Commonwealth v. Gilman

A Superior Court jury convicted the defendant, a middle school music teacher, of rape and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under fourteen, aggravated in the first instance by age difference and in all instances by reason of the defendant’s status as a mandated reporter. On appeal, he claims error in the admission of a number of “chat” messages he exchanged with the victim (a twelve year old student of his at the time of the assaults) on the social networking Web site Facebook. He also claims that he was deprived of his constitutional right to effective representation by…