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Attorney urges appeals court to vacate OUI plea, citing Hallinan breathalyzer rule
Summary
In Commonwealth v. Melvin, defense counsel asked the Appeals Court to overturn a trial judge’s denial of a motion to vacate a guilty plea based on an allegedly invalid breathalyzer reading and related prosecutorial shortcuts; the Commonwealth urged deference to the motion judge and emphasized factual differences from Hallinan.
Panel Chief Vicki Henry and a three-judge panel heard argument in Commonwealth v. Melvin on a motion to vacate a guilty plea under Mass. R. Crim. P. 30 and the Supreme Judicial Court’s Hallinan line of cases.
Defense counsel Scott Bridal told the panel that Raymond Melvin pleaded guilty swiftly after a 0.15 BAC reading from a breathalyzer and that the reading operated as a “crown jewel” inducing the plea. “Because of the 0.15, the commonwealth … was expecting that he would enter a guilty plea,” Bridal argued, and that the high reading curtailed investigation into other evidence, including paint on Melvin’s bumper and possible video showing his vehicle at a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Bridal pressed that, without the…
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