Old case dismissed

[nstassel]

View attachment 275671 Fixed a 1969 conviction today in Charlestown. The client received a guilty 1 year suspended sentence to deer island for carrying a firearm. At the end of probation the case was dismissed. Judge even hit the gavel and everything. Flash forward 49 years and he's had an ltc for decades but has his renewal rejected because now NCIS has this case as a conviction.

After getting court to dig out the old books it was clearly an illegal sentence. I filed a motion to correct the docket and dismiss the case. The commonwealth objected but the judge agreed to vacate the conviction and enter a cwof with a dismissal. Now he'll get his license back.

 

[boilermaker]

Great job!

 

[SgtHal75]

Fixed a 1969 conviction today in Charlestown. The client received a guilty 1 year suspended sentence to deer island for carrying a firearm. At the end of probation the case was dismissed. Judge even hit the gavel and everything. Flash forward 49 years and he's had an ltc for decades but has his renewal rejected because now NCIS has this case add a conviction.

After getting court to dig out the old books it was clearly an illegal sentence. I filed a motion to correct the docket and dismiss the case. The commonwealth objected but the judge agreed to vacate the conviction and enter a cwof with a dismissal. Now he'll get his license back.

Good stuff out of you Sir!!!!!

 

[FPrice]

Very good work, thank you.

 

[DW357]

Nicely done Neil!!

 

[richc]

Well done, counselor!

 

[greencobra]

 

[Garys]

Well done, well done indeed.

From your post, I'm inferring that old cases are being entered into the database so that they can be found on line. If that includes sending information to the FBI for NICS checks, it might explain why after seven years my son no longer gets delayed for a dismissal from 2005. The case sat as "open" for years when he went to purchase firearms, but recently he bought one with no problem.

 

[Happy feet]

Nice job

 

[nstassel]

Well done, well done indeed.

From your post, I'm inferring that old cases are being entered into the database so that they can be found on line. If that includes sending information to the FBI for NICS checks, it might explain why after seven years my son no longer gets delayed for a dismissal from 2005. The case sat as "open" for years when he went to purchase firearms, but recently he bought one with no problem.

 

[drgrant]

Nice job!

It does make my stomach turn, though, that "the commonwealth objected"... like, seriously? So the prosecutor or whoever it was there, representing the state.... doesn't even recognize the validity of due process? I realize the state has an "interest" in "their side" but in something that is blatantly wrong... jesus cwithe.

-Mike

 

[MuzzleDiscipline]

man this is keeping me up at night

what did I forget that I did?

 

[nstassel]

Correct. As older and older cases are added, many mistakes are occurring. Interns at dcjis are reading old information and adding it to mircs which then is copied into nics. Only the court can correct these errors which is then corrected in the cori system and then dcjis will recognize their mistake.

If someone appeals a nics rejection an obvious error can get fixed, but most of these cases are not clear cut. Like this one, there can be two ways to read a docket entry and the mircs entry will always be the more prohibitive interpretation for the safety of the kidz.

 

[MuzzleDiscipline]

So what does it cost ballpark to clean one of these messes up?

I can't help but see Harvey Keitel in a tux

 

[nstassel]

Nice job!

It does make my stomach turn, though, that "the commonwealth objected"... like, seriously? So the prosecutor or whoever it was there, representing the state.... doesn't even recognize the validity of due process? I realize the state has an "interest" in "their side" but in something that is blatantly wrong... jesus cwithe.

-Mike

Yeah I had a tentative agreement worked out with the usual ada there but she was out. The replacement ada agreed that the disposition was illegal but disagreed that my interpretation was the one intended by the court in 1969. But the law says if there are two possible interpretations the more lenient one must be applied to a criminal defendant so we won.

Interestingly this was a an old carrying charge pre 1974 so I could argue that the judge must have intended to cwof the case with a alternative sentence of one year because the mandatory was not yet in effect.

 

[bill o]

Correct. As older and older cases are added, many mistakes are occurring. Interns at dcjis are reading old information and adding it to mircs which then is copied into nics.

If a hungover intern enters bad data, is there anything to stop it from getting into NICS? Do they do parallel entry and reconcile differences?

 

[nstassel]

If a hungover intern enters bad data, is there anything to stop it from getting into NICS? Do they do parallel entry and reconcile differences?

No because from back then there aren't any mutiple records to compare, only the odd scraps left from the records back then. Of course once it's entered, then it sprouts up all over the place in several formats.

 

[HuntMaine]

I can’t understand how the object? It was wrong so how do you object to you doing something wrong as if it were right?!!

 

[fencer]

You know, as a group, we all tend to use the prefix " blood sucking" when we say lawyer. Until we need one!

Thank you Mr. Tassel, and a shout out to all of the attorneys who are here on NES. It sure is great knowing that you guys are on our side, and really know your stuff. Being a gun owner in Mass can be a bit concerning at times. Attorneys like yourself and @swatgig , offer a bit of reassurance that there are good people out there, who know the law, that you can turn to if you need help.
Sometimes a simple " like" is not enough. The fact that there are much more lucrative avenues for an attorney to pursue speaks to your character and is not lost on this group. A sincere Thank You.

 

[SpaceCritter]

No because from back then there aren't any mutiple records to compare, only the odd scraps left from the records back then. Of course once it's entered, then it sprouts up all over the place in several formats.

I can imagine (and could even if I didn't spend most of my workdays in databases).

Some months ago, we were reading the local weekly when we spotted something curious: someone just bought our house for $490k. Well, (1) this place ain't worth $490k, and (2) our bank balance isn't up by almost half a million.

Needless to say, it was cause for concern. Fortunately we have friends in the Town Clerk's office, who both confirmed nothing has been presented indicating any sort of action on our property, and who promised to keep an eye out.

Shortly thereafter, we started receiving newcomer-style mail addressed to someone not living here, first name "Sherrone" (black lady's name??). Now I'm thinking some sort of scam is afoot. Some hours of investigation later, I was able to figure out that, up the street in the McMansion development, someone with the same last name as "Sherrone" (but who's name was actually Sharon) bought a house at the same street number as ours, for $490k. I circled back to our Town Clerk friends. "Yep - happens all the time. Someone at the commercial paper that publishes land transfers keyed it in wrong."

Meantime, even Zillow picked it up. I contacted Zillow and explained the matter to them, thinking they'd delete the erroneous sales record. Nope. They wanted me to prove we didn't sell the house. How I was supposed to prove a negative, they didn't say. I provided the phone number to the Town Clerk's office and suggested they might give them a call. Or use the online assessor's card search tool, which would show no transfer. Nope - onus on me to prove a negative.

It's March of the following year, and we're still receiving mail for Sherrone, and I'm still policing land transfer records.

 

[bill o]

No because from back then there aren't any mutiple records to compare, only the odd scraps left from the records back then. Of course once it's entered, then it sprouts up all over the place in several formats.

Gotcha, but I meant something more like two interns entering the data from the same case/docket, and seeing if their entries agree or disagree. I'm guessing there's little quality control with this stuff, because government. I know from experience that manual data entry is tedious and error-prone.

 

[nstassel]

Gotcha, but I meant something more like two interns entering the data from the same case/docket, and seeing if their entries agree or disagree. I'm guessing there's little quality control with this stuff, because government. I know from experience that manual data entry is tedious and error-prone.

Well from what I can see they are trained to enter the most restrictive possible interpretation of data. For example in cases I've seen a script letter can be interpreted as a G or a D. It will get entered as a G and "no gunz". A case will say guilty and dismissed, it will get entered as guilty and "no gunz". That's the quality control the government wants, not to be fair to the citizen.

 

[swatgig]

You know, as a group, we all tend to use the prefix " blood sucking" when we say lawyer.

That's the formal title.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

I stopped getting property tax bills and got stung for $80 interest when I found out. The problem was the billing address was entered incorrectly when I had the title changed from joint with my wife to a probate avoidance trust.

 

[Rat187]

Sweet, justice !

 

[Garys]

This statement,

If someone appeals a nics rejection an obvious error can get fixed, but most of these cases are not clear cut. Like this one, there can be two ways to read a docket entry and the mircs entry will always be the more prohibitive interpretation for the safety of the kidz.

and this statement,

Yeah I had a tentative agreement worked out with the usual ada there but she was out. The replacement ada agreed that the disposition was illegal but disagreed that my interpretation was the one intended by the court in 1969. But the law says if there are two possible interpretations the more lenient one must be applied to a criminal defendant so we won.

Appear to be diametrically opposed. Is that a potential route of appeal?

 

[nstassel]

This statement,



and this statement,



Appear to be diametrically opposed. Is that a potential route of appeal?

The rule of lenity is a court doctrine. The practice of screwing over citizens with conflicting information is the government practice. You'd have to take it to court to fix a conflict.

 

[MisterHappy]

Nice job!

It does make my stomach turn, though, that "the commonwealth objected"... like, seriously? So the prosecutor or whoever it was there, representing the state.... doesn't even recognize the validity of due process? I realize the state has an "interest" in "their side" but in something that is blatantly wrong... jesus cwithe.

-Mike

It seems to me, that it's the judicial equivalent of the ______________ , where protecting your own (even from 50 years ago) takes precedence over other considerations. That way, YOUR legacy will be protected by your successors. Stare decisis, and all that.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

It seems to me, that it's the judicial equivalent of the ______________ , where protecting your own (even from 50 years ago) takes precedence over other considerations. That way, YOUR legacy will be protected by your successors. Stare decisis, and all that.

Actually, it's more about the win/loss. When Atty Tassel took the case to court, it was up to the state's attorney to oppose it. State attorneys play to win, and virtually never say "justice will be served by giving the other side what it wants" as that would be a loss on their ledger.