January 16, 2013

• Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 7:16 pm

The client, a 44 year old laborer who was on probation, was arrested by an MBTA Transit Police Officer working in plainclothes, after the client bumped the plainclothes police officer who was trying to video record the client’s actions on his cell phone. Boston Criminal Lawyer Steven J. Topazio challenged the Prosecutor’s case on the grounds that the contact was unintentional and his client should not have been arrested. Boston Criminal Attorney Topazio argued that his client was no different than any celebrity who doesn’t want to be filmed and pushes away the paparazzi, but argued that his client never intentionally touched the undercover police officer. Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Topazio argued that it is not enough for the Commonwealth to prove that his client acted negligently—that is, acted in a way that a reasonably careful person would not, but argued that the Commonwealth must prove that the client’s actions went beyond mere negligence and amounted to recklessness before he could be convicted. In Massachusetts, a defendant acts recklessly if he knew, or should have known, that such actions were very likely to cause substantial harm to someone, but he runs that risk and goes ahead anyway. In other words, the defendant must have intended his acts which resulted in the touching, in the sense that those acts did not happen accidentally. Today, Boston Criminal Attorney Topazio obtained convinced the Commonwealth and the Court to file the charges against his client without a change of plea, thus avoiding a trial and violation of his client’s probation.