Commonwealth v. Perella

On January 19, 2010, a criminal complaint was filed in the District Court charging the defendant with the commission of an armed robbery that took place on January 20, 2000. On May 12, 2010, more than ten years after the date of the armed robbery, a grand jury returned an indictment against the defendant for that offense. A judge of the Superior Court allowed the defendant’s motion to dismiss on the ground that the case was not properly initiated by indictment until after the statute of limitations had run.

This case requires us to decide whether the filing of a criminal *275complaint tolls the…