Commonwealth v. Zine

Our principal concern in considering the defendant’s appeal is whether the appearance of, as opposed to the existence in fact of any bias or prejudice, see S.J.C. Rule 3:09, Canon 3(C)(1),1 382 Mass. 811 (1981), required the trial *131judge to recuse himself from hearing the defendant’s case as requested by defense counsel. We conclude that the judge was not required to recuse himself, and affirm the judgments.

The defendant was attending his probation surrender hearing at the Brockton District Court on August 11, 1999. At the conclusion of the probation officer’s testimony, First Justice David G.…