Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category

By Neal J. Riley, The Lowell Sun

BOSTON — In the wake of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s shooting death by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida, Gov. Deval Patrick said yesterday he would oppose a bill similar to that state’s much-scrutinized “Stand Your Ground” law.

“Well, I don’t think that bill is going to move, and if it were to move, it’s not going to get past my desk,” Patrick told in a radio interview on WTKK-FM. “We don’t need a ‘Stand Your Ground’ bill, and I don’t entirely understand what the argument was for it in Florida.”

Filed for the past five years by state Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, on behalf of the Gun Owners Action League, the legislation would protect individuals who use deadly force against another person if they fear they are about to be severely injured or killed “in any place that they have a right to be.”
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By Corey Kane, Patriot Ledger

BOSTON — The state Senate has approved a bill that would require doctors to register with the state before being permitted to prescribe opiate painkillers.

The bill was proposed by Sen. John Keenan, D-Quincy, to address opiate abuse in Massachusetts.

“We all know that opiates are the leading cause of accidental death in Massachusetts, surpassing motor vehicle deaths,” Keenan told colleagues Thursday before they voted unanimously to approve the legislation.
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By Mounira Al Hmoud, The MetroWest Daily News

BOSTON — House and Senate conferees reported progress on a sentencing bill Friday as citizens groups gathered at the State House to protest a provision that would eliminate parole for violent criminals.

“Mass incarceration will lead to the appearance of for-profit prisons in Massachusetts, which will be a revolving door for a high rate of crime, incarceration, and recidivism,” said the Rev. George Walters-Sleyon of the Center for Church and Prison. “The state Black and Latino Legislative Caucus unanimously opposed the bill for its harshness.”

The so-called three-strikes bill would eliminate parole for those convicted of three violent crimes. But the Senate version of the bill would also reduce mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of nonviolent crime and drug offenses, and reduce the size of school zones that trigger harsher penalties for those who deal drugs near schools.
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By Rick Sobey, The Salem News

BOSTON — House and Senate conferees last week came closer to resolving differences between respective bills cracking down on violent offenders.

State Rep. Brad Hill, R-Ipswich, a member of the conference committee, said the House conferees would be willing to discuss the reduced mandatory minimum sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenders.

“We’ve been able to come a long way in accepting the fact that we will even debate that issue in this conference committee,” Hill said. “But I do think that if you are going to put away the most heinous criminals, you also have to look at what we’re doing with nonviolent offenders as well.”
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By Rick Sobey, Milford Daily News

BOSTON – A bill by a local legislator that could help wrongfully convicted criminals go free has passed the House unanimously.

The bill, which would give those convicted an opportunity to access DNA evidence to help overturn their convictions, was approved Wednesday.

State Rep. John Fernandes, D-Milford, co-sponsored the bill, which passed in the Senate in July.
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By Rick Sobey, Milford Daily News

BOSTON – When state Rep. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, was a residence housing director at Tufts University, he was approached by a young woman who said she had been raped by her boyfriend.

Hearing the troubling story stuck with Fattman, who now wants to help prevent other cases of rape and domestic violence.

“That impacted me very greatly,” Fattman said. “It made me very angry to hear the details of what happened. Ever since, I have been involved in domestic violence awareness, supporting victims through charity walks for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.”
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November 19, 2011

Lowell Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee (left) congratulates Hanna Medal of Valor recipient Sgt. Stephen Morrill (right).

BOSTON — A Lowell police officer who dodged bullets to chase a bank-robbery suspect was one of 27 law-enforcement officers hon­ored yesterday by Gov. Deval Patrick, with the ceremony’s top honor bestowed upon a Woburn police officer and Wilmington resident who was killed while responding to a separate rob­bery.

Lowell police Sgt. Stephen Morrill received a Medal of Valor at the 28th annual Trooper George L. Hanna Memorial Awards for his actions responding to an attempted robbery at the Lowell Co-operative Bank on Hurd Street in August 2010. The robbery suspect attempted to lure Morrill into the bank to take him hostage, before running away. Morrill followed and was shot at twice.

“The guy tried to kill him twice, but Steve was able to use his training and his abilities and his knowledge and was able to prevent that from happening,” said Lowell Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee, who nominated Morrill for the award.

Secretary of Public Safety and Security Mary Beth Heffernan, who presented the awards, said Morrill followed the suspect closely through city streets until additional officers arrived for backup.

The suspect committed suicide before police could reach him.

“A police officer can never know what danger lies ahead when he or she responds to a call,” Heffernan said at the Statehouse ceremony. “The actions of Sgt. Stephen Morrill, relentlessly pursuing an armed gunman who twice fired at him, were the epitome of determination and bravery.” Morrill, a 24-year veteran of the department, said he was humbled to receive the award.

“I go to work every day, and I just do my job,” he said.  “Anybody in the Lowell Police Department in that same situation would have done the same thing. Our training kicks and we just do our job.”

The Hanna Awards commemorate Massachusetts State Trooper George L. Hanna, who died in 1983 after being shot multiple times by a man whose car he stopped for questioning in Auburn.

Patrick said the awards are given to officers who have demonstrated bravery that goes above and beyond expectations.

“In recognition of the courageous and selfless actions these heroes displayed, Massachusetts owes them a debt of gratitude,” he said.

Morrill is the second Lowell officer to receive a Hanna Award. Officer Howard Osborne earned a Medal of Honor in 1991 for his response to an armed robbery of a grocery store.

Officer John “Jack” Maguire, a Woburn police officer killed while responding to a botched jewelry robbery in December 2010, posthumously received the ceremony’s top honor. The family of Maguire, who lived in Wilmington, was presented with a Medal of Honor award. Police said Maguire was shot and killed by Domenic Cinelli, a career criminal who also died in the exchange of gunfire.

Maguire’s killing led to an overhaul of the state parole board. Patrick fired five members of the board who voted in 2008 to grant parole to Cinelli despite his history of violent crime.

Cinelli had been sentenced to life in prison in Suffolk County and later received two concurrent life sentences for crimes committed in Middlesex County. The officer’s slaying also prompted renewed calls for tougher laws against habitual offenders. Earlier this week, the House passed a measure that would prohibit anyone who has been convicted of a third serious felony from being considered for parole. The state Senate included a similar provision as part of a broader anti-crime package. A final bill is possible sometime after the first of the year.

Officers from Boston, Fall River, Everett, Chelsea were also presented with awards for bravery, as were officers from the Massachusetts State Police, FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Some material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Link to story

By Andrea Aldana, The Patriot Ledger

BOSTON — Criminals convicted of a third violent crime would be denied parole under a bill unanimously approved by the Senate on Thursday.
The Quincy man who has been fighting for such a law since his 27-year-old daughter was murdered by a habitual offender in 1999 was at the State House to see the vote.

Les Gosule of Quincy, father of murder victim Melissa Gosule, and Chuck Maguire, brother of Jack Maguire, a Woburn police officer shot last December by a habitual offender, were present for the Senate debate. They issued a joint statement Thursday morning urging the Senate to move the bill forward.

Melissa Gosule, a Boston teacher and Randolph native, was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1999 after she accepted a ride from a passer-by after her car broke down in Bourne. Her killer, Michael Gentile of Halifax, had a record of 22 arrests.

“The members of our family suffered a terrible tragedy. It took me and my family 12 years to get here,” Les Gosule said after the vote. “I am so grateful today. I hope the House does the right thing next week and this brings the bill to the governor’s office.”

Dominic Cinelli, Maguire’s killer, had been paroled despite convictions that led to three concurrent life sentences.

“Had these changes been seen earlier, Dominic Cinelli wouldn’t have been out on the street,” said Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth.

The list of crimes that would trigger the three-strikes rule covers more than 60 offenses, including armed robbery, murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping, mayhem, arson, unlawful possession of an assault weapon and assault and battery causing serious bodily injury.

The bill balances the tough-on-violent-crime attitude with an easing of some mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders, lawmakers said.

Opponents, including prisoner-rights groups and the Massachusetts Bar Association, said the three-strike rule would increase prison crowding and state costs.

Some local senators were opposed to reducing mandatory minimums for certain drug crimes. Hedlund said he had opposed weakening those provisions.

Sen. John F. Keenan, D-Quincy, filed amendments that would have maintained stricter sentencing for high-level drug offenders.

‘‘If they’re not dealing drugs but using, results are better if they get treatment,” he said after the vote. “If they’re dealing, I believe they should be incarcerated for a longer period of time than what has been agreed upon.”

The bill now goes to the House.
Material from the State House News Service was used in this story.

Link to Story

By Marjorie Nesin, Cape Cod Times

Nov. 4, 2011

BOSTON — Yarmouth and Attleboro police are working with legislators to criminalize “bath salts,” designer drugs that are being sold legally on store shelves statewide.

State Rep. Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich, said the so-called bath salts are a problem on the Cape because people do not know how dangerous they are.

“Gas stations, head shops, who knows, they might have no clue what bath salts really are, and they’re just amazed that they are able to sell them off the shelves so easily,” Hunt said in a telephone interview.

The drugs look like the product used in baths, coming packaged as small, murky-white crystals. They can also be made to resemble marijuana.

“There’s no practical use for this stuff. I’ve never heard of anyone taking these packages and dumping them into their bathtub. That’s not what they’re for,” Hunt said.

Bath salts are easily accessible, and Hunt said the drug has been sold in stores close to home, such as on Main Street in Hyannis.

Stores can sell the substance because the packages are labeled as “Not for human consumption,” though the substance has no other purpose.

“You can purchase them like mints or gum,” Ann Friedman, an Attleboro business owner, said at a public hearing Thursday at the Statehouse. Friedman’s son was hospitalized for seven weeks with a dangerously high temperature after overdosing on the substance.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the name “bath salts” can refer to a variety of substances, including “amphetamine-like chemicals, such as methylenedioxypyrovalerone, mephedrone and pyrovalerone.”

The institute says such drugs, taken by injection or snorting, act as a brain stimulant and present the danger of addiction and abuse.

Those speaking for the bill warned that bath salts cause violence and paranoia in users. A user may also experience increased blood pressure, dangerously high internal body temperature and long-term brain damage.

In the past month, Yarmouth police have made four separate arrests — a 35-year-old, a 36-year-old and two teenagers — for erratic behavior related to bath salts.

“It’s not just the kid who doesn’t know any better. It’s the drug addicts, too,” Yarmouth’s Deputy Chief of Police Steven Xiarhos said in an interview.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers received 300 calls from agencies reporting overdoses on bath salts last year.

This year, that number has spiked to more than 3,500 cases, said state Rep. George Ross, R-Attleboro, who sponsored the legislation.

“This drug is flying just under the radar and is becoming more of a nightmare every day,” Ross said at the hearing.

Twenty-six states have made bath salts illegal. In South Carolina, the substance is considered a class A drug, putting it in the same category as heroin and cocaine.

The legislation sponsored by Ross would deem bath salts as a class C drug in Massachusetts, in the category of Valium, Vicodin and peyote.

Though other states have taken a harsher stance against the drug, any law is a start, Attleboro Chief of Police Kyle Heagney said.

“We are powerless. We need this legislation. We need the tools to fight this drug,” he said.

Link to the original article.