Commonwealth v. Fabian F.

At issue is whether trial counsel was necessarily ineffective in 1988 (when the two-tiered juvenile trial system still existed2) for not claiming a de nova jury trial after a bench *395trial in which the juvenile had been adjudicated delinquent for rape of a child with force, G. L. c. 265, § 22A. Ruling on a motion for new trial filed twenty-two years later, a Juvenile Court judge concluded that the failure to claim a de nova trial, without more, constituted a form of per se ineffective assistance of counsel and allowed the juvenile’s motion. Mass.R.Crim.P. 30(c)(8), as appearing in 435 Mass.…