Commonwealth v. McCulloch

In this appeal from the denial of the Commonwealth’s petition for relief under G. L. c. 211, § 3, by a single justice of this court, we consider whether a District Court judge had the authority pursuant to Mass. R. Crim. P. 29, 378 Mass. 899 (1979), to vacate his finding.of guilt on a criminal complaint and enter a continuance without a finding conditioned on a defendant’s payment of restitution. We conclude that the judge possessed no such authority under rule 29, or otherwise.

The background of the case is as follows. On the evening of September 10, 2005, Richard Morris, who was twenty years…