SJC considers whether RMV administrative suspension triggers enhanced penalty for driving with suspended license

The Supreme Judicial Court heard argument in Commonwealth v. William C. Foley over whether a Registry of Motor Vehicles administrative suspension, imposed separately from a court-ordered criminal suspension, can trigger the enhanced penalty in the third paragraph of Chapter 90, Section 23 when a defendant drives after the suspension.

The question matters because the third paragraph carries an enhanced statutory penalty (counsel said it includes a mandatory minimum jail term) that applies only after a driver’s license is suspended “pursuant to” one of a set of enumerated offenses and before the “restoration of such license or right to drive.” If an RMV administrative suspension imposed under a different statutory provision applies, the defendant’s counsel said the enhanced penalty should not attach.

Erin Opperman, attorney for defendant-appellant William C. Foley, told the court the record shows Foley’s criminal conviction produced a 10-year court-ordered suspension but that the RMV later imposed a separate lifetime administrative suspension under a different Chapter 90 provision. Opperman argued the RMV action was not one of the enumerated predicate suspensions listed in the third paragraph of Chapter 90, Section 23 and…