Commonwealth v. Mogelinski (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-183-15)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-11856   COMMONWEALTH  vs.  MATTHEW A. MOGELINSKI.       Franklin-Hampshire.     September 8, 2015. – November 13, 2015.   Present:  Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ.     Juvenile Court, Jurisdiction, Delinquent child.  Jurisdiction, Juvenile Court, Juvenile delinquency proceeding, Transfer hearing.  Practice, Criminal, Juvenile delinquency proceeding, Transfer hearing, Nolle prosequi.  Youthful Offender Act.  Delinquent Child.       Complaint received and sworn to in the Franklin and Hampshire Counties Division of the Juvenile Court Department on February 4, 2014.   A motion to dismiss was heard by Judith J. Phillips, J.   The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court.     Cynthia M. Von Flatern, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. John T. Ouderkirk, Jr., for the defendant.     LENK, J.  In this case, we address an issue precipitated by our decision in Commonwealth v. Mogelinski, 466 Mass. 627 (2013) (Mogelinski I).  There, we decided, among other things, that the Juvenile Court did not have jurisdiction over youthful offender indictments, G. L. c. 119, § 54, that issued after the defendant’s eighteenth birthday, notwithstanding the prior existence of timely filed delinquency complaints, involving much the same facts, on which nolle prosequi was subsequently entered.  In the wake of our decision, the youthful offender indictments were dismissed.  The Commonwealth thereafter filed, in the Juvenile Court, a delinquency complaint essentially identical to those where nolle prosequi was previously entered in order to seek a transfer hearing.  See G. L., c. 119, § 72A.  The question before us is whether the Juvenile Court has jurisdiction to proceed on the basis of the newly filed complaint.  We conclude that it does. 1.  Background and prior proceedings.  On May 10, 2011, delinquency complaints were filed against the defendant alleging two counts of rape of a child under sixteen, G. L. c. 265, § 23, and three counts of indecent assault and battery of a child under fourteen, G. L. c. 265, § 13B.  The defendant was then less than two weeks shy of his eighteenth birthday.[1] A summons issued on May 11, 2011, ordering the defendant to appear in the Juvenile Court on May 31, 2011.  Between the date the summons issued and the date of the court appearance, the defendant turned eighteen.  The defendant appeared in Juvenile Court on May 31, 2011, and was duly arraigned on the delinquency complaints. In December, 2011, the Commonwealth sought […]

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