Articles Posted in Sexual Crimes

This year to date, MBTA Transit Police have made 35 arrests for open and gross lewdness on the T and buses, marking an 84 percent increase in such arrests since 2009. However, this statistic may be attributable to an increase in such incidents being reported. Around this time last year, there were 28 reports as compared with the 48 so far this year. The latest arrest involved Donnie McLean, a 48-year-old Level 3 sex offender, who allegedly exposed himself to a female on a Route 28 bus. McLean had previously been convicted of open and gross lewdness on two occasions.

In addition to the arrests for open and gross lewdness, MBTA police have made more than 20 arrests this year for indecent assault and battery. Most recently, in November, two men were arrested in connection with separate incidents of alleged MBTA groping.

Sources:
The Boston Globe, More arrests for lewd conduct-and more incidents reported– on MBTA

MBTA.com, Indecent Assault and Battery Arrests

Open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior involves the intentional exposure of the buttocks, genitals or female breasts to another person or to multiple persons. If the exposure is accidental, then one cannot be convicted of this offense. Especially given certain fashion trends, such as males wearing saggy jeans or females wearing strapless tops and dresses, it is often possible that such exposure is nothing more than an embarrassing accident.

Indecent assault and battery also requires an intent element. To be convicted of indecent assault and battery, there must have been some intentional touching of a private area without excuse or justification. The T and MBTA buses are almost always extremely crowded, and there is usually little to no personal space. It can be very difficult to avoid accidentally touching or brushing up against fellow passengers, and again, a potentially strong defense to an MBTA indecent assault and battery charge would be that the touching was not intentional.
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William Gibbons, a 48-year-old Level 3 sex offender, was arrested Wednesday afternoon when Transit police allegedly saw him publicly urinating on a Downtown Crossing platform. He was charged with indecent exposure and failing to register as a sex offender. Transit police were notified around 4:45 p.m. that a man had exposed himself, the Boston Globe reported. It’s alleged that Gibbons was still urinating when police found him. After he was arrested, police learned that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest for failure to register.

Source: The Boston Globe, Level 3 sex offender charged with urinating in Downtown Crossing T station

First, this story shows the importance of hiring a criminal defense lawyer when charged with a sex crime. Sex offense convictions will continue to haunt you, especially where you could be classified as a Level 3 sex offender. A Level 3 designation arises where the Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB) determines that the risk of re-offense is high and that the person poses a danger to the public.

A second point involves the advantages of hiring a good lawyer once you have been charged with failure to register. Under General Laws c. 6, Section 178H(a), a prosecutor has to prove that a defendant knowingly failed to register. An experienced defense attorney can make that knowledge element difficult to prove. Even where the knowledge was available to the defendant, the prosecutor cannot meet his/her burden unless it is proven the defendant consciously disregarded the information necessary to provide him/her with the requisite knowledge. So, for example, if the SORB didn’t mail Gibbons a notification, he might not be guilty of this crime even if notifications were published in multiple newspapers. This is just one example of the many ways a criminal lawyer can fight your failure to register charge.
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Anthony Gabriella, a 20-year-old Malden man, has been indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury on charges of disseminating child pornography and two counts of possession of child pornography. He will be arraigned on December 13 in Middlesex Superior Court.

The Massachusetts Crimes Against Children Task force conducted an investigation in June into file-sharing programs for child pornography. The investigators, who included State Police detectives, connected to a host computer suspected of sharing child pornography files and obtained 200 files of what was apparently child pornography. A search warrant was executed at Gabriella’s home in July, during which a lap top and two thumb drives were seized from his bedroom. According to a statement from the DA’s office, police previewed the computer on the scene and found about 250 videos and images of child pornography. Gabriella was arrested at his home and arraigned on July 22 for charges of possession with intent to disseminate child pornography. He was released on bail with conditions that he refrain from using computers and the Internet, stop working at his lifeguard job and not have unsupervised contact with children.

Child pornography is the exception to the general rule that persons are free to possess obscene materials in the privacy of their home. Dissemination of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence and could reach up to 20 years. Possession of child pornography carries a sentence of up to 5 years in state prison.

One of the elements of the dissemination charge is intent to disseminate the material. Without knowing more details of this case, this could be difficult for a prosecutor to prove in this instance because it involved a file-sharing. It’s not uncommon for file-sharing to be unintentional. For example, if you don’t choose a file-sharing password on Windows, you can unconsciously make your files accessible on the Internet and your hard-drive can become open to anyone who figures out your IP address. Depending on additional information, this is one possible argument that a criminal defense lawyer may make to combat this charge.

Source: The Boston Globe, Malden man indicted on child pornography charges
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Lawrence Follett, a 46-year-old of Billerica and former Boxborough elementary school teacher, pleaded guilty in federal court to child pornography possession charges and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8. Prosecutors say they’ll recommend that Follett serve 2 years and 3 months in federal prison and 10 years of probation after his release.

Federal investigators executed a search warrant on Follett’s home in 2008 based on tips from Swiss authorities. In August of that year, Interpol had started an investigation into child pornography and obtained user addresses that had been accessing a child pornography site. One address allegedly downloaded 101 pornographic videos depicting young boys for $500. ICE Cyber Crimes Unit allegedly traced it to Follett’s Billerica address. Investigators allegedly found more than 200 movies and images of child pornography on a computer and thumb drive in the home.

Federal child pornography possession charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. If Follett had been charged under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 272 Section 29C, his maximum possible sentence would have been 5 years in state prison.

As is alleged in Follett’s case, most child pornography possession cases involve the Internet or some other electronic communication, which gives rise to federal jurisdiction because it crosses state lines. The federal government is adding and assigning an increasing amount of U.S. Attorneys and FBI agents to investigate and prosecute child pornography crimes. If you think that you are being investigated for any crime, it is important to speak with an attorney.

Sources:

The Lowell Sun, Billerica man, a former teacher, pleads guilty to Internet child porn

The Boston Globe, Former Mass. teacher pleads to child porn charges
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Some people can always be found in one type of court or another. Take, for example, New York City basketball czar Ernest Lorch. He was arrested this week by the United States Marshals Service after failing to appear for arraignment on sex abuse charges out of Massachusetts last week.

Lorch is apparently 77 and the founder of the famed Riverside Church basketball program. One would imagine that he has been around enough to know that when you are summonsed to appear in court, particularly in a criminal matter, you had best show up. Failing to do so results in nastiness like default warrants and heavy bail conditions. Nevertheless, it would seem that this information had heretofore been lost on Mr. Lorch who was taken into custody at a Westchester County assisted-living facility by the federal marshals.

According to accounts, he was later released on a $25,000 bond and must appear in court on December 3rd in White Plains for an extradition hearing. One would imagine that he has now learned the importance of actually showing up in the courts of Justice as he did for the courts of basketball.

Now, you may be wondering, “Isn’t this a bit overkill, Sam? How much trouble could an aging church basketball legend be in?”
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The Massachusetts sexual crime case against Austin Renaud, one of the ex-South Hadley High School students charged with statutory rape in the Phoebe Prince suicide-bullying case, is scheduled go to trial next year. The 18-year-old has been charged as an adult. He has pleaded not guilty to the rape charge.

Renaud is accused of having sexual contact with Prince, the South Hadley High School freshman who killed herself in January. However, according to his criminal defense attorney, Renaud considered Prince a friend and had even cut ties with his ex-girlfriend and the others who are accused of bullying her.

According to prosecutors, the girls accused of bullying Prince resented Prince’s relationships with Renaud and Sean Mulveyhill, then 17, who has also been charged with statutory rape against Prince. Four other teens face Massachusetts criminal charges related to Prince’s suicide. The teens are accused of bullying Prince in person and online.

If Renaud is convicted of statutory rape, he could go to prison for life. He and the other five teens have been suspended indefinitely from their high school.

The crime of Massachusetts statutory rape is a serious offense that involves sexual intercourse or unnatural intercourse with a person under age 16. Even if a defendant didn’t know that the person was that young, he/she can still be convicted of Massachusetts statutory rape.

Trial date slated in bullying case, MassLive, October 27, 2010
Teen charged in Mass. bullying case heads to trial, Washington Post, October 26, 2010
Life a struggle for six teens accused in Phoebe Prince case, IrishCentral, October 14, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Phoebe Prince Timeline

Massachusetts Law About Sex
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