Articles Posted in Sex Offenses

In today’s digital age, technology has revolutionized countless aspects of our lives, including the ways in which the legal system in Massachusetts addresses public indecency and related offenses. Surveillance cameras, smartphones, and social media have made it easier than ever for law enforcement and prosecutors to monitor and prosecute behavior that was once private. However, this rapid technological advancement often outpaces the evolution of the legal statutes intended to regulate such behavior, resulting in complex legal challenges for those accused of crimes.

Recently, a case brought before the Massachusetts Court of Appeals highlighted a significant legal question: can a person’s behavior be considered “open” for the purposes of a lewdness statute if it was captured on a surveillance camera rather than witnessed in person? This case centered on a defendant accused of masturbating in front of a camera inside a client’s home. The prosecution sought to apply an old statute designed to address in-person conduct to this new, virtual situation. The central issue was whether the defendant’s actions could be deemed “open” under the law, given that they were only seen on recorded footage rather than observed live.

According to the facts discussed in the recently published opinion, The defendant was a painter hired to work in the victim’s home, and he was accused of masturbating in various rooms while looking into the surveillance cameras installed by the victim. The cameras were not monitored in real-time but recorded the events for later viewing. The prosecution argued that because the defendant was aware of the cameras, his behavior should be considered “open” lewdness as defined under Massachusetts General Laws. Essentially, they contended that the presence of cameras implied that the defendant’s conduct was “public” enough to warrant charges.

Sexual assault and rape prosecutions in Massachusetts involve some of the most serious allegations and consequences envisioned by the criminal code. Because the facts of a sexual assault case are often based upon the credibility of both the victim and the defendant, evidence that discredits a victim can be highly beneficial to a defendant in such cases. The Massachusetts Supreme Court recently affirmed a defendant’s rape conviction, in spite of the defense’s objections to the exclusion of relevant evidence from the trial which placed the credibility of the victim at issue.

The Rape Shield Statute and Evidence Admissibility

An important point of law in this case is the Massachusetts rape shield statute, G.L. c.233, §21B. This statute limits the admissibility of evidence related to a victim’s sexual conduct, aiming to protect the victim’s privacy and prevent the introduction of irrelevant or prejudicial information. The statute outlines exceptions, allowing evidence that pertains to the victim’s sexual conduct with the defendant or recent conduct that explains physical characteristics alleged to be the result of a defendant’s conduct. The defendant sought to introduce evidence regarding the victim’s underpants collected during a medical examination performed after the alleged assault.

The state Supreme Court upheld the denial of the motion to admit this evidence, emphasizing that the defendant failed to establish a connection between the underpants collected and the ones worn by the victim on the night of the alleged rape. The court noted that the defendant’s argument of proving the victim’s intercourse with another individual and explaining her testimony about physical discomfort lacked substantive evidence that would permit the evidence’s admission at trial.

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1. In a recent Massachusetts appellate court opinion regarding an appeal claiming insufficient evidence to support the conviction, the court upheld the trial court decision, affirming the conviction. At trial, the defendant and the co-defendant were convicted on various charges arising from the operation of a series of brothels in North Reading, Quincy, Boston, and Cambridge. On appeal, the defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions and that the information provided in support of a search warrant application was inadequate to establish a nexus between the alleged crimes and his home and cell phone.

Facts of the Case

According to the court’s opinion, in January 2017, law enforcement began to investigate five different residences located in North Reading, Boston, Quincy, and Cambridge, where they believed illegal sexual services were being provided. Police located the apartments through advertisements for massage services on the website Backpage, and then contacted the leasing offices for those units. The defendant’s name was on the rental agreements for both the North Reading and Cambridge apartments as well as one of the Quincy apartments. The defendant also paid monthly rent for the apartments, using a check with his name and home address on it. On January 2, 2017, law enforcement officers stopped the defendant after observing him make an illegal U-turn. The defendant told police officers that he was coming from his primary residence to check the mail and empty the trash for his secondary residence. In the dumpster, the officers found a trash bag with used condoms, condom packaging, and small cards explaining how to use condoms in multiple languages.

For the next three months, the police watched the three locations, watching the defendant deliver groceries, and many men entering the buildings and leaving after several hours. The police interviewed several of the men after they left the apartments and the men admitted that they had gone to the apartments in response to advertisements knowing that sexual services were being offered. Officers obtained and simultaneously executed a warrant to search the five locations. At each location, condoms, ledgers, and other evidence were discovered on site. The defendant was charged and convicted of various charges stemming from operating brothels.

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Recently, a court of appeals in Massachusetts had to decide whether it agreed with a criminal defendant’s argument that he had been deprived of effective assistance of counsel during his trial. Originally, the defendant was charged with assault and battery on a child under the age of fourteen. A trial court found him guilty, and he promptly appealed the verdict.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, investigators in this case became suspicious that the defendant had been improperly communicating with and potentially abusing minors. The victim had written in her diary about incidents of sexual abuse from her dad, who later became the defendant in this case. To figure out if the allegations against the defendant were accurate, investigators retrieved a search warrant from the court and went to look in the defendant’s apartment. While looking around, the investigators found a cell phone with several photos of the child in the nude.

The defendant was charged with several crimes, including assault and battery of a child, posing a child in the nude, and attempting to pose a child in the nude. He was later convicted at trial.

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In a recent case coming out of a Massachusetts court, the defendant lost his appeal challenging convictions of two counts of rape. The defendant’s argument centered around the jury selection process prior to his trial; according to the defendant, several of the jurors were too biased to be fair and impartial deciders in his case. The court of appeals disagreed and affirmed the defendant’s original convictions.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant was charged with rape after his DNA was found to match with semen that had been recovered from a victim in 2009. Between 2009 and this identification, the victim had not known who had assaulted her, but after the discovery, the defendant was located and brought forward for trial.

Before the trial began, the court conducted a standard process in which it allowed each attorney to object to potential jury members that they thought would be unfit to decide the case. On the second day of this jury selection, the judge asked prospective jurors two questions: (1) whether they thought false accusations of sexual assault were rare or infrequent, and (2) whether someone who comes forward claiming sexual assault must be telling the truth, if she has put herself through the process of indicating a sexual assault occurred.

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In a recent case coming out of a Massachusetts court, the defendant was found guilty of failing to register as a sex offender. Originally, the judge in the defendant’s case proposed a sentence of one to two years in prison; however, in response to this proposal, the higher court in Massachusetts issued an opinion stating that the mandatory minimum sentence for defendants convicted of this crime is five years in prison.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant in this case was convicted of rape in 2008. As a result, he was required to register as a sex offender in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Because he failed to meet this requirement, the defendant was charged with two counts of failure to register as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty to both counts.

The judge in the defendant’s case sentenced the defendant to two years of probation on the first count. On the second count, the judge declared that he was going to sentence the defendant to one to two years in prison. This second sentence, though, was dependent on the answer to a question that the judge had posed to a higher court in the Commonwealth. According to the judge involved in the defendant’s case, it was unclear under Massachusetts law whether or not a person convicted of failure to register as a sex offender can be sentenced to fewer than five years in prison. It was ambiguous whether the law stated that these offenders, in particular, must be sentenced to at least five years in prison, and the judge needed the higher court to clarify the rule before he could make a final decision on the defendant’s case.

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Under Massachusetts’ law, individuals convicted of sex offenses may need to provide identifying information to a state reporting agency, commonly referred to as the “sex offender registry.” Lawmakers maintain that the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry assists their agency with identifying sex offenders and reducing the likelihood of recidivism. After conviction and during sentencing, these individuals will receive a classification level, depending on their crime, dangerousness, and likelihood of re-offense.

The most common crimes requiring sex offender registration are battery, rape, indecent assault, assault with the intent to commit rape, kidnapping, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, inducing a minor into pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking. Under Massachusetts’s law, convicted sex offenders must register with the Massachusetts registry if they live, work, or attend school in the state. Additionally, the law requires that these individuals update their information if they have a secondary address in the state, are moving to the state, become homeless, work in Massachusetts, or live in another state, but attend school in Massachusetts.

The registry requires these individuals to report their full legal name, any aliases, home addresses, and work addresses. Work addresses include all forms of employment, including part-time and volunteer work. The registrant must include their physical characteristics, including height, weight, eye and hair color, and identifying marks. Higher-level registrants must include fingerprints and photographs. Those convicted of federal sex offenses may need to register through the state and National Sex Offender Registry.