Our client’s felony sex offense charges were DISMISSED in Concord District Court after the Commonwealth answered not ready for trial. He had been facing mandatory sex offender registration and years of state prison exposure. He walked out of court with no conviction, no probation, and no obligation to register.
Our Client Was Facing Felony Sex Offense Charges G.L. c. 272, § 28 & G.L. c. 272, § 29C
Our client was a young man with no criminal record. He was charged with two felonies.
The first was dissemination of matter harmful to a minor under G.L. c. 272, § 28. The second was possession of child pornography under G.L. c. 272, § 29C. Each count carried up to five years in state prison or two and a half years in the house of correction, plus a fine of up to $10,000. Each count required registration as a sex offender upon conviction.
One detail made the case unusually dangerous. For both of these charges, Massachusetts law does not permit a continuance without a finding, and it does not permit the case to be placed on file. Those two dispositions are how most first-time defendants resolve a case without a conviction. Neither was available. There was no soft landing to negotiate toward. Either the case ended without a conviction, or a young man with a clean record became a registered sex offender.
That reality shaped every decision we made.
Why We Did Not Rush To Resolve The Case
The pressure to resolve a case quickly comes from everywhere. Clients want the anxiety to end. Families want it off their minds. Prosecutors want their dockets to move.
We slowed down instead, because the Commonwealth’s evidence had problems that were only going to get worse for the Commonwealth over time.
Some of the discovery we received was unusable. A video recording arrived without audio. A digital extraction file could not be opened in any readable form. We put those defects in writing to the District Attorney’s office, and we kept putting them in writing. A case cannot be resolved responsibly on evidence the defense cannot review, and no client should plead to a charge that follows him for life based on files nobody can open.
The complaining witness also lived out of state. That mattered. The Commonwealth cannot simply order an out-of-state civilian witness to appear in a Massachusetts District Court. Producing that witness takes cooperation, travel, and time, and the further a case gets from the original allegation, the harder it becomes.
None of this was dramatic. It was patience, documentation, and a refusal to accept a resolution that would have destroyed our client’s future.
How Sex Offense Charges Get Dismissed in Massachusetts When the Commonwealth is Not Ready
Eventually the case reached a trial date. The Commonwealth answered not ready.
When that happens, the judge may dismiss the case for want of prosecution. The decision belongs to the judge, not to either lawyer. Judges do not grant these dismissals automatically, and a prosecutor who asks for one more continuance will often get it. What moves a judge is a defendant who has been waiting, a defense that is prepared, and a record showing the delay is not the defendant’s fault.
That record does not build itself. It is built over months, one court date at a time, by an attorney who keeps showing up ready and keeps documenting what the Commonwealth has failed to produce.
Here, the judge dismissed both counts.
What a Dismissal Does and Does Not Do To Your Record
A dismissal is not a conviction. It does not trigger sex offender registration, because in Massachusetts the duty to register follows a conviction or an admission, not an accusation.
But a dismissal does not erase anything. The charges, the arraignment, and the dismissal all remain visible on a criminal record until they are sealed. Anyone running a background check can see that the case existed. A person whose case ended in dismissal can ask a judge to seal the record under Massachusetts law, and the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Pon made that request meaningfully easier to win than it once was. Sealing is discretionary, so it takes a real showing. For someone rebuilding a life after a sex offense allegation, it is usually the necessary next step.
Winning the case is the first half of the work. Cleaning up the record is the second half.
Facing a Sex Offense Charge in Massachusetts?
An accusation is not a conviction, and a charge that looks overwhelming on paper can still fall apart. If you are facing a sex offense charge anywhere in Massachusetts, Attorney Matthew W. Peterson, a trusted Boston criminal defense attorney, can give you an honest assessment of what the Commonwealth actually has and what it will actually be able to prove.
With over 15 years of combined legal experience in court and trial, the firm offers free consultations for criminal charges. Call or text 617-295-7500, or send us a message below.
