Marc Salinas secured the dismissal of criminal harassment charges by filing a motion to dismiss on behalf of his client - a grandmother with no prior criminal record who had been drawn into a dispute with her own family.
The charges did not arise from any criminal enterprise. They grew out of a conflict among family members, and the conduct described in the complaint included such ordinary acts as a grandmother delivering a present to her grandchild’s home. For a woman who had reached her golden years without any involvement in the criminal justice system, even an accusation of this kind threatened her good name and standing in the community.
Marc filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the police report and supporting materials did not establish probable cause for the charges. In particular, he argued that the materials failed to describe the separate, distinct acts that the crime of criminal harassment requires under Massachusetts law. The court agreed and dismissed the charge - a particularly meaningful result that spared a grandmother with an unblemished record the lasting consequences of a criminal case that, at its heart, was a private family matter rather than a crime.