Commonwealth v. Domino (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-110-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11215 COMMONWEALTH vs. KIM DOMINO. Hampden. February 4, 2013. ‑ June 14, 2013. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Sex Offender. Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Act. Parole. Constitutional Law, Assistance of counsel. Practice, Criminal, Sentence, Parole, Amendment of indictment or complaint, Assistance of counsel, Plea, New trial. Complaint received and sworn to in the Holyoke Division of the District Court Department on June 16, 2008. A motion to vacate sentence was heard by Maureen E. Walsh, J., and motions to withdraw a guilty plea and for a new trial also were heard by her. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Andrew S. Crouch for the defendant. Marcia B. Julian, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. LENK, J. Having twice been convicted of rape of a child, the defendant is a sex offender subject to the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Act, G. L. c. 6, §§ 178C-178P (sex offender registration act or act). Following his release from prison in early 2008, and prior to having been assigned a final classification level by the Sexual Offender Registry Board (SORB), the defendant registered with SORB, listing as his permanent address a relative’s apartment where he in fact did not reside. He subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to register as a sex offender, in violation of G. L. c. 6, § 178H (a). The District Court judge imposed a fine of $ 500 and, given the defendant’s prior convictions of rape of a child, also imposed community parole supervision for life (CPSL) pursuant to G. L. c. 6, § 178H (a) (1). The defendant moved to vacate the imposition of CPSL, and to withdraw his plea on three grounds. He claimed, first, that G. L. c. 6, § 178H (a), does not authorize the imposition of CPSL where a sex offender is, as here, sentenced only to payment of a fine. Second, he maintained that, because it was solely by virtue of an impermissible substantive amendment of the complaint that CPSL could be imposed, it must be vacated. Third, the defendant argued that he received ineffective assistance of counsel in having been dissuaded from accepting a plea offer made before the complaint was amended; had he accepted that offer, he claimed, he would not now be subject […]