Commonwealth v. Irvin I.
| Decision Date | 13 July 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 20-P-372.,20-P-372. |
| Citation | 100 Mass.App.Ct. 33,173 N.E.3d 415 |
| Court | Appeals Court of Massachusetts |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH v. IRVIN I., a juvenile. |
Carolyn A. Burbine, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.
Maryellen Cuthbert, Chelmsford, for the juvenile.
Present: Ditkoff, Singh, & Englander, JJ.
Following a hearing pursuant to G. L. c. 119, § 72A, which governs juvenile transfer hearings, a Juvenile Court judge found no probable cause to believe that the juvenile1 committed the crime of rape of a child with force or any lesser included offense, and dismissed the delinquency complaint issued against him. On appeal, the Commonwealth contends that the evidence was sufficient, as a matter of law, to meet its burden of establishing probable cause. The juvenile contends that the judge acted within her discretion in assessing the weight and credibility of the evidence to find no probable cause. After review, we reverse and remand the matter for further consideration.
Background. In April 2019, a delinquency complaint issued against the juvenile, charging him with rape of a child with force, alleged to have occurred some years prior, when he was a juvenile. See G. L. c. 265, § 22A. Because the juvenile was nearly twenty-one years old when the proceedings commenced, and thus no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court, a transfer hearing was held to determine whether the juvenile could be prosecuted as an adult or would not be prosecuted at all. See G. L. c. 119, § 72A.
The alleged victim, whom we shall refer to as Maya, was the sole witness, and her testimony was the only evidence offered at the transfer hearing. According to her testimony, Maya first came to know the juvenile when she moved to an apartment complex with her mother and younger sister; the juvenile was "one of the first people that ... showed [them] around." Eventually, the juvenile began "dating" Maya's mother and so would be at their apartment on a daily basis and sometimes overnight.
On one occasion, when Maya was eleven or twelve years old, the juvenile and others came over to Maya's apartment to watch a football game.2 After the game ended, everyone else went to sleep. Maya and the juvenile remained on the living room couch next to one another and talked a bit as Maya drifted off to sleep. The juvenile then got on top of Maya and pulled down her pants and underwear. He was "trying to have sex with [her]," attempting to "actually put [his penis] in[to her vagina]." Maya felt the juvenile's penis making contact with her vagina. Although the penis was erect, "[j]ust the tip" entered her. Maya was saying "oh, no, ... this hurts" and "kept asking him to stop." When Maya told the juvenile to "stop, because it hurt," the juvenile told Maya that she "sounded like [her] mother," and persisted in his assault. After about a half hour, the juvenile got off of Maya, who then went to her bedroom.
Maya first reported that she had been raped in 2018, when she was seventeen years old, after her aunt discovered text messages from the juvenile on Maya's cell phone.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the Commonwealth requested that, if the judge did not find probable cause on the charge of rape of a child with force, the judge "consider finding probable cause for the lesser included [offenses], indecent assault and battery and assault and battery." The judge, ruling from the bench, did "not find probable cause for the complaint or any of the lesser included [offenses]" and dismissed the matter.
Discussion. On appeal, the Commonwealth argues that the judge erred in dismissing the case because there was adequate evidence presented to support a finding of probable cause as a matter of law.3 In response, the juvenile argues that the adversarial nature of a § 72A transfer hearing requires that a judge assess the "weight and the credibility of the evidence" in determining probable cause, and that an appellate court should defer to that assessment absent an abuse of discretion.
"[T]he purpose of § 72A is, in part, to give the Juvenile Court jurisdiction over cases where a juvenile offender is not apprehended until after his [nineteenth] birthday, and if public interest requires, transfer the case" for prosecution in the District or Superior Court.4 Matter of a Juvenile, 485 Mass. 831, 832-833, 152 N.E.3d 1128 (2020), quoting Commonwealth v. Nanny, 462 Mass. 798, 804, 971 N.E.2d 762 (2012). See Commonwealth v. Mogelinski, 473 Mass. 164, 171, 40 N.E.3d 544 (2015) (). The judge makes two determinations at a transfer hearing. (citation omitted). Matter of a Juvenile, supra at 833, 152 N.E.3d 1128.
The issue on appeal concerns the first determination, that is, the precise standard by which probable cause is to be determined in a § 72A transfer hearing, and, by implication, the standard by which an appellate court reviews that determination. See Matter of a Grand Jury Investigation, 427 Mass. 221, 224-225, 692 N.E.2d 56, cert. denied sub nom. A.R. v. Massachusetts, 525 U.S. 873, 119 S.Ct. 171, 142 L.Ed.2d 140 (1998) (). The probable cause portion of the transfer hearing in the Juvenile Court "serves the same function as a bind-over probable cause hearing in the District Court." Ulla U. v. Commonwealth, 485 Mass. 219, 228, 149 N.E.3d 713 (2020), citing Nanny, 462 Mass. at 805, 971 N.E.2d 762. See Commonwealth v. Ortiz, 393 Mass. 523, 533, 471 N.E.2d 1321 (1984) (). See also G. L. c. 218, § 30. That function is "the screening out of an erroneous or improper prosecution" (quotation and citation omitted). Lataille v. District Court of E. Hampden, 366 Mass. 525, 530, 320 N.E.2d 877 (1974). See Commonwealth v. Perkins, 464 Mass. 92, 101, 981 N.E.2d 630 (2013) ().
To effectuate this purpose, a defendant at a bind-over hearing (like a juvenile at a transfer hearing) has procedural protections including a right to the appointment of counsel, to cross-examine witnesses, and to present evidence. See Eagle-Tribune Publ. Co. v. Clerk-Magistrate of the Lawrence Div. of the Dist. Court Dep't, 448 Mass. 647, 653-655, 863 N.E.2d 517 (2007). "The rules of evidence are fully applicable and a finding of probable cause must be based on competent testimony which would be admissible at trial" (quotation and citation omitted). Id. at 655, 863 N.E.2d 517. Such a process is "necessary to an accurate appraisal of probable cause" and to ensure that the defendant has the opportunity to present any evidence that could "expose fatal weaknesses in the State's case." Lataille, 366 Mass. at 528, 529 n.4, 320 N.E.2d 877.
"The probable cause to bind over standard requires a judge to view the case as if it were a trial and to determine whether the Commonwealth has presented sufficient legally competent evidence to send the case to a jury." Paquette v. Commonwealth, 440 Mass. 121, 132, 795 N.E.2d 521 (2003), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 1150, 124 S.Ct. 1153, 157 L.Ed.2d 1044 (2004).5 "[The judge] should dismiss the complaint when, on the evidence presented, a trial court would be bound to acquit as a matter of law." Commonwealth v. Teixeira, 475 Mass. 482, 489 n.14, 58 N.E.3d 292 (2016), quoting Myers v. Commonwealth, 363 Mass. 843, 850, 298 N.E.2d 819 (1973). It follows that an appellate court, in reviewing de novo a judge's probable cause determination, looks to "whether the record evidence could reasonably support a finding of [probable cause]." Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 671, 677, 393 N.E.2d 370 (1979), quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
The juvenile argues that the adversarial nature of the proceeding suggests that matters of weight and credibility should be left to the trial judge. The courts have acknowledged that a judge in a bind-over proceeding must "make some assessment of the credibility of the evidence that is presented when making the determination as to whether sufficient evidence has been presented to warrant further proceedings." Commonwealth v. Reese, 438 Mass. 519, 523, 781 N.E.2d 1225 (2003), quoting Commonwealth v. Blanchette, 54 Mass. App. Ct. 165, 173, 764 N.E.2d 353 (2002).
In determining probable cause, the judge must undertake a " Reese, 438 Mass. at 524, 781 N.E.2d 1225, quoting Blanchette, 54 Mass. App. Ct. at 175, 764 N.E.2d 353.
The question is whether the evidence "is of suitable quality to allow the action to proceed further along a course that was legislatively designed ultimately to place the matter before a trier of fact." Blanchette, 54 Mass. App. Ct. at 175, 764 N.E.2d 353. For this reason, the judge must exercise "considerable restraint," id. at 173, 764 N.E.2d 353, leaving credibility determinations to the ultimate trier of fact, "except in cases ‘in which a witness's testimony is so weak or...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Commonwealth v. Manny M.
...rules is an extraordinary, not an ordinary, event." Commonwealth v. Jordan, 469 Mass. 134, 143 (2014).7 See Commonwealth v. Irvin I., 100 Mass. App. Ct. 33 (2021) ; Commonwealth v. Joe J., 100 Mass. App. Ct. 1101 (2021). Both appeals, which involved the same Juvenile Court judge as in the p......