Attorney Matthew Peterson tried a case in Suffolk Superior Court in May 2026 for a client charged with aggravated rape of a child, and the jury could not agree on a verdict. After several days of deliberation, the judge declared a mistrial. The Commonwealth then dropped the case entirely. Our client had been held on high bail for roughly a year while the case was pending. He left court without a conviction and without any obligation to register as a sex offender.
Our Client Was Facing Aggrevated Rape of A Child Charges G.L. c. 265, § 22
Aggravated rape of a child is one of the most serious charges in Massachusetts under G.L. c. 265, § 23A. The version our client faced was aggravated by the age difference between him and the complainant, and it carries a mandatory minimum of ten years in state prison.
Mandatory means what it says. A judge cannot suspend the sentence or reduce it below ten years. A person serving that sentence cannot get probation, parole, work release, or a furlough, and cannot earn time off for good behavior, until the full ten years are served. A conviction would also have placed our client on the sex offender registry.
The Facts We Had To Overcome
This was not a clean case. Our client was arrested as he boarded a flight, and he admitted that he had left the jurisdiction because of the accusation. Prosecutors use evidence like that to argue consciousness of guilt, and it is the kind of fact a jury remembers.
We did not try to hide it. We addressed it head on.
How We Tried The Case
The accusation itself did not hold up under scrutiny, and we showed the jury why.
The accounts kept changing. The account the complainant gave shifted over time. We walked the jury through each version and showed where the details moved.
There was a reason to make it up. The complainant’s mother owed our client money. Ending that debt was a motive, and the jury heard about it.
The story did not make physical sense. The claim was that the abuse happened dozens of times in a public parking lot in East Boston, directly next to a fire station. That is one of the least private places in the neighborhood. We asked the jury to picture it.
We took on the Commonwealth’s expert. Prosecutors in child sex cases often call an expert to explain why a child might delay reporting abuse. In Massachusetts, that expert can describe general patterns in how children disclose, but cannot tell the jury that this particular child is telling the truth. We used cross-examination to explore the other side of that science: how suggestible children can be, and how memory changes with repeated questioning.
How We Answered The Flight Evidence
Massachusetts law gave us the framework. When a jury hears evidence that a defendant fled, the judge instructs them that flight alone can never support a conviction, that there are many reasons an innocent person runs, and that feelings of guilt are sometimes present in people who did nothing wrong.
That instruction fit our client’s situation exactly. A false accusation of raping a child is precisely the kind of allegation an innocent person flees. Our argument to the jury was simple: running tells you a person is frightened, not that a person is guilty.
What a Hung Jury and a Dropped Case Actually Mean
A deadlocked jury is not an acquittal. When jurors cannot reach a unanimous verdict, the judge declares a mistrial, and the Commonwealth is free to try the case again. Prosecutors sometimes do.
Here, they did not. After the mistrial, the Commonwealth filed a nolle prosequi, the formal notice that it is dropping a charge and will not pursue it. That ended the case.
Why Trial Experience Matters in a Suffolk Superior Court Sex Crime Case
Cases like this one are won by preparation and by a willingness to try them. A mandatory ten-year sentence leaves almost nothing to negotiate, so the only real leverage comes from being ready to put the Commonwealth’s evidence in front of a jury and take it apart. That takes a Suffolk Superior Court sex crime trial lawyer who has done it before.
If you or someone in your family has been charged with a sex offense in Boston or anywhere in Eastern Massachusetts, get advice early. The Law Office of Matthew W. Peterson offers free consultations on criminal charges. Call or text 617-295-7500, or send us a message below.
