November 20, 2013

• Steven Topazio wrote this May 5, 2014 at 4:27 am

The client, a 19 year old college student, who was in Boston celebrating the Fourth of July, got arrested after punching and breaking the windshield of a motor vehicle, hired Boston Criminal Lawyer Steven J. Topazio to represent him. Attorney Topazio met with the district attorney in an attempt to resolve the case and requested pre-trial probation with the condition that his client, who had no prior criminal record, do 30 hours of community service and pay restitution for any damage he caused. Pre-trial probation pursuant to MGL c. 276 section 87 is a court-approved agreement or contract between the prosecutor and defendant before a trial, a plea of guilty, or admission to sufficient facts to warrant a finding of guilty. Under such an agreement, a defendant is placed on probation for a period of time and under certain conditions. According to the 2003 case of Commonwealth v. Cheney, a judge cannot place someone on supervised probation without a trial and then dismiss the case over the Commonwealth’s objection. The assistant district attorney considered Attorney Topazio’s request but indicated that he had to call his supervisor to get authority to agree to pre-trial probation. Today, the district attorney’s office agreed to pre-trial probation and the court placed the client on pre-trial probation for six months. There was no admission to any crime and the client maintains a clean criminal record.