On March 19, 1974, Alfred W. Blago, a State police officer on duty at the East Boston exit from the Callahan Tunnel, heard one of the automatic toll collection machines signal that a vehicle had passed through on its way out of the tunnel without a deposit by the operator of the proper twenty-five cent toll. Blago noted the license plate number of the car, but having no more than a side and back view of the operator, who was alone in the vehicle, he could only observe that the operator had long shoulder length hair and wore glasses. Blago did not stop the car and apprehend the operator. It may be surmised he was not in a position to do so.
Blago retrieved a copper slug from the machine, further assuring himself that the operator had violated Part Two, Section 4, of the “Rules and Regulations for the Use of the Sumner Tunnel and the Lt. William F. Callahan, Jr., Tunnel” (as amended by Amendment No. 1 effective June 22, 1967), which provides that “[n]o person shall do . . . any act with intent to evade payment of toll . . ..”
1
This rule was promulgated by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which has responsibility for
From the license plate number it was learned that the car was registered to the defendant, Joseph C. Pauley. Blago accordingly swore out a complaint in the East Boston District Court charging that Pauley, “being the driver of a motor vehicle which had used the Callahan Tunnel . . . did . . . deposit a copper slug ... in a meter at the end of the tunnel with intent to evade payment of the toll.” After trial, Pauley was found guilty and fined the maximum $50, with costs of $12.50. Pauley appealed to the Jury of Twelve Session of the Municipal Court of the City of Boston. He then duly waived a jury. At the trial in the Municipal Court, Blago was the only witness. He testified to the incident at the tunnel as recounted above. The defendant, who was present in court, had
1. We turn to a closer reading of the regulation to ascertain the meaning of the expression “prima facie responsible.” Cognate expressions such as “prima facie evidence” occur often in Massachusetts in civil contexts and have acquired a well settled meaning there. See
Cook
v.
Farm. Serv. Stores, Inc.
The expression “prima facie evidence” or the like also appears in criminal contexts. The effect of such evidence, unrebutted, cannot be so strong as in civil cases because of the established principle that a verdict may not be directed against a defendant in a criminal prosecution, see Wigmore, Evidence, § 7495, p. 312 (2d ed. 1940), with the corollary proposition that the trier of fact, judge or jury, cannot be compelled to find against the defendant as to any element of the crime. The handling of unrebutted “prima facie evidence” in a criminal case in the Commonwealth is illustrated by the judge’s charge to the jury in
Commonwealth
v.
Anselvich,
As the present case is criminal (see
Commonwealth
v.
Federico,
2. A line of cases in the Supreme Court of the United States has discussed the constitutional validity of the use in criminal trials of permissive inferences or presumptions structurally the same as the Massachusetts prima facie inference at bar. The court has upheld such inferences as applied to certain situations, and struck them down as applied to others. It has had trouble developing a rationale for its decisions. But the problems encountered are clear. If too loosely allowed, permissive inferences would tend to compromise the constitutional canon in criminal
To review the Supreme Court cases briefly:
Tot
v.
United States,
That standard was restated in
Leary
v.
United States,
The suggestion that the required standard might be more severe than that mentioned in
Tot
and elaborated in
Leary
also appeared in
Turner
v.
United States,
Learned commentators thought the
Turner
case in its fourth result embraced the stricter standard.
14
But in the latest case in the series,
Barnes
v.
United States,
The
Barnes
case involved a charge of knowingly possessing stolen checks; challenged was the common law
But if the defendant was being in any degree exposed to conviction because of a failure to explain, i.e., to pro
In the present case, taking what common sense suggests about the relationship of registration to operation together with the failure to produce, we think, following
Barnes
v.
United States,
that the judge as trier could justly find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, although he was not obliged to do so.
16
Cf. Ashford & Risinger, Presumptions, Assumptions, and Due
Exceptions overruled.
Notes
Section 4 reads as follows: “Evasion of Toll. No person shall do, or attempt to do, any act with intent to evade payment of toll or to defraud the Authority. Failure to stop at the toll booth or refusal to pay a toll by a driver about to use the tunnel from East Boston to Boston or who has used the tunnel from Boston to East Boston shall be deemed an act done with intent to evade payment of toll.”
Statute 1952, c. 354, § 5 (i), amended by St. 1955, c. 653, § 1, had allowed the Turnpike Authority “ [t]o establish rules and regulations for the use of the turnpike,” and the 1958 enactment authorizing tunnel regulations was modeled on that provision. The regulations established under the two statutes are generally similar, due allowance being made for the difference between turnpike and tunnel conditions; thus Part Two, Section 6, of the “Rules and Regulations for the Use of the Massachusetts Turnpike, Including the Boston Extension Thereof,” provides that “ [n]o person . . . shall do . . . any act with intent to . . . evade payment of toll.”
Besides the rule concerning evasion of toll, the rules promulgated for the tunnels govern matters such as the types of vehicles which are prohibited from using the tunnels, speeding, driving to endanger, driving under the influence of liquor, obedience to orders of tunnel police, staying in a lane, and leaving adequate space between vehicles.
Drivers in the tunnels (and on the turnpike) are also subject to the general statutes governing the operation of motor vehicles in Massachusetts and providing criminal penalties for violations.
Part Three, Article VIII, Section 2, of the turnpike rules and regulations is to the same effect.
It could be argued that St. 1958, c. 598, § 5(d), empowering the Authority to make rules governing the use of the tunnels, falls short of authorizing a regulation making the owner of a vehicle “prima facie responsible” for violation of tunnel rules: such a regulation, it could be urged, is not one governing the use of the tunnels, but is rather a regulation of evidence or procedure in the courts. Cf.
Thomes
v.
Meyer Store Inc.
There is no comparable use of ownership as proof of responsibility for traffic infractions in the general traffic laws of the Commonwealth, G. L. cc. 89, 90.
Connecticut and Pennsylvania have statutes making ownership prima facie evidence of operation at the time of a traffic law violation. Pa. Sts. Anno. Tit. 75, § 1212 (1971) (general provision). Conn. Gen. Sts. Anno. Tit. 14, § 14-107 (Supp. 1975) (specified offenses). See n. 16 below.
Among the decisions establishing these propositions are:
Cook
v.
Farm Serv. Stores, Inc.
The only other evidence in the case, that the officer’s fleeting impression of the driver of the car did not match the appearance of the defendant in court, may have been introduced simply to indicate the occasion for the use of the prima facie inference: the regulation invokes the inference when “the identity of the operator of the vehicle cannot be determined.”
In general, the police will prefer, if they can, to apprehend a violator on the spot. We need not deal with the speculative question of the application of the regulation where the police make no attempt to apprehend a violator when they could easily have done so, but go against the registrant instead.
In re Winship applies although the criminal offense is a minor one. As the court noted, a conviction not entailing loss of liberty may still stigmatize the offender.
It follows from
Winship
that the burden of persuasion may not be shifted to the defendant on any element of the crime. For example, as to the matter of alibi, see
Commonwealth
v.
McLeod,
The nature of a permissive inference or presumption is illuminated by
Turner
v.
United States,
See, too, the trial judge’s charge set out in
Barnes
v.
United States,
Suppose in the present case we add only evidence of the time of day when the episode occurred. Common sense might suggest to the trier that passenger cars are more likely to be driven by their registered owners during commuting hours than during working hours.
That ease of access by the defendant to evidence which can rebut a presumption is not by itself a basis for validating the presumption, is also forcefully stated in
Turner
v.
United States,
The statutory presumptions were (i) that unexplained possession of certain drugs connoted knowledge of illegal importation of the drugs, and (ii) that possession of the drugs without tax stamps connoted purchase of the drugs from a source other than an original stamped package. The presumptions held as to heroin, but failed as to cocaine; it was the tax stamp presumption with regard to cocaine to which the court applied the language about a “sufficiently real” possibility.
See McCormick, Evidence, § 344 (2d ed. 1972); LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, § 21 (1972); Christie and Pye, Presumptions and Assumptions in the Criminal Law: Another View, 1970 Duke L. J. 919, 923, n. 24; Holland and Chamberlain, Statutory Criminal Presumptions: Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt? 7 Valp. L. Rev. 147, 160-161 (1973).
The court’s footnote 11, appearing at the end of the quoted text, goes on to say: “It is true that the practical effect of instructing the jury on the inference arising from unexplained possession of recently stolen property is to shift the burden of going forward with evidence
The Connecticut and Pennsylvania statutes making ownership prima facie evidence of operation at the time of a traffic law violation (see n. 5 above) have been upheld by the courts. See
State
v.
Schonrog,
2 Conn. Cir. 239 (App. Div. 1963);
Commonwealth
v.
Foulke,
22 D. & C. (Pa.) 135 (1934).
Foulke
based its result on the
Permitting conviction for possession of a given article unless the accused produces evidence of having a license, can be justified by the rationale based on probabilities outlined in the text if there is a sufficient likelihood that persons having the possession are not licensed; it would typically be very easy for the accused to come forward with evidence of license. (The
Turner
case is near this model so far as it upholds a conviction based on a presumption that heroin lacking tax stamps was procured from a package without tax stamps.) Another theory has been suggested which can support the casting of a burden on the accused with respect to license: where the Legislature has power to prohibit conduct entirely, and means instead to regulate it closely, it may in furtherance of the regulation impose on a defendant the burden of showing that he has been granted a special privilege. See LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, § 21 (1972). This court has upheld, as applied to a prosecution for carrying a
It is perhaps worth mentioning that the Turnpike Authority could have avoided constitutional questions in the present situation by turning the offense into a “public welfare” offense (see
Commonwealth
v.
Graustein & Co.
