Articles Posted in Felonies and Violent Crimes

Today is Memorial Day, a day in which we pause to remember the fallen. Generally, we remember those who have fallen in the armed services while they were defending and protecting our country from outside threats.

I would like to take a moment to remember another category of protectors and defenders. These people, however, guard against inside threats. They are involved daily in more local battles that end up being resolved in the trenches of the courtroom. The dangers they face, however, are very real.

Joseph Galapo had been an undercover police officer with whom I worked during my days as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York. At the time, I was in the narcotics bureau, happily indicting names I had been informed were the enemy in the “War Against Drugs”. That’s all they were to me then…names. The police officers who were our witnesses, however, were human beings. We saw them on a regular basis. We got to know some of them beyond the badge and thin blue line. Joe was one such guy.

Shortly after the birth of his second child, he quit working undercover because of the obvious dangers. He began to work in a safer capacity…as a uniformed narcotics investigator.
Joe was thirty years old when he was shot and killed during what should have been a routine drug bust in a typical Brooklyn Street. In the chaos of an arrest, a partner’s gun was jolted and it discharged a bullet into Joe’s head.
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As I was recovering from a blog-free week this weekend, folks in Lawrence, Massachusetts, were gearing up and creating work for various defense attorneys. In fact, according to the police, over 100 people were involved in the resulting melee.

The brawl took place in a Lawrence nightclub, Club Rio, during the wee hours on Saturday. By the time it was under control, several were injured, arrested or both. Dozens of people were injured, but medics who checked them said none of the injuries were serious enough to require hospitalization

Fourteen people now face criminal charges from the event. While the fight apparently began between a few people, more than 100 folks were participating by its end by throwing punches, kicking each other, smashing bottles and hurling chairs.

In fact, the fight was so big that Lawrence Police Chief John Romero says that every available officer had to respond to the fight, which they described as one of the most violent melees they have witnessed. It remained under investigation Sunday.
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