District Attorney for the Norfolk District v. Quincy Division of the District Court Department

Ordinarily, when a police officer makes a warrant-less arrest of a person and the person is released on bail to return the following court day, the officer prepares an application for a complaint, presents it to a clerk-magistrate, the complaint issues, and the arrestee appears in court for arraignment.1 That procedure was not followed in this case. In rather unusual circumstances that we describe below, prior to the issuance of complaints against three individuals who had been arrested and released on bail, a judge in the District Court considered whether there was probable cause for the…