Commonwealth v. Pereira (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-045-18)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 16-P-975 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. MARIA C. PEREIRA. No. 16-P-975. Plymouth. December 4, 2017. – April 13, 2018. Present: Sacks, Ditkoff, & Singh, JJ. Practice, Criminal, Revocation of probation, Restitution, Newspaper article. Constitutional Law, Freedom of speech and press. Newspaper. Threatening. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on April 18, 2014. A proceeding for revocation of probation was had before Cornelius J. Moriarty, II, J. Robert A. O’Meara for the defendant. Carolyn A. Burbine, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. SACKS, J. The defendant appeals from a Superior Court order, entered after hearing, that revoked her probation. The judge found that the defendant had violated her probation conditions by failing to make required weekly restitution payments and violating a no-contact condition by contacting a newspaper to make a threat against the victim, who then saw it published in an article in the newspaper. The judge sentenced her to from three and one-half to five years in State prison. We affirm.[1] Background. On July 17, 2015, the defendant pleaded guilty to one count of larceny over $ 250, involving embezzlement from her brother’s (victim) construction business in Brockton, where she had worked as a bookkeeper. The defendant had been indicted on sixteen charges; at the time of her guilty plea, the remaining fifteen charges were dismissed. The judge sentenced her to five years of probation, with conditions, among others, that she: (1) make restitution to the victim of $ 103,753.64, which the judge stated was “a substantial break off of what was . . . allegedly stolen,” to be paid at the rate of $ 1000 per week; (2) stay away from the victim’s residence and place of employment, and have no “direct or indirect contact” with him, his wife, or their children; and (3) execute a financial affidavit “stating that there are no available funds remaining from [her 2012] lottery winnings and no other funds or monies available.”[2] After having been given a weekend to consider this disposition, the defendant had represented to the judge that she was able to pay the $ 1000 weekly amount. The defendant signed, thereby agreeing to obey, the order of probation conditions. Four days later, on July 21, the defendant filed her financial affidavit, in which she […]