DocketNumber: No. 10-P-2205
Citation Numbers: 81 Mass. App. Ct. 244
Judges: Rubin
Filed Date: 2/3/2012
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 6/25/2022
The defendant was convicted of knowingly failing to register as a sex offender. See G. L. c. 6, § 178H. On appeal, he argues that the admission of records kept by the Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB), in the absence of a SORB witness, violated his right under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution to confront the witnesses against him. See Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 51-68 (2004).
The test for whether admission of these SORB records, in the absence of testimony from a SORB witness, was permissible under the Sixth Amendment is the now familiar one of whether
The defendant concedes that the documents put in evidence here are kept in the ordinary course of SORB’s affairs. There is no dispute that these documents, which identify the defendant as a level two sex offender, were prepared and maintained by public officials pursuant to duties imposed by G. L. c. 6, §§ 178C-178Q.
The Supreme Judicial Court has recently stated that a copy of a “notice of the defendant’s license revocation . . . created and kept in the ordinary course” of the registry of motor vehicles’ affairs is not testimonial. Parenteau, supra at 10. Similarly, we recently determined in Commonwealth v. Shangkuan, 78 Mass. App. Ct. 827, 833-834 (2011), that a return of service filed with the court by a law enforcement officer, which demonstrated that a defendant had been served with a G. L. c. 209A order, was not testimonial. Likewise, in Commonwealth v. Weeks, 77 Mass. App. Ct. 1, 5-8 (2010), we held that certified records of convictions were not testimonial. In each case, we concluded that the documents were created “for the administration of an entity’s affairs” rather than “for the purpose of establishing or proving some fact at trial.” Melendez-Diaz, supra.
The same is true of the SORB documents at issue here. The documents were not created for the “purpose of establishing an essential fact at trial.” See Parenteau, supra. These records are
Judgment affirmed.
The documents include a card displaying the defendant’s fingerprints; copies of letters sent to the defendant stating his classification level (i.e., level two), explaining his rights, and detailing his responsibilities, including his responsibility to register; as well as registration information that is available to law enforcement and to others upon proper request, as authorized by law.