Commonwealth v. Mahoney

863 N.E.2d 951, 68 Mass. App. Ct. 561, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 361
CourtMassachusetts Appeals Court
DecidedApril 5, 2007
DocketNo. 05-P-1680
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 863 N.E.2d 951 (Commonwealth v. Mahoney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Appeals Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Mahoney, 863 N.E.2d 951, 68 Mass. App. Ct. 561, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 361 (Mass. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

Cowin, J.

The defendant, Martha Mahoney, was indicted for embezzlement by a city, town, or county officer, see G. L. c. 266, § 51, and for larceny over $250, see G. L. c. 266, § 30. The indictments were based on her alleged theft of approximately $44,000 out of parking fines and excise taxes that she received in her capacity as an employee of the office of the parking clerk of the city of Lowell. After a jury trial in the Superior Court, she was convicted of “simple embezzlement,” as a lesser included offense under G. L. c. 266, § 51; she was also convicted of the larceny charge. A judge thereafter sentenced her to concurrent one-year sentences for each offense, and the defendant filed a timely notice of appeal.

[562]*562Conviction of the lesser included offense came about as the result of the judge’s ruling, on the defendant’s motion for a required finding of not guilty, that the defendant was not a county, city, or town “officer” within the meaning of G. L. c. 266, § 51, and that, accordingly, she could not be convicted of embezzlement under that statute. The validity of that ruling is not before us. The judge determined, in addition, that the defendant could be convicted of a lesser included charge of simple embezzlement and instructed the jury accordingly. He also instructed on the charge of larceny over $250 under G. L. c. 266, § 30.

On appeal, the defendant asserts that simple embezzlement is not a lesser included offense of embezzlement by a county, city, or town officer, and that therefore her motion for a required finding on the embezzlement charge should have been allowed in its entirety because the Commonwealth failed to prove an essential element of the G. L. c. 266, § 51, charge. In the alternative, she argues that, if her conviction of simple embezzlement is upheld, then her conviction of larceny over $250 under G. L. c. 266, § 30, is duplicative. We agree with the trial judge that embezzlement is a lesser included offense of embezzlement under G. L. c. 266, § 51, and that the defendant could properly be convicted thereof. That conviction, however, rendered the conviction of larceny under G. L. c. 266, § 30, duplicative, and that charge must be dismissed.

1. Lesser included offense. The Commonwealth asserts that the defendant did not preserve an objection to the giving of the lesser included offense instruction and, accordingly, must demonstrate that there has been a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice in order to obtain reversal of the conviction for embezzlement. See Commonwealth v. Freeman, 352 Mass. 556, 563-564 (1967). It is true that the defendant did not object when the judge delivered his instructions on simple embezzlement. The defendant did, however, move for a required finding on the entire embezzlement count. In addition, a mistake by counsel that has the effect of waiving the defendant’s entitlement to a dismissal would surely constitute a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice. We prefer not to attempt to unravel the issue of waiver, because the defendant fails on the merits in any event.

[563]*563“[A] crime can be lesser included only if all its formal elements are comprised in the greater crime.” Commonwealth v. Smith, 37 Mass. App. Ct. 10, 13 (1994). See Commonwealth v. Jones, 382 Mass. 387, 393 (1981); Commonwealth v. Murray, 51 Mass. App. Ct. 57, 60 (2001). “If the lesser crime requires proof of an additional fact that the greater crime does not, then it is not a lesser included offense of the greater crime.” Ibid. See Commonwealth v. Jones, supra. It is appropriate therefore to examine the elements of the respective offenses.

Fraud or embezzlement by a county, city, or town officer is a crime created by statute; it applies to “[a] county, city or town officer who embezzles or fraudulently converts, or who fraudulently takes or secretes with intent so to do, effects or property which belong to or are in possession of said county, city or town . . . .” G. L. c. 266, § 51. See Commonwealth v. O’Brien, 305 Mass. 393, 397 (1940). Embezzlement in ordinary circumstances is governed by G. L. c. 266, § 30, because it is considered a type of larceny.1 That section provides that “[wjhoever steals, or with intent to defraud obtains by a false pretence, or whoever unlawfully, and with intent to steal or embezzle, converts, or secretes with intent to convert, the property of another . . . , whether such property is or is not in his possession at the time of such conversion or secreting, shall be guilty of larceny . . . .” G. L. c. 266, § 30, inserted by St. 1945, c. 282, § 2.

However, the elements of the “embezzlement” portion of the crimes are the same whether the embezzlement is the theft of property by a governmental officer under G. L. c. 266, § 51, or a form of larceny actionable under G. L. c. 266, § 30. They are set forth effectively in the District Court model jury instructions as (1) “[tjhat the defendant, while in a position of trust or confidence, was entrusted with possession of personal property belonging to another person,” (2) “[tjhat the defendant took that property, or hid it, or converted it to his . . . own use, [564]*564without the consent of the owner,” and (3) “[tjhat the defendant did so with the intent to deprive the owner of the property permanently.” Instruction 5.415 of the Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court (1997). See Commonwealth v. Mills, 436 Mass. 387, 394 & n.4 (2002) (quoting instruction 5.415). See also Massachusetts Superior Court Criminal Practice Jury Instructions § 2.40 (Mass. Continuing Legal Educ. 2003). It is an essential element of each offense that the property taken must be the property of another, see Commonwealth v. Souza, 397 Mass. 236, 238 (1986), and it must come into the possession of the defendant lawfully by virtue of his relationship of trust or confidence with the owner, see Commonwealth v. Mills, supra.

It follows therefore that the only distinguishing features between the two crimes are the status of the perpetrator and the identity of the owner whose property is embezzled. The judge disposed of the first distinction by determining that the defendant had not been shown to be an “officer” of the city, and accordingly allowed the defendant’s motion for a required finding with respect to a violation of § 51. Thus, the only remaining distinction results from the requirement of § 51 that the embezzled property belong to, or be in the possession of, a county, city, or town, as opposed to the provision of § 30 that the embezzled property belong to “another.” The defendant argues that the victim under § 30 (i.e., “another”) cannot be a county, city, or town; § 30 therefore contains an element that §51 does not; and consequently a violation of the embezzlement portion of § 30 cannot be a lesser included offense under § 51. We disagree.

It has never been held under any known embezzlement analysis that an “owner” of the stolen property must be a person or individual. See Commonwealth v. Mills, supra at 394-396 (embezzlement of funds owned by city of Boston); Commonwealth v. Nadal-Ginard, 42 Mass. App. Ct. 1, 8-10 (1997) (embezzlement of funds from Boston Children’s Heart Foundation). The model jury instructions’ elaboration of “another” as being “another person” was not intended to exclude property embezzled from a government entity or from any other organization.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
863 N.E.2d 951, 68 Mass. App. Ct. 561, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-mahoney-massappct-2007.