In Commonwealth v. Goodness, decided in December of 2017, the Massachusetts Appeals Court provided guidance about the common law crime of threatening. Pursuant to the Criminal Model Jury Instructions, the Commonwealth must prove four things in prosecuting a charge of threatening to commit a crime. Those four things are as follows, namely: First: That the…

In October of 2017, in Com. v. Smith, the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the conviction of a defendant for possession of a Class B substance (crack cocaine) with intent to distribute, rejecting the defendant’s argument that a police officer was improperly allowed at trial to offer “profiling” testimony on the characteristics of a drug dealer…

Now that marijuana has been legalized in Massachusetts for those over 21, I am seeing more and more people being charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana.  Questions I am frequently asked include: “how can they prove I was under the influence of marijuana?” and “what type of evidence will…

In April of 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided the case of Commonwealth v. Amado, in which the Court reversed a Massachusetts Appeals Court decision that affirmed a jury’s conviction of the defendant for trafficking cocaine.  The defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress the contraband was denied by the trial judge, but the SJC ruled…

In the 2017 case of Commonwealth v. Cordero, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that a police officer could not legally detain a driver in order to wait for a drug-sniffing dog to arrive on the scene, once the police officer had dealt with the motor vehicle infraction and had verified that the driver was…

In Commonwealth v. Fuller (March 6, 2017), the Massachusetts Appeals Court reversed a jury verdict of guilty in a case in which the defendant was convicted of stealing parts off of a piece of heavy equipment.  The defendant testified that he had passed by the property for years, and had always seen the equipment lying…

At least since the case of Commonwealth v. Griswold, 17 Mass. App. Ct. 461 (1984), it is settled law that an operator of a motorized bicycle or moped[1] can be prosecuted for operating under the influence of liquor, in violation of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 90, section 24 (1) (a).  This is so even though…

On May 9, 2017, in an unpublished case, the Massachusetts Appeals Court held that a provision in a court order enjoining a defendant to “stay away” from a certain residence did not necessarily require that the defendant remain 100 yards away from said residence. The procedural history of the case was of a jury trial…

In Commonwealth v. Bonilla, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a conviction of uttering a false instrument, holding that, where a defendant deposits checks into several new bank accounts, knowing that the checks are bad because there is no money in the account tied to those checks, the defendant commits a larceny when he subsequently withdraws…

Whether because of the lower standard applied to motor vehicle stops (often reasonable suspicion instead of probable cause), or whether due to another reason, a great number of arrests begin with a motor vehicle stop.  When the police arrest the driver of a vehicle, one issue that must be addressed immediately is what to do…