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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dedham, MA - July 24, 2009
Criminal Defense Lawyer Elliot Savitz on Disorderly
Conduct Laws & The Gates Case
A lot of people have asked me about the laws of disorderly conduct
in Massachusetts in light of the the Cambridge police department's
arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct.
and the subsequent
media frenzy.
Strictly on the legal merits, it's pretty clear that the case was
weak, and the disorderly conduct charge wouldn't have stood much of
a chance in court. The Middlesex County District Attorney's office
recognized this, which is why they instantly dismissed the charge.
Did Gates get special treatment because of his status in the
community, or because of his prominent defense attorney, Charles
Ogletree?
The answer to that is mostly "No". The only difference is that
with a case of this profile, the Middlesex DA jumped in and
essentially dropped
the case (known as a "null pros" or null prosecution) instantly. It
is extremely rare for a criminal case to be dropped by the
prosecutor before a defendant is ever arraigned before a judge.
If Gates had been a typical citizen, he likely would have gone
through the normal procedures of being arraigned in Cambridge
District Court the next day and he would have plead not guilty. He
then would have been assigned a court date for a pretrial conference
some weeks later.
At the pretrial, I believe any competent private defense attorney
or public defender would have been able to get the dismissed at that
time. The evidence was simply not strong, and the prosecutor who was
assigned the case would have likely realized that.
Cops are human, and they do overreact. The arrest people all of
the time, and many of them are not guilty. This is self-evident. If
the police only arrested guilty people, then we wouldn't need
lawyers and courts! They could just escort people right to jail to
start serving time.
Fortunately, that isn't how it works. You are innocent until
proven guilty. And sometimes proof of guilt is a significant
burden for the prosecution, especially in cases like this.
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Further Reading:
Boston Globe Coverage of Gates Arrest and Aftermath
Mass Disorderly Conduct
Laws & Defense
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Elliot Savitz is a Massachusetts Criminal Defense Attorney,
with offices in Dedham and Brockton, MA. He offers a free criminal
consultation to anyone facing a criminal charge. His web site is
http://www.masscriminaldefense.com and his phone number is
(781)326-2700.
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