Articles Posted in Illegal Weapons Possession

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This blog has discussed many stories about family disputes which get out of hand. Some have resulted in assaults which cause great injury. Others have been known to result in death…whether intentional or accidental.

This one, though, seems to have taken domestic violence to an unusual level.

Authorities say that they went to investigate a 911 call from a gentleman who claimed that his girlfriend had lunged at him with a knife and had tried to set his clothes on fire.

The officers arrived at the Somerville home at about 6:30pm yesterday. This was apparently not the first such response; police indicate that they had responded to the same home at about 3 a.m. after a neighbor reported shouting
When they arrived, 33-year-old Carol K. attacked them with a knife.
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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 are times when ignorance of the facts is basically irrelevent.

A prime example of the latter is the case of statutory rape. “But I didn’t know she was just shy of her thirteenth birthday…she told me she was twenty-five” is not going to be a viable defense.

Another example is something that a psychiatrist who teaches at Harvard Medical School (clearly not an ignorant man by any estimation, yet, hereinafter, the “Defendant”) said this week about the trouble in which he has now found himself.

He had been hosting a graduation party in New Hampshire. He has released a statement that he didn’t know that there were students drinking at the high school graduation party .

Apparently, however, there were.
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As a Boston-area criminal defense attorney, I face many “There but for the grace of G-d go I” moments. As I have often discussed in these postings, I am constantly presented with lives that have been ruined by very bad moments. Such moments can change an otherwise on-track life into something of a living nightmare. Some people choose such moments on a regular basis. For others, dealing with the debris of one such moment is enough to last a life-time.

Last week, I side-stepped one such moment.

I was appearing on a murder case at Suffolk Superior Court which involved a shooting. As it turned out, the next door session had a murder trial of its own in which the jury was deliberating. Ironically, the subject matter of that case was related to my case. I waited awhile in case the verdict came, but it did not.

It came the next day instead. I wasn’t there, but I learned in the papers that the verdicts were guilty. But, as it turned out, the verdicts were the least of the excitement the court experienced.

Moments after the defendants were denounced by the deceased’s family for their “animalistic” actions in a victim impact statement, the courtroom exploded into a melee between said victims and families of the four men convicted of murdering the 16-year-old on a Dorchester street in 2007.

After being given the mandatory sentence for second-degree murder (life with the possibility of parole after serving 15 years) one of the convicted lads protested his innocence,

The clerk then announced that the men were sentenced to prison for their “natural life.”
One of the defendants’ relatives shouted out, “What do you mean ‘natural life?’ ”
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Last week, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog spent the week discussing the issue of bullying and the over-reactive indictments paraded before a hungry audience by a local district attorney.

Today, we return to high school. This time it is another high school though. The academic institution involved this time is the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. Yesterday, jury selection began in Woburn for the trial of John O., (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) who stands accused of stabbing a 15-year-old youth to death at the school. The Defendant was 16-years-old at the time.

The stabbing took place inside a high school bathroom in 2007.

The defense is not the typical “It wasn’t me” or, “It was self-defense”.

The defense is apparently that of diminished capacity. The Defendant was apparently a special education student who had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism, and attention deficit disorder. More specifically, the defense says that his mental status left him unable to conform to the societal rules of behavior, especially when considering committing violent acts.
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There comes a time when any Boston criminal defense attorney is knocked almost speechless.

Almost.

Fortunately, this one can still write when that happens. It would appear that the law enforcement entities have come together and resolved several of the questions posed in yesterday’s Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog. The solution, though, reminds me of a famous escape scene from the movie “Blazing Saddles”, when the hero of the story, a black sheriff, is out-gunned and he puts his own gun to his head and says, “Make one move and the (“N-word”) get’s it!”

On the other hand…anything is possible.

I am referring to the findings announced yesterday by the Suffolk County District Attorney that 19-year old, apparently Cape Veridan, Manuel D. (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) shot himself in the head, killing himself, because police officers wanted to talk to him.
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It is always a serious situation when an officer fires his or her weapon in the Commonwealth. This one is no different. Boston Police are continuing their investigation of a police-involved shooting in the Boston area (Dorchester) over the weekend which left 19-year-old Manuel D. (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) dead. While we wait for the investigative dust to settle, we know one thing…lawyers will soon be involved.

“Based on preliminary investigation, it appears he fired on us, and officers returned fire,” said Eddy Chrispin, a Boston Police spokesman. He further related that the Deceased was part of a group of men standing on a corner who were approached by police. He is said to have fled when officers drew near at around 9:41 p.m.

An unnamed police source also relates that the officers believed the teenager was involved in some of the gun-related violence that has been plaguing the area over the last couple of weeks and was being pursued for that reason when the gunfire exchange occurred.

Well, that’s one perspective. As usual, there are others..

According to some witnesses, the Deceased had actually gone to a memorial in Dorchester for a close friend of his who had recently died. Moments after he had arrived at the memorial, the deadly shoot-out with the police occurred.

One witness who grew up with the Deceased near the site of the shooting said that he and several friends were standing by the memorial when heard two shots ring out and saw numerous police officers rush in their direction. “Then there were more shots and more shots,” the witness described. “They didn’t have to shoot him like that, 15 times. He was running away and they just kept shooting at him.”
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Today, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog points out that there really can be “heroes” as well as “villains” in today’s modern, if not skeptical, age.

It seems to also be a story of a suspect’s alleged consistency.

It was this past Monday. It began when a 34-year-old woman parked her Acura SUV at the Dock Square garage in the North End. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a burly man appeared at her door, speaking calmly and matter-of-factly.

“I need your car, I need your keys,” he said.

When she saw the gun in her hand, she knew it was not simply an unlucky gentleman who simply needed an emergency ride to, say, deliver a baby.

He simply wanted to deliver the car…to himself
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It would appear that the people of the Boston area dodged the proverbial bullet when Professor Amy Bishop (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) moved out of state. According to Alabama law enforcement, co-faculty members were not so lucky.

The Defendant stands accused at the moment of gunning down said members at a faculty meeting whereat it was revealed that she was not going to get tenure.

But her latest problems are not her first brushes with guns, assault and the law. In fact, the more the media dig into her past, the more is learned at how she allegedly skated by criminal prosecutions a number of times. Some such skating has left Massachusetts law enforcement officials scratching their heads.

For example, one of the first stories that were revealed were about the suspicions about her connection to an attempted bombing of a professor at Harvard when she worked there. She was apparently trying to become a famous scientist (see discovery of her book from Tuesday’s blog). Her supervisor was purportedly not pleased with her work. He received a bomb in the mail after an alleged dispute with her. Clearly, the federal officials did not believe there was enough to charge her and so nothing happened.

However, a cloud of mystery seems to have developed about that situation with her brother.
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Have you heard the one about the professor who is accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama on Friday? They say that Amy B., 44, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) had been a professor there since 2003. But did you know that she had come from Boston where she had other…lawyer-necessary problems?

The Defendant has made national news since last week. It would appear that she had a difference of opinion at a faculty meeting. They saw her as not tenure material. In response, she saw them as targets. At the end of the faculty meeting, she allegedly opened fire, killing three colleagues and wounding three others.

Of course, this is not the first time she has been connected with weapons in the eyes of law enforcement.

For example, in 1986, she is said to have shot her brother in the back. He died. And the charge of homicide? Well, a State Police investigation report has been released that shows that they had determined that the shooting was merely an accident.

I’ve seen people convicted for lesser accidents!
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For the last two days, the daily Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog looked at two recent matters wherein Massachusetts defendants were stopped by law enforcement in their vehicles, wherein drugs were found. During the investigations, sometimes more drugs were found at various locations…sometimes it was a href=”https://criminal.altmanllp.com/illegal-weapons-possession.html”>weapons.

Rest assured that while the police and courts treat drug possession and gun possession very seriously…the combination is extremely eye-opening to them. It is the stuff that headlines are made of.

In any event, one last issue remains unexamined. In the Marblehead matter, additional material was found in the defendant’s home.

The question arises whether we are less protected in our homes or our automobiles from police invasion into our privacy in terms of search and siezure.

This is what today’s posting, ending this three-part-series will address.
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