Flood v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-116-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11351 GORDON FLOOD vs. COMMONWEALTH.[1] June 24, 2013. Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts. Sex Offender. Practice, Criminal, Interlocutory appeal, Speedy trial. The petitioner, Gordon Flood, appeals from a judgment of a single justice of this court denying his petition pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3. We affirm. Flood was convicted of various sexual offenses in 1993 and sentenced to fifteen to twenty years in State prison. In December, 2010, prior to Flood’s scheduled release, the Commonwealth filed a petition in the Superior Court to commit him to the Massachusetts Treatment Center as a sexually dangerous person pursuant to G. L. c. 123A, § 12 (b). Flood was temporarily committed on January 6, 2011, and stipulated to probable cause for purposes of G. L. c. 123A, § 12 (c), on January 31, 2011. The requisite qualified examiner reports were filed on March 17, 2011, and the Commonwealth subsequently filed a timely petition for trial on March 21, 2011. On June 1, 2011, Flood filed a motion to dismiss the petition on the basis that the trial had not commenced within sixty days. See G. L. c. 123A, § 14 (a). It does not appear that any action was taken on this motion. According to the Commonwealth, Flood filed a second motion to dismiss on September 5, 2012.[2] After a judge in the trial court denied the motion, on October 5, 2012, Flood filed his G. L. c. 211, § 3, petition in the county court. The case is now before us pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001), which requires a showing that “review of the trial court decision cannot adequately be obtained on appeal from any final adverse judgment in the trial court or by other available means.” S.J.C. Rule 2:21 (2). Flood has not made such a showing. He argues that the Commonwealth’s failure to ensure that his trial commenced within sixty days of the filing of its petition for trial pursuant to G. L. c. 123A, § 14 (a), is a complete bar to proceeding with the trial. In Flood’s view, he has a right not to be tried and where his liberty interest is at stake, because he has been temporarily committed, review of the denial of his motion to dismiss in an appeal from an adverse judgment (i.e., an adjudication of civil […]