Care & Protection of Perry

A judge in the Juvenile Court awarded temporary custody of Perry to the Department of Social Services (department). Perry’s mother then requested a temporary custody (seventy-two hour) hearing pursuant to G. L. c. 119, § 24, but failed to appear for the hearing, having voluntarily admitted herself into a hospital detoxification facility. The judge denied the mother’s request for a continuance (which was conveyed to the court through her counsel) and ruled that she had waived her right to the hearing. The mother filed a petition for relief under G. L. c. 211, § 3, with a single justice of this…