Massachusetts Criminal Lawyer Blog
RS, a 79 year old retired engineer, enjoys hiking in the forests of Essex County, MA. The problem is he enjoys hiking naked. You could not make this case up. The environmental police had received several complaints of a man hiking in the nude. Unbeknownst to RS, a hunter had lawfully installed a hunting camera on a tree in the woods. The camera captured RS hiking nude on four occassions between August 2024 and October 2024. On one of his hikes, RS noticed the camera and took it down and brought it home. Unfortunately for RS the camera did two things that RS did not expect: (1) it captured him nude at home and sent those images to the hunter’s computer and (2) it sent out its GPS coordinates to the hunter’s computer. The hunter in turn gave the images and the GPS coordinates to the Environmental Police. The GPS coordinates led the police to RS’s home. The police got a search warrant, went to RS’s home, seized the camera, and charged RS with a host of crimimal offenses. The criminal charges included Hunter Harassment (the removing of the camera), Larceny (the taking of the camera), and 4 counts of indecent exposure. The case was set up for a Clerk-Magistrate Hearing.
RS met with and retained Attorney Robert Lewin from Andover. Attorney Lewin immediately reached out to the Environmental Police and, more importantly, Attorney Lewin contacted the General Counsel’s Office for the state office of environmental affairs. Attorney Lewin was able to make contact with the Assistant General Counsel for the Department who would make the decision about whether the case would go forward or not. In addition, Attorney Lewin had RS meet with a counselor who dealt with exhibitionist behavior; the counselor gave Attorney Lewin a very favorable report. Attorney Lewin engaged in lengthy negotiations with the Department and was able to get the Department to agree to recommend that a criminal complaint NOT be issued against RS.
On December 12, 2024, RS and Attorney Lewin appeared at Lawrence District Court for a Clerk-Magistrate Hearing on the Application for Criminal Complaint that had been filed by the Environmental Police. The environmental police were present and presented their detailed case against RS. Attorney Lewin explained to the Clerk-Magistrate the lengthy negotiations that had taken place with the Department and the agreement that had been reached.
At the conclusion of the hearing the Clerk-Magistrate adopted the agreement that had been reached. The Clerk-Magistrate ordered that the Application for Criminal Coimplaint would remain open for one year and so long as RS stayed out of trouble and stayed out of the woods then at the end of the one year period the application for crimimal complaint would be dismissed.
Attorney Lewin explained to RS the following:
- NO criminal complaint was issued against RS.
- RS was NOT being charged with any criminal offense.
- RS did NOT have to return to court and go before a judge.
- NO entry would be made in the CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) system against RS.
- RS would not have any criminal record as a result of this case.
Needless to say, RS was very happy with the result. It is not unusual for Attorney Lewin to get successful results as he did in RS’s case. From 1971 to 1974 Attorney Lewin was a prosecutor in the Middlesex County DA’s Office. In 1975 he left the DA’s Office and for the last 50 years has limited his practice to criminal defense. There are very few criminal lawyers in Massachusetts who have the vast experience that Attorney Lewin brings to a case.