Commonwealth v. Valentin V.

Based on remarks he allegedly made about assaulting a fellow student at his high school, a juvenile faced delinquency complaints that charged him with threatening a crime (assault and battery), G. L. c. 275, § 2, and witness intimidation, G. L. c. 268, § 13B. Over the Commonwealth’s objection, a judge of the Juvenile Court dismissed these charges *203as unsupported by probable cause. The judge relied on the absence of a showing that the threatening remarks were ever heard by their intended target (to whom we shall refer by the pseudonym “Fred”). On the Commonwealth’s appeal, we reverse.

Background.…