DA drops charges against man who'd been accused of shooting girl on Annunciation Road but says he's still a suspect

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office today dropped charges against Dominique Finch for an Annunciation Road shooting last fall that left a 9-year-old girl paralyzed.

The DA's office said its nolle prosequi filing was intended to be just a temporary reprieve for Finch, an alleged Heath Street gang associate who was out on bail at the time of the shooting for what prosecutors say was his role in a brutal beating at a Brighton Center bar in January of last year.

In fact, it was data from a GPS device he was wearing as a bail condition in the Brighton case that helped prosecutors decide to charge him for the Annunciation Road shooting. The Brighton charges remain pending against him, the DA's office says.

In the filing, made in Roxbury Municipal Court, prosecutors wrote:

[B]ased on further investigation and a careful review of the current state of the evidence, the Commonwealth may not be able to sustain its burden of proving every element of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt. The Commonwealth specifically reserves the right to initiate new charges against the defendant arising out of his alleged conduct in this matter should additional evidence be discovered.

In a statement, DA Dan Conley said:

The American Bar Association’s ethical codes do not allow prosecutors to “permit the continued pendency of criminal charges in the absence of sufficient admissible evidence to support a conviction.” Withdrawing the case against Finch while continuing to investigate the shooting with Boston Police detectives was the just and appropriate step under the circumstances.

Conley added that investigators continue to seek help from people who might know anything about the Annunciation Road shooting that his office has the ability to help anybody who might fear retaliation for their cooperation.

Innocent, etc.