Articles Posted in Assault and Battery

Massachusetts assault and battery charges, with or without a dangerous weapon can be prosecuted in fact scenarios which may surprise you.

Many people are still surprised by what can constitute a “dangerous weapon”. Today, Attorney Sam’s Take will break it down for you.

To prosecute for an assault, the Commonwealth need only show you threatened somebody with something in their presence, putting them reasonably in fear.

To prosecute for a battery, the Commonwealth’s burden is to prove a touching that the touchee found offensive. No matter how slight or for what reason.

A deadly weapon? Virtually anything..

Let’s turn to some events which apparently took place on Sunday early evening.

50-year-old Robert Tiernan was whacking some weeds with his weed-whacker near a fence. On the other side of that fence was a couple who were outside looking at their garden.

Or, at least, Trying to..
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Unlike Bullying, Massachusetts hazing is actually illegal.

Not that all cases involving hazing are prosecuted. This one will be, though.

Our story hit the media in the wee hours when Boston police began their investigation into a possible hazing incident that occurred at an unsanctioned Boston University fraternity.

The officers responded to a newly-renovated Allston home just after midnight on Monday. The call came from neighbors who said they heard yelling coming from the house. According to one such neighbor, the shouting contained “‘Yes sir,’ like somebody’s giving somebody orders and they have to obey”.

Upon arrival, the officers apparently discovered five young men stripped down to their underwear. They “were covered head to toe with all sorts of condiment type substances. All five were shivering and had horrified and fearful looks of their faces. They were all tied together via duct tape wrist to wrist to form a human chain.”

Upon cleaning the various sauces off their bodies, the officers saw that all five gentlemen had red welts and markings all over their backs.”

The men were asked if they were okay and, according to the officers, one of them “looked right at officer and with tears coming down his face shook his head…indicating no.”

It turns out that the building is sort of an undercover fraternity home of sorts; there are no fraternity letters outside it. However, police point out that they found framed photos of members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity inside. There were also apparently a dozen other college students scattered around the two-story home. Some, officers say, were hiding, or pretending to be sleeping. Further, neighbors say that mainly Boston University students live there.

One such neighbor stated that the incident was not surprising, “…but it’s definitely unfortunate. And I guess it’s even more unfortunate that I’m not surprised.”

The first reaction by Boston University was that the incident was being investigated for possible hazing. The University’s spokesperson also indicated that Alpha Epsilon Pi is a national fraternity, but not one recognized by B.U.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Hazing

There have been quite a few incidents of hazing in the press of recent years. Further, this is not the first time this year in which B.U. has been at the center of one such incident.
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I was walking down the street yesterday, thinking about the Mattapan Massacre case and wondering if the judge was going to discharge the jury by the end of the day. Suddenly, I looked across the street and happened to notice somebody who seemed odd.

You know what I mean? The type of guy you can’t really put your finger on what is “wrong”…but you just know that something is.. For example, he looked like he had headphones on and he was bobbing his head back and forth. That might have been ok…but his head was not really bobbing to any type of beat I had ever heard before.

He was dressed in clothes that might make it very difficult to identify him. He was wearing a “hoodie” sweatshirt and dark jeans. His hands were in his pockets as he walked.

The guy also looked out of place. I knew this neighborhood and it was a very affluent area. Most of the folks who live there are white. I could not tell what race this guy was…but his skin did seem darker and…like I say…he did not look “right”.

Naturally, I called the police from my cell phone. They said that they would look into it. However, I didn’t see any cops around at the time and so I couldn’t be sure they would get there before the guy disappeared.

The police told me not to follow him.

I followed him.

Finally, he turned to me and confronted me. He asked me why I was following him.

I asked him what he was doing here.

He repeated his question and I repeated mine.

This kid clearly had an attitude.

I tried to frighten him into submission. I shoved him a little. Not too much, but enough to show him that I meant business.

The jerk looked like he was about to strike back.

So, I shot him.

In self-defense.

He died.

You don’t suppose that somebody is going to charge me with any crime do you?

What do you mean “homicide“?
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The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has long been telling you that the law does not really recognize “self-help” solutions to problems.

Particularly when said self-help is a crime.

Some folks seem to still believe that if a person has a good reason to commit a crime…such as revenge…then the court will look the other way. It doesn’t.

Let’s take a case that dominated the news on Friday. It hails from Salem. A woman was brought to court on charges that she boarded a school bus and hit a 5-year-old girl as apparent pay-back for hitting her son previously.

The woman, Dominique Hans (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was arraigned Friday in Salem district court, charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct. She pleaded “not guilty” and was released after a bail hearing.

Bail was set in the amount of $1,000 and she was Ordered by the court to have no contact with the alleged victim or her family and to stay away from the bus stop.

The Defendant, a bit more vocal than most, then made statements to the press that she merely “confronted” the girl for hitting her 6-year-old son, but did not hit her. She does say, though, that she held the girl’s face to get her attention.

Apparently, the Defendant’s ire was worsened when, she says, the school officials ignored her complaints that the kindergartner had hit the little boy.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Massachusetts Assault And Battery

Well, there are a couple of points to discuss in this matter.
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This is a great time to be watching the criminal justice system!

Unfortunately, with a current changeover in my office and my son’s Bar Mitzvah occurring this week, it has been difficult to keep the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog current on a daily basis. This should change next week. Meanwhile, campus criminal matters do seem to be dominating the headlines!

Today, the misadventures of Jerry Sandusky’s lawyer seem to be big news. We last left that paragon of legal strategy when he allowed his client to make a fool of himself on national tv…all while the lawyer watched from another location unable to save his client…assuming he even recognized his client was in trouble!

For today, though, we finish our two-parter about the Dean College matter. As you will recall, this appears to be one of the few campus assaults that is not actually a sexual assault. Nope, just your garden variety Massachusetts assault and battery matter….with many, many wrinkles.

When we left off, I was asking whether, other than the obvious, there were other potential criminal defendants in the picture.

The answer, by the way, was in the affirmative.
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By now, you have undoubtedly heard about the Dean College assault and battery fiasco.

I know it is not technically Massachusetts bullying or hazing, but it does involved some allegedly illegal conduct.

Even if the authorities seem not to have figured out how yet.

In fact, it involves the possibilities of several criminal acts.

Several of the students have already been expelled form the school and Franklin police who are conducting the criminal investigation say that the “mob” who cheered on the attack are likely to face charges…as is the alleged attacker himself.

Franklin police Deputy Chief Stephen Semerjian indicates that said charges could include unarmed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, to accessory to a crime.

Well, I guess that’s a start…

Attorney Sam’s Take On Omni-Directional Assault Cases

This case could actually be subtitled “can you spot all the potential Massachusetts crimes.”
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You may be a bit surprised at how this experienced Boston criminal lawyer’s views the recent Andover hazing debacle given my oft-spouted views on Massachusetts bullying.

Simply put, it is not the same situation.

One similarity it does have, however, is the attention of Attorney General Martha Coakley. She is said to be scrutinizing the Andover public school system because of the latest hazing scandal.

Under the current Massachusetts law, Hazing is described as follows:

any conduct or method of initiation into any student organization, whether on public or private property, which willfully or recklessly endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other person. Such conduct shall include whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug or other substance, or any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the physical health of any such student or other person, or which subjects such student or other person to extreme mental stress, including extended deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation.

In fact, Hazing is a crime under M.G.L.A. 269 § 17, the applicable statue, which provides for a potential jail term of one year as well as substantial fines should this law be broken.

Apparently, though, the AG is more concerned with the fact that the school has failed to file a complete hazing-prevention plan with the state. Yes…kind of those anti-bullying policies that various schools are failing to provide pursuant to their applicable, if worthless, statute.

Andover School Committee member Richard Collins, a track coach at the high school for 37 years, is also concerned. He says, “The rules state what you’re supposed to do. If you aren’t doing that, then you need to …I’m confident that if that has to happen, then it will.”

A mighty strong statement if nothing else…
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Tonight is Halloween in Massachusetts. Well, except for the various cities and towns who have had to move the festivities to later because of this weekend’s weather issues.

Now, I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade, and, hey, I enjoy seeing the celebrations of monsters, mass murderers and creatures of the night as much as the next guy…but there are some potential law enforcement dangers of which you might want to be aware.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Potential Legal Issues On Halloween Night

“Aw, c’mon, Sam! Do you have to ruin this for us too? I mean, everybody knows that the costumed charactors who prowl the streets on Halloween night are simply fun-loving celebrants who mean no harm, right?”

Well, yes and no. I must announce my bias first, though. As I have mentioned in the past, I live in Salem, MA. Halloween night is a bigger holiday than Christmas and Chanuka put together where I live. In fact, the celebration really begins with a parade much earlier in October and seems to be celebrated by blocking all traffic in every way imaginable for the rest of the month.
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On Saturday night, a 31-year old woman was jogging on the Esplanade. Suddenly,
she reports that a gang of men surrounded and attacked her.

Apparently, she was able to escape the men after having been punched twice in
the head. She says that the men had been standing around and drinking beer
when she passed them and they attacked her.

The jogger is indeed lucky that she escaped without further harm from the
attack. There have been three sexual assaults on the Esplanade since 2007,
according to the police. However, the Commonwealth does not believe that this
weekend’s incident is related to those earlier ones.

In my last blog, we discussed how the crime of Massachusetts assault and battery can trigger other, more serious charges. You do not need a Boston criminal lawyer to tell you that what happened this past Saturday night involved assault and battery. We have also discussed that it may not even matter who did the punching because the Commonwealth would likely charge all the men under the theory that the group
attack was a joint venture.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Massachusetts Assault And Battery

“Sam, I notice that sometimes it is called “assault and battery” and other times
simply “assault”. What is the difference?”

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