In a 4-3 ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that unless released sex offenders violate their probation, they cannot be made subject to new probation limits. The decision was issued in the case of Level 3 sex offender Ralph W. Goodwin, who in 1990 was convicted of the Massachusetts…
In Salem Superior Court on Thursday, Louis Walters, a former resident of the state, pleaded guilty to Massachusetts child rape and incest charges. He has been sentenced to eight to nine years in state prison. He faces similar charges related to the same girl in New Hampshire and is expected…
The state Supreme Judicial Court will likely issue a ruling in the next few weeks on Christopher McCowen’s appeal to have his Massachusetts murder and rape convictions in the slaying of fashion writer Christa Worthington overturned. McCowen’s criminal defense team is arguing that it was wrong to allow the a…
As expected, criminal justice history repeats itself in Massachusetts and its neighboring states. As discussed in earlier blogs, we have a new “Craigslist Robber” and our original “Craigslist Killer” has made the news again by robbing the Commonwealth of another high profile trial. He killed himself. As also discussed, armed…
The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog is so proud to announce that, thanks to local law enforcement, the good people of Fall River can sleep soundly tonight, knowing that they have once again been kept safe by intrepid police work. By this, of course, I refer to the brave and brilliant…
The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has discussed the seemingly newly “in vogue” crime of striking police officers with motor vehicles. Usually, these collisions turn out to be accidental. Sometimes, under the law, they are seen as either deliberate acts or the results of drunk driving. For some reason, this summer…
Sex cases are a funny thing. That is, “funny” as in “strange”. In a country wherein we say that we prize the presumption of innocence, we really don’t act like we like said presumption very much. Currently, I am handling a high profile case about child pornography. Already, the press…
The criminal trial of Vernon Thompson on two counts of Massachusetts rape is now under way. Thompson, 40 is accused of sexually assaulting a Newton teenager while he was a psychiatric patient at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain in 2008. He is accused of taking the girl, then 14,…
Yesterday, the Boston Globe’s front page reflected the start of a new series of articles on students, families and schools. It described the plight of Lexi, a 14-year-old girl who began classes at a new school in an “affluent suburb” west of Boston. According to the story, Lexi’s torment began…
As a Boston criminal defense attorney, there is an oft-said and ill-fated sentence claimed by clients. It reads, “…but I didn’t know that was illegal!” Unfortunately, such lack of knowledge does not usually matter. They really mean it when they say “ignorance of the law is no excuse”. Further, there…