Articles Posted in Indecent Assault and Battery

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Fifty-two year old Mariano Liriano of Lawrence Massachusetts was arrested and charged with indecent assault and battery on a person over fourteen years old. The Lawrence Eagle Tribune reported that a seventeen year old girl accused Liriano of putting his hand on her leg and moving it up. According to the Tribune, the pair knew one another. The woman told Liriano to stop and he gave her a ride home. When she returned home she called the police. Liriaano was arrested at his home and charged with indecent assault and battery on a person over fourteen.

In Massachusetts, the crime of indecent assault and battery is a felony. A conviction for this offense carries a sentence of up to two years in jail or five years in state prison. See, M.G.L.A. 265 § 13H.

In Massachusetts, there are two theories under which the government can prosecute a person for assault and battery. The most common one is the intentional touching of another person without consent. A second way in which a person may be found guilty of assault and battery us when, instead of engaging in intentional conduct, an individual engages in reckless conduct that results in physical injury.When the police respond to a call for a “domestic violence” the police generally place someone under arrest. If you find yourself in this situation you must contact an experienced domestic violence attorney to protect your rights and ensure that a civil restraining order does not issue requiring you stay away from your home, your children or your spouse. Although a restraining order is considered a civil order if you are charged with violating that order it is criminal offense.

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The Boston Globe recently reported that a girls basketball coach at the Melrose YMCA was arrested and charged with rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under fourteen. According to the Boston Globe, the Middlesex County District Attorney alleges that the Reading defendant, “. . . over the course of a number of years, violated the trust placed in him as a coach of young girls and sexually assaulted this young victim.” The North Reading Police Chief stated that, “Because of the way that the suspect operated, our investigators are concerned that there could be additional victims who have not yet come forward.” The Reading resident was arraigned in the Woburn district court. However, the Middlesex County Grand Jury will likely indict the defendant and the case will proceed through the Middlesex Superior Court now located in Woburn, MA.

The maximum penalty for the crime of rape [M.G.L.A. 265 § 22] is life in prison. In order for the District Attorney to prove someone guilty of rape, it must prove that the defendant compelled another to have intercourse by force against an individual’s will or compelled by threat of bodily injury. Although the crime of rape in Massachusetts is a crime of violence, the force used to accomplish the rape need not be physical force. Additionally, in certain circumstances the force necessary for the District Attorney to prove rape may be constructive force as well as physical force, violence, or threat of bodily harm. However, if Commonwealth relies on constructive force it must also prove that sexual intercourse was against the victim’s will.

The maximum sentence for a defendant who is convicted for indecent assault and battery on a child under fourteen [M.G.L.A. 265 § 13B ] for the first time is two and one half years in jail or ten years in state prison. For proceedings under this statute, a person under fourteen years of age is considered incapable of consenting to the conduct of the defendant.

In Massachusetts, a touching is considered indecent when the conduct of the defendant violates social and behavioural expectations to such a degree that A touching is indecent, within meaning of statute governing indecent assault and battery, when, judged by the normative standard of societal mores, violates social and behavioural expectations, in a manner which is fundamentally offensive to moral values and which the common sense of society would regard as immodest, immoral and improper.

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