Commonwealth v. Orbin O.Commonwealth v. Orbin O.
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Gants, Gaziano, Lowy, Budd, Cypher, Kafker
GANTS, C.J. In Commonwealth v. Newton N., 478 Mass. , (2018),
Background. On March 24, 2016, the vice-principal of the juvenile‘s charter school filed an application under
On May 5, 2016, a hearing was held on the motion to dismiss. The Juvenile Court judge, based on the documents attached to the application for the complaint and the relevant evidence presented at the show cause hearing, allowed the juvenile‘s motion to dismiss and subsequently issued written findings of fact and conclusions of law.
We summarize the judge‘s material findings, supplemented by other information in the record before the judge. On March 11, 2016, the fourteen year old juvenile was in class at the charter
The judge noted that the juvenile‘s IEP “specifically discouraged the school staff from engaging in power struggles with him and encouraged him to leave situations so as to deescalate them.” She found that the instructor “caused the touching” by physically blocking the juvenile from leaving the classroom when “[the juvenile] was trying to deescalate a situation using steps the [school] incorporated into his [IEP].” The judge concluded that, under these circumstances, there was
Discussion. The Commonwealth argues that the judge erred in granting the juvenile‘s prearraignment motion to dismiss because the evidence in the record before her established probable cause that the juvenile committed an assault and battery. The Commonwealth further claims that the judge erred by considering as part of the probable cause analysis an “affirmative defense,” insofar as the argument that the juvenile acted in conformance with his IEP by seeking to leave the classroom after the instructor blocked the exit could be construed as an affirmative defense.
“[A] motion to dismiss a complaint [for lack of probable cause] ‘is decided from the four corners of the complaint application, without evidentiary hearing.‘” Commonwealth v. Humberto H., 466 Mass. 562, 565 (2013), quoting Commonwealth v. Huggins, 84 Mass. App. Ct. 107, 111 (2013). “To establish probable cause, the complaint application must set forth ‘reasonably trustworthy information sufficient to warrant a reasonable or prudent person in believing that the defendant has committed the offense.‘” Humberto H., supra,
Under the common law, an intentional assault and battery is “the intentional and unjustified use of force upon the person of another, however slight.” Commonwealth v. Porro, 458 Mass. 526, 529 (2010), quoting Commonwealth v. McCan, 277 Mass. 199, 203 (1931).2 Here, the judge essentially found that the juvenile‘s
shouldering was an unconsented-to touching that was intended to push the instructor away from the classroom door so that the juvenile could leave the classroom. In finding that the juvenile intended to shoulder the instructor, but ultimately holding that there was insufficient evidence of intent, we understand the judge to have concluded that the juvenile‘s act of shouldering into the instructor was legally justified by the juvenile‘s desire to leave the classroom, which was permitted as a deescalation strategy in his IEP. We reject the notion that a child is justified in committing a battery against an instructor who is blocking his or her egress from a classroom because the child‘s IEP permits the child to leave the classroom when he or she becomes agitated. Cf. Commonwealth v. Moreira, 388 Mass. 596, 601 (1983) (“in the absence of excessive or unnecessary force by an arresting officer, a person may not use force to resist an arrest by one who he knows or has good reason to believe is an authorized police officer, engaged in the performance of his duties, regardless of whether the arrest was unlawful in the circumstances“). Consequently, we conclude that the judge erred in finding that there was not probable cause to
In Newton N., 478 Mass. at , where a police officer applied for and obtained a delinquency complaint, and where the complaint was supported by probable cause, we held that the Juvenile Court judge could not dismiss the complaint before arraignment on the grounds that dismissal of the complaint was in the best interests of the child and in the interests of justice. Here, however, the complainant was a civilian, not a police officer, and the civilian obtained the delinquency complaint after a show cause hearing under
The Legislature‘s enactment of
While a judge or clerk-magistrate may issue a criminal or delinquency complaint under § 35A only where the complaint is supported by probable cause, it is within his or her prerogative to decline to issue a complaint, even where there is probable cause. Victory Distribs., Inc. v. Ayer Div. of the Dist. Court Dep‘t, 435 Mass. 136, 142 (2001). ”
Where a clerk-magistrate, as here, finds probable cause and issues a delinquency complaint against a juvenile, the juvenile may not seek a second show cause hearing before a judge; “the [juvenile‘s] remedy is a motion to dismiss the complaint.” Commonwealth v. DiBennadetto, 436 Mass. 310, 313 (2002). “After the issuance of a complaint, a motion to dismiss will lie for a failure to present sufficient evidence to the clerk-magistrate (or judge), . . . for a violation of the integrity of the proceeding . . . , or for any other challenge to the validity of the complaint.” Id.
The scope of a Juvenile Court judge‘s authority to dismiss a delinquency complaint at a motion to dismiss hearing, however, depends on whether the prosecutor has affirmatively adopted the complaint as a matter that he or she wishes to prosecute by moving for an arraignment, or whether the prosecutor simply appears at the scheduled arraignment. Where a prosecutor
We recognize that prosecutors have the authority to nol pros a complaint issued under
We have noted that “[t]he right of a citizen to obtain a criminal complaint is itself something of an anomaly, because in modern times[,] the formal initiation and prosecution of criminal offenses is usually the domain of public officials. Accordingly, even where the Legislature has given a private party the opportunity to seek a criminal complaint, we have uniformly held that the denial of a complaint creates no judicially cognizable wrong.” Bradford, 427 Mass. at 751. See Victory Distribs., Inc., 435 Mass. at 142 (“a private party suffers no judicially cognizable wrong when its application for a criminal complaint is denied“); Taylor v. Newton Div. of the Dist. Court Dep‘t, 416 Mass. 1006, 1006 (1993) (“it is settled beyond cavil that a private citizen has no judicially cognizable interest in the prosecution of another“). Because a private party has no right to the issuance of a criminal complaint where there is probable cause, and because the issuance of such a complaint is within the sound discretion of the clerk-magistrate following a show cause hearing, a judge deciding a motion to dismiss a civilian complaint issued pursuant to § 35A may consider whether the clerk-magistrate abused his or her discretion in issuing the complaint, and, in doing so, may consider whether dismissal of the complaint is in the best interests of the child and in the interests of justice. This does not extend the reach of a motion to dismiss beyond a determination of the validity of the complaint. We simply recognize that, where a complaint was initiated by a private party and has not been adopted by the prosecutor, the validity of the complaint must include a review of the clerk-magistrate‘s exercise of discretion.
The wise exercise of discretion is especially important in private delinquency complaints, where sound judgment must be applied in deciding whether a child‘s misbehavior that is legally within the ambit of the criminal law is so serious that it should be treated as a delinquency complaint in Juvenile Court, rather than as a disciplinary matter that is best
Conclusion. We vacate the order of dismissal of the delinquency complaint and remand the matter to the Juvenile Court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
So ordered.