Acquitted man seeks recompense from state

Robert Aldrich sought compensation from the state for lost wages and his mother's crushed sport utility vehicle in Suffolk Superior Court on Friday. (Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe)

In some ways, it has been a good year for Robert Aldrich, a Dorchester man who Suffolk County prosecutors allege has spent much of his adult life breaking into people's homes across Greater Boston and making off with purses, laptops, and jewelry.

Representing himself, he has persuaded two Superior Court judges to toss out evidence, rulings so crippling to prosecutors that two other Superior Court judges stopped trials midstream and declared him not guilty of multiple break-ins in Boston this summer.

Aldrich now wants the state to pay him $66,283.85 - including income lost while in jail awaiting trial, money to replace his mother's sport utility vehicle, which was crushed after it was left in a Boston tow lot, and money to replace a doorframe he said police broke when they searched his Bullard Street home.

"I am simply asking for compensation," Aldrich told Suffolk Superior Court Judge Nancy Staffier-Holtz on Friday.

Aldrich, who said he has been trained as a paralegal, is relying on a state law so obscure that several defense lawyers interviewed were unfamiliar with it. Enacted around 1911 and updated in 1978, it has been reviewed by the Supreme Judicial Court three times, the last time in 1988.

Under the law, someone jailed for more than six months awaiting trial who has been acquitted, or had charges dropped, is entitled to what he or she would have earned based on two years of income history. If the person is unemployed, a judge determines a "reasonable sum."

In order to collect, however, the person must show that the time spent behind bars was not his or her fault, the SJC has said. That person also must not have agreed to a continuance or given "implied consent" to postpone trial, a standard that one lawyer said Friday limits any chance of recovery.

"The implied consent kills you," said Stephen Hrones, who has sued on behalf of the wrongly convicted, but not for anyone who had been acquitted. "I just didn't think [a suit had] any chance of success in light of the case law."

Aldrich's case began on March 12, 2007, when Milton police investigating a break-in were given a description of an SUV driving away. One officer drove into Dorchester, spotted Aldrich driving his mother's SUV around dawn, and pulled him over because he allegedly did not have the headlights on.

The officer called for backup, and three Milton cruisers blocked Aldrich on the Dorchester street until Boston police arrived, and arrested him for allegedly driving with a suspended license.

Boston police got a search warrant and found ATM cards, purses, a rotary saw, a computer, and books on how to improve your writing - pieces of property stolen from eight locations, according to court records

Following hearings at which Aldrich questioned witnesses - including one Milton officer who said he remembered Aldrich from a break-in at his mother's house in the 1980s - Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Connolly ruled that Milton police had no legal authority to stop him in Boston, and blocked prosecutors from linking Aldrich to the SUV.

The judge also said Aldrich was pulled over after sunrise. He noted in his opinion that Milton police stopped Aldrich around 6:20 a.m., on a day when sunrise was 6:10 a.m. On that day, Aldrich would have been able to shut his headlights off at 5:40 a.m. legally, according to the ruling.

Aldrich also demonstrated at the hearings that he had his license suspension overturned, and had been driving with a legal permit.

Prompted again by Aldrich after other hearings, Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano ruled in favor of Aldrich and said prosecutors could not use the stolen items against Aldrich because of the illegal stop by Milton police, according to court records.

Suffolk prosecutors still went to trial, but lost earlier this year.

At the time of his arrest, police seized the SUV and had it taken to a private Dorchester tow lot, according to court records. When the registered owner - identified in court records as Aldrich's mother - did not respond to registered letters asking her to claim the vehicle, the SUV was sent to a junkyard and crushed, according to court records.

Aldrich said his family is entitled to $2,675 for the SUV, citing National Association Dealers Association estimates for the year and make. .

And on Friday, Aldrich was back in court, intent on convincing Staffier-Holtz that she should order the state to pay him. The judge said from the bench she will base her ruling on her view of Aldrich's credibility.

In papers filed and on the witness stand earlier this year, Aldrich said he was earning $4,100 a month as a self-employed home renovator. As proof, he filed an IRS income tax return for 2007, declaring total income of $8,200 - that was signed on July 25, 2008.

But Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office also filed papers signed by Aldrich in which he claimed little or no income to qualify for his lawyer.

On Friday, Staffier-Holtz took Aldrich's compensation claim under advisement.

While Aldrich appears to be top of his game now, his fortunes could take a turn.

Later this month, Suffolk prosecutors will try him for driving an allegedly stolen car in 2006 in Mattapan. If convicted, they want him sentenced as a habitual offender, which means 20 years' imprisonment. Prosecutors cite 13 Superior Court convictions dating back to 1981.

Also, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.'s office has charged Aldrich with breaking into a Cambridge house on Jan. 6 after an arriving officer allegedly found him walking out the front door.

Aldrich allegedly was found carrying varying amounts of foreign currencies - the amount police say the owner reported stolen from the house.

But what could prove most damning is the videotape police made while he was being booked at the Cambridge police station: When an officer momentarily leaves the room, Aldrich can be seen grabbing the cash, which he later flushed down the toilet in his cell, according to prosecutors.

John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.