Commonwealth v. Buccella

The defendant was charged with violating the civil rights of one of his teachers and two counts of malicious destruction of property over $250, all three charges arising out of graffiti on school property that contained obscenities and racial slurs. The evidence identifying the defendant as the perpetrator of these crimes included comparison of the handwriting in the graffiti with the defendant’s handwriting in several of his school work papers. At the request of its handwriting expert, the Commonwealth moved to compel the production of witnessed, comprehensive handwriting exemplars for…