August 22, 2013
- Steven Topazio wrote this May 5, 2014 at 3:52 am
The client, a 28 year old head line chef, and father of two, was arrested on multiple counts after getting into a confrontation with police, hired Boston Criminal Defense Attorney Steven J. Topazio to defend him. Attorney Topazio challenged the evidence and filed a Motion to Dismiss in the case. The police report in the case indicated that as officers who were investigating an unrelated crime of a possible rape in progress, they came upon the client in a parked car in a parking lot and attempted to handcuff him for their safety, when he began to resist by thrashing around and trying to pull his arms free from their grasp. The client began yelling obscenities at the police and for other people to come outside and help him. The police report did not report that the client was under arrest for disorderly when he pulled his arm away from the police officer who was pulling the client through the broken window of his motor vehicle. When trying to place the client into the police cruiser, it was alleged the client kicked an officer in the head. Attorney Topazio argued that the evidence used to establish probable cause for the charge of Disorderly Conduct in violation of M.G.L. c. 272 §53, relied upon by the clerk-magistrate, was insufficient as the report did not establish that defendant either intended to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly created a risk of public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm. The application for complaint is based upon the report, which establishes that the defendant was yelling for help after being pulled through a broken car window hole smashed by police. The report merely states that the defendant, who didn’t want to be touched or interact with police, pulled away from police when they were trying to handcuff him allegedly for police safety as the defendant was not under arrest. Attorney Topazio argued that these facts were insufficient to establish disorderly conduct. Today, Attorney Topazio persuaded the court to dismiss all charges against his client upon a a change of plea to guilty probation to the resisting arrest.