On December 5, 2025, MO – a 14 year old boy – and two friends were at the Square One Mall in Saugus. The three boys got the brilliant idea that it would be fun to drop water balloons from the second floor of the parking garage onto cars entering the garage. One of the cars that got hit was a Porsche. The driver, who was not the owner, claimed that the balloon caused a crack in the windshield. The driver entered the garage and collared one of the three boys – the other two took off. The police and mall security responded to the garage and ultimately, the boy who got caught gave up the names of the other two boys (one of whom was MO). The police filed an application for a criminal/juvenile delinquency complaint against each of the three boys for malicious destruction to property in Lynn Juvenile Court and a Clerk-Magistrate Hearing was set up for January 22, 2026 at that court.
MO’s parents sought out and retained Attorney Robert Lewin from Andover to represent MO. Attorney Lewin found it hard to believe that a water balloon could crack a windshield. Attorney Lewin investigated and made direct contact with the owner of the Porsche. The owner did not confirm that there was any damage to the windshield. Attorney Lewin then made direct contact with the police prosecutor and pointed out that the crime of malicious destruction of property requires that there be some destruction or damage and in this case the owner of the Porsche would not confirm that there was damage. In addition, the crime of malicious destruction to property requires that the damage be done with malice – which means that the act was done out of anger, hostility, or revenge. The three boys had acted out of stupidity – but not out of any sense of anger, hostility, or revenge. Attorney Lewin and the police prosecutor had several conversations about the case and Attorney Lewin advocated for the case to be dismissed.
Two days before the scheduled hearing Attorney Lewin received an email from the Clerk-Magistrate of the Lynn Juvenile Court informing him that the police had withdrawn the application for a criminmal/juvenile delinquency complaint against MO. Attorney Lewin explained the following to MO and his parents:
- The police application for a criminal/juvenile delinquency complaint against MO had been withdrawn.
- The Clerk-Magistrate Hearing at the Court was cancelled.
- MO and his parents did not have to go to Court.
- No entry would be made in the CORI (Crimimal Offender Record Information) System under MO’s name.
- MO would have no criminal or juvenile record.
- It was as if the episode had never happened.
- It was a complete and total win.
Attorney Lewin became a lawyer in 1971. His first four years as a lawyer were spent as a prosecutor in the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office. From 1975 to the present (51 years), Attorney Lewin has limited his practice to the defense of criminal cases and juvenile delinquency cases in all the courts in eastern Massachusetts. There are very few lawyers in Massachusetts who can match the level of experience and knowledge and fight that Attorney Lewin brings to every case and every client.