Kevin Burnham, a “decorated and highly-respected” Springfield police officer who retired in 2014 (and hereinafter, the “Defendant”) has been indicted with stealing approximately $385,317 which had been evidence in 170 drug cases. He has pleaded “not guilty” and released on his own recognizance. The Defendant must turn in his passport,…
Last week, we began this topic. At the time, I signed off with the famous last words “Good question. Let’s start with it tomorrow“. Once again, a few “tomorrows” came and went and I was too busy fighting for “the cause” to post. So….please consider today “tomorrow”. We discussed the…
Now, we all know that, generally, it is not nice to lie. Further, we have discussed in the past that lying to police in a criminal investigation is actually a felony. There are other times, of course, where the lying itself is actually considered a Massachusetts white collar crime, namely,…
As we have discussed many times over the past years, we are seeing more and more prosecutions for things that we barely even heard about, much less saw Massachusetts criminal prosecutions for… although we kind of knew they existed. Today, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog brings you another one. A…
You have probably heard the old saying, “Hey, it’s only business”. The adage used to be used when one person got the better of a “friend” in business. No matter how ugly any deception would be, the rationalization was, “It isn’t personal…it’s just business“. Usually the person on the winning…
Massachusetts extortion is an interesting white collar crime. I find that it is largely misunderstood as well. Take the tale of Howie Winter, 83 years of age and hereinafter referred to as “Defendant1”. Defendant1 is also reputed with being the former head of the notorious Winter Hill Gang. He was…
This is a fact scenario you don’t see every day. It also brings forth another Massachusetts criminal defendant who likely thought he would never see himself being prosecuted for felony crimes. Michael Clair, 53 years of age and hereinafter the “Defendant” was once a practicing dentist in Fall River. Now,…
South Bosotn’s Whitey Buldger’s new attorney, J.W. Carney, Jr., has been heard explaining to the media that the government has had 20 years to prepare his client’s case for trial and that he has had the matter for (at the time) 5 days. From Boston’s Federal District Court to school…
In case you missed it, James “Whitey” Bulger (hereinafter, “Whitey”), the long-sought reputed mob boss of Boston, was arrested and brought back home last week. Home for Whitey was South Boston. Standing there now, of course, is Boston’s Federal Court…which promises to house a great deal of the rest of…
We have been talking about juries and their deliberations. Sal DiMasi will be sitting in the hot seat as a Boston federal jury determines his fate next week. As you may have heard, the judge has handed down to the attorneys a draft of the jury instructions he intends to…