Ellis

Joan Ellis appeals from a judgment of a single justice of this court denying, without a hearing, her petition for relief under G. L. c. 211, § 3. Ellis applied in the Boston Municipal Court for the issuance of a criminal complaint charging her neighbor with one or more offenses. A clerk-magistrate, after giving Ellis and the neighbor an opportunity to be heard, found no probable cause and denied the application. A judge in the Boston Municipal Court also declined to issue a criminal complaint. Ellis’s G. L. c. 211, § 3, petition followed.1

The single justice properly denied relief, as “a…