Commonwealth v. Pettijohn

This case comes here on the defendant’s exception to the denial of his motion for entry of a finding of not guilty. He was charged in an indictment with having escaped from an officer of the Suffolk County house of correction while being conveyed to the Municipal Court of the Dorchester District. General Laws c. 268, § 16, as appearing in St. 1973, c. 1062, § 1, punishes escapes or attempted escapes from “any penal institution or ... from the custody of any officer thereof.” The defendant’s argument that the deputy sheriff from whose custody he escaped is not an “officer” of a penal…