Commonwealth v. Carrunchio

*944On the day before the trial, the prosecution awoke to the circumstance that its principal witness, a police officer, was off on summer vacation. The Commonwealth at once notified the defendant’s lawyer and informed him that it would have to ask for a continuance. When the matter, the following morning, came before a judge of the District Court other than the one who had granted the previous continuance, the defense objected to a further continuance — although it was the first one sought by the Commonwealth — and moved that the complaints be dismissed. The judge denied the motion for a…