Commonwealth v. Oberle (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-037-17)
Affirmed assault and battery and kidnapping convictions; peremptory challenge denial and prior bad act evidence properly admitted.
Category SJC Opinions
Commonwealth v. Long (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-035-17)
Trial counsel not ineffective for declining to introduce cell site location information that would have corroborated prosecution witness's presence at crime scene. Witness's testimony sufficiently attenuated from illegal wiretap.
Commonwealth v. Mendez (and 11 companion cases) (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-034-17)
Court affirms convictions for murder, armed robbery, and weapons charges. Warrantless stop justified by reasonable suspicion based on temporal and geographic proximity to fatal shooting, unusual lack of activity, and suspicious vehicle behavior.
Commonwealth v. Samuel S., a juvenile (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-033-17)
Juvenile adjudicated as youthful offender and delinquent for sexual assault. Court vacates mandatory sex offender registration and GPS monitoring requirements.
Adoption of Yadira (and two companion cases) (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-030-17)
Federal regulations permit the Department to petition for termination of parental rights of unaccompanied refugee minors to enable adoption, even when parents live in the United States.
Commonwealth v. French (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-031-17)
Fingerprint evidence alone insufficient to support breaking and entering and larceny convictions when Commonwealth failed to prove fingerprint was placed during the crime.
Cardno ChemRisk, LLC v. Foytlin, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-032-17)
Environmental activists' blog post criticizing a consulting firm's scientific work on oil spill cleanup qualifies as protected petitioning activity under Massachusetts's anti-SLAPP statute, even though the defendants advocated for others' interests rather than their own personal grievances.
Commonwealth v. Accime (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-029-17)
Disorderly conduct conviction reversed where defendant's resistant behavior in hospital psychiatric emergency room posed no proven risk of public disturbance outside his confined space.
Commonwealth v. Thomas (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-028-17)
Supreme Judicial Court addresses consequences of failing to follow eyewitness identification protocol and whether police violated due process in showing single firearm photograph.
Snow v. Snow (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-025-17)
Wife's petition for alimony filed four years after divorce was initial complaint, not modification. Durational limits commence when general term alimony is awarded. Judge must consider overtime income and address health insurance.