December 20, 2010

• Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 11:42 am

The defendant, who was in the emergency room of Massachusetts General Hospital, engaged in conversation with a female also in the emergency room, and was arrested after allegedly brushing crumbs from a cracker the female was eating off of her shirt, after it was alleged that the defendant brushed her breast in an inappropriate manner. The defendant was represented by Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Steven J. Topazio. Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Steven J. Topazio retained the services of a private investigator to locate potential witnesses and video surveillance. During the discovery stage of the case, Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Steven J. Topazio filed a motion for authorization to subpoena complete hospital records of the alleged victim pursuant to Mass. Rules of Criminal Procedure 17(a)(2). Massachusetts allows discovery in criminal cases at the discretion of the trial court. Commonwealth v. Galvin, 323 Mass. 205, 80 N.E. 2d 825 (1948). Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 233, § 1 (2008), a notary public or justice of the peace may issue a summons requested by a defendant without prior judicial approval to summons into court documents that may be needed at a hearing or trial. Prior judicial approval is only needed when documents are summonsed prior to trial. Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 444 Mass. 786, 791 n. 12 (2005).
Under Mass R. Crim. P. 17(a), only a judge has authority to issue a summons prior to trial, Commonwealth v. Lampron, 441 Mass. 265, 270 (2004), and a party moving to subpoena documents prior to trial must make a showing of good cause before a judge. Id. at 269. The “requirement that a judge must be satisfied that the Lampron standards are met before a summons issues is applicable only when the documents being sought must be produced prior to trial.” Mitchell, 444 Mass. at 792 n. 12.
Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Steven J. Topazio is aware that in Massachusetts sexual assault cases, trial and pretrial motions are often critical to a successful defense at trial. Despite opposition from the Assistant District Attorney, Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Steven J. Topazio persuaded the court to grant his motion to produce the hospital records of the alleged victim, who was also at the hospital at the time of the allegation seeking treatment. Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Steven J. Topazio discovered inconsistent statements in the hospital records which indicated that his client only spoke to the complainant but never touched her, and shared this information with the assistant district attorney. Today at trial, as a result of intense pretrial preparation and discovery of exculpatory evidence, the complainant failed to appear to testify and the case was dismissed.