The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld a man's conviction for exposing himself to an undercover cop, ruling that wearing a badge doesn't shield police officers from the same feelings of shock anyone else might experience when confronted close up with something unwelcome, such as a stranger's penis on a near-deserted street corner. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld Dwayne McNair's 16-year prison sentence for raping two women he pulled into a car and raped with a pal, rejecting his argument that the five years between his indictment and his trial violated his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today dismissed a Sudbury woman's libel suit against a real-estate broker for allegedly defamatory comments online because the woman failed to prove anybody else knew her true identity behind the pseudonym she used online and so she was unable to prove her reputation had been harmed. Read more.
A member of the Suffolk University softball team who claimed a teammate - who had been her best friend - was reckless by hitting her in the head during batting practice had her case dismissed today by the Massachusetts Appeals Court, which said that while the concussion she suffered and the stitches she needed were unfortunate, the teammate did nothing legally reckless. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld an award of more than $850,000 for an MBTA supervisor forced into retirement as the culmination of a ten-year grudge by a Green Line track worker who worked his way up the ranks after the supervisor reported him for filing for overtime pay for work he didn't do. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today sided with Cingular Wireless and its subscribers and agreed the state could not tax their BlackBerry service just because those devices did not come with parental blocking software. Read more.
After a judge dismissed criminal charges against an Ipswich gun dealer whose recently released convict son walked out of the store with two guns kept in unlocked boxes out back, the dealer sued the town's police for malicious prosecution and defamation.
In a ruling today, the Massachusetts Appeals Court suggests he should have left well enough alone and been happy he had the charges dismissed. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld the armed-robbery conviction of a man who pleaded guilty to a 2011 gunpoint holdup in Mattapan, even though the drug convictions that stemmed from the same arrest had earlier been overturned because the drugs had gone through the tainted hands of state chemist Annie Dookhan. Read more.
In an otherwise routine ruling on a zoning dispute between two Gloucester neighbors over a proposed garage replacement, the Massachusetts Appeals Court announced today it will no longer use "grandfathering" or "grandfathered" in its decisions. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today dismissed a woman's suit against the Archdiocese of Boston for the way she was fired as director of musical ministries at a Franklin church without even considering her claim that the new parish priest didn't like either her age or gender. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that Maurice Morrison got a fair trial that led to his second-degree murder conviction for shooting both a Chelsea cab driver and the driver's front-seat passenger in the back of the head in 2013, possibly because the passenger was blackmailing him. Read more.
Down the drain.
In a 2-1 decision, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that Suffolk County prosecutors can't use a loaded gun, 9 small bags of heroin and 23 small bags of crack as evidence against Jamal Chin-Clarke on gun and drug charges because Boston police officers didn't have enough evidence he was involved in a criminal act at the time they searched him. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today overturned a man's conviction for disobeying an order not to contact a former girlfriend, saying prosecutors failed to prove that he actually sent her an Instagram message that had his account name linked on it. Read more.
In a letter to lawyers yesterday, leaders of the state trial and appeals courts announced their court buildings will likely remain shut through at least the end of June, but that trials probably won't restart until September, due to Covid-19 concerns. Read more.
No longer allowed to be used as evidence: The gun and bullets police say they seized.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that Suffolk County prosecutors cannot use a loaded gun allegedly found on a Dorchester man as evidence against him, because police found it under his puffy coat and sweatshirt during what it ruled was an unconstitutional pat frisk. Read more.
A man who has already received $5.5 million for traumatic brain injuries suffered in a fight that started as an argument over a bar stool at Sonsie in 2008 could be eligible for even more money under the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that Liberty Mutual tried to delay paying him anything after it had lost one of two court cases because it knew he was in financial duress at the time and figured it could get him to settle for less than he wanted. Read more.
Not much to look at, but the focus of two court decisions now.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today rejected a woman's attempts to force the city of Boston to let her drive trucks over a tiny, unpaved bit of land to a former fabrication shop on Walnut Street in Hyde Park, because the deed that allegedly gave her real-estate trust ownership of the property was a fake. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court this week overturned a judge's decision to toss the contents and call data police found on the phone of Dondre Snow of Dorchester, one of two men charged with murdering Maurice Scott on Old Colony Avenue in South Boston in December, 2015. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that a player on a Pennsylvania teen hockey team owes nothing to a Massachusetts player he accidentally slashed in the wrist with one of his blades while checking him during a 2013 match in Marlboro - because checking's an integral part of the game and accidents happen, even if they sometimes mean the permanent loss of function in one hand. Read more.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld a South Shore man's conviction for possession of child pornography after determining that even though a girl in a photo on his computer had a sheer lingerie top on, she was "unclothed" for the purposes of the state law aimed at protecting minors from sexual exploitation through the production and distribution of child pornography. Read more.
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