water. On May 23, 2025 she took a rideshare from her grandparents’ home to the Morris Island house, where she says she was greeted by Peters’s mother and grandmother before being taken to his room, where he was livestreaming on Twitch.
She told police she drank what she believed was two or three shots of vodka. An officer who reviewed clips from the livestream said one showed her telling Peters, “Wait I’m so drunk though,” and Peters responding, “It’s OK,” before the two kissed. She said she later fell asleep and woke the next morning to Peters raping her.
For a probable cause determination, a contemporaneous recording in which the complainant states she is heavily intoxicated is close to the strongest thing a police report can contain, because it is not dependent on anyone’s memory.
What happens between now and October 14
Because a complaint issued rather than a warrant, Peters is expected to appear by summons rather than in custody. His representative said last week that he had not been “physically served.” If he does not appear on October 14, the court can issue a default warrant.
The bigger structural point is one we made when the charges surfaced and which the new detail confirms. Under G.L. c. 218, § 26 a district court’s final jurisdiction over felonies stops at five years in state prison. Rape carries up to twenty years and the drugging offense carries a minimum of ten and a maximum of life. Neither can be resolved in Orleans District Court. The case goes to Barnstable Superior Court by indictment or by bind-over under § 30.
The show cause hearing decided only whether this case would exist. Nothing more.
What is a show cause hearing in Massachusetts?
A proceeding under G.L. c. 218, § 35A in which a clerk-magistrate decides whether to issue a criminal complaint against a person who has not been arrested. The accused may appear and oppose issuance. The hearings are frequently closed to the public.
What standard does the clerk apply?
The statute directs that process may issue “unless there is no probable cause to believe” the person committed the offense. Probable cause is the lowest standard in criminal law, and the clerk may rely on the police report without live testimony.
Does the accused have a right to be heard?
For a misdemeanor, or a felony complaint from a law enforcement officer who requests a hearing, yes, unless there is an imminent threat of bodily injury, of a crime, or of flight from the Commonwealth. For a felony not brought by law enforcement, the hearing is discretionary.
Which court is handling the Clavicular case?
The conduct is alleged to have occurred in Chatham, which falls within Orleans District Court. Because of the penalties involved, the rape and drugging counts cannot be finally resolved in district court and would move to Barnstable Superior Court.
Why was he not arrested?
Because the case proceeded by complaint rather than by arrest. A defendant charged this way is normally summonsed to appear. Arraignment is set for October 14.
Does a show cause hearing decide guilt?
No. It decides only whether a criminal complaint issues. Every question about guilt comes later.
Charges, the September 4 probable cause finding, the September 8 complaint, the Chatham location, the complainant’s age and the contents of the police report from the Associated Press, September 22, 2026, as published by WHDH. Statutory text read at malegislature.gov: G.L. c. 218, §§ 26, 30 and 35A. The communities within the Orleans District Court jurisdiction confirmed at mass.gov. We have not seen the criminal complaint, the police report or the docket. The Eagle-Tribune citation is given by reporter citation only; we could not retrieve a reliable copy of that opinion and do not characterize its holding. Braden Peters has not entered a plea, denies the allegations in the related Florida civil case, and is presumed innocent of every count. General information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice.