Massachusetts Criminal Lawyer Blog
On February 12, 2026, BC, a 59 year old janitor from Haverhill, was on his way to work. He was driving his 2024 Nissan and came to an intersection. According to a lady who was driving a car and coming from BC’s left he pulled out into the intersection directly in front of her causing her car to collide with his car. The lady told police he did not stop and that she turned around and chased after him getting his license plate number. She gave a description of the man who was driving. The police ran the license plate and saw that the car was registered to BC. The police issued BC a citation for Leaving the Scene of a Property Damage Accident and Failutre to Yield at an Intersection.
BC consulted with and retained Attorney Robert Lewin from Andover. BC insisted that he did not hear any collision and he did not feel any collision. BC brought his car to Attorney Lewin’s Office. Attorney Lewin inspected the car and took a series of photos of the car and a video of the car. BC’s car was pristine. It did not have a mark or dent on it. Attorney Lewin submitted the photos to the police. The police response was : “it must have been his tire that hit the lady’s car”. Attorney Lewin’ response to the police was that maybe it was the lady’s imagination that an accident happened at all.
At Attorney Lewin’s direction, BC requested a Clerk-Magistrate Hearing on the citation. On Friday, April 24, 2026 BC and Attorney Lewin appeared at Haverhill District Court for the Clerk-Magistrate Hearing. The police presented their case. Attorney Lewin showed the photos to the Clerk-Magistrate and argued that the visible evidence as shown in the photos clearly showed that no collision had occured at all. And given the lack of physical evidence of a collision, there was NO evidence that BC knew that there had been a collision. Knowledge that there was a collision is an element of the crime and there was no evidence of that. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Assistant Clerk-Magistrate ordered the Application for Crimnal Complaint to be DISMISSED.
Attorney Lewin explained the following to BC:
- NO criminal complaint was issued against BC.
- BC was NOT being charged with any criminal offense.
- BC did NOT have to return to court and go before a Judge.
- NO entry would be made in the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system against BC.
- BC would have NO crimimal record as a result of this case.
- NO action would be taken against BC’s license.
- It was a complete and total WIN for BC.
Attorney Robert Lewin achieves results like this every day in all the courts throughout Eastern Massachusetts. From 1972 to 1975, Attorney Lewin was an Assistant District Attorney . For the last 51 years, Attorney Lewin has limited his practice strictly to criminal defense. There are very few lawyers in Massachusetts that have the years of experience and the breath of knowledge and simple “know-how” that Attornmey Lewin brings to every case and every client.