Commonwealth v. Ronald Boyer

Can the Commonwealth sustain its burden of proving that the defendant is a sexually dangerous person in a G. L. c. 123A proceeding, solely by relying on an expert’s opinion submitted at an earlier probable cause hearing and recanted at trial? We hold that it may not.1

The defendant timely moved for a directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. We examine the record for evidence from which a reasonable inference could be drawn *583in favor of the Commonwealth, without weighing that evidence. See Forlano v. Hughes, 393 Mass. 502, 504 (1984); Roddy & McNulty Ins. Agency, Inc. v.…