Commonwealth v. Sylvester

Elmer Sylvester was convicted on two indictments of raping a child and three indictments of unnatural and lascivious acts on a child under sixteen years of age. He was found not guilty on two counts of rape and two counts *361of unnatural and lascivious acts. There are three issues on appeal, the most grave of which is whether harassing and demeaning remarks made by the trial judge within the hear-ting of the jury caused the trial to be unfair. We turn first to the other two issues.

1. Prejudicial Joinder.

The defendant made a timely motion to sever the indictments at trial. Mass.R.Crim.P. 9(d)(2),…