State urges Supreme Judicial Court to revive trafficking charges against men who answered sex ads

The Commonwealth asked the Supreme Judicial Court on Monday to vacate the Superior Court's allowance of motions to dismiss indictments charging multiple men under the state's human-trafficking statute, arguing the grand-jury evidence showed probable cause that the defendants "attempted to hire a person for commercial" services.

The request came during oral argument in SJC No. 13652, Commonwealth v. Brendan J. Garofalo and nine companion cases, where prosecutors told the court the trafficking statute's phrase "recruit, entice, or obtain by any means" should be read to reach purchasers who responded to online advertisements and negotiated payment and services with undercover officers. "I'm here today asking that this court vacate the superior court's allowance of the defendant's motions to dismiss," Commonwealth attorney Julianne Campbell said at the start of her argument.

The issue matters because convictions under the trafficking statute carry a higher mandatory sentence than the separate statute commonly used to punish buyers of commercial sex. Counsel and several justices focused on whether the ordinary meaning of "obtain" and the statute's context permit treating an individual who answers an advertisement and…