Articles Posted in Theft Crimes

by

The are many theft-related crimes for which one can get arrested in the Boston area. Among the most serious are those of Robbery and Burglary. Both are generally regarded as crimes of violence. Both carry heavy potential prison terms. For both, you had best get an experienced criminal defense attorney to help you at the first possible moment.

The crime of Robbery is basically the taking of someone’s property through use of force. The force can come from a gun, a knife or even a fist. It can be the words “I am going to beat you to a bloody pulp”.
Continue reading

by

Albert G., the 28-year-old gentleman from Miami (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) who had been charged with being a computer hacker agreed to plead guilty in Boston’s federal court last week. His attorney, however, still disagrees with prosecutors about his role in the hacking.

Yesterday, his attorney still insisted that he was not the “ringleader” in the, now nationally
known, scheme which has been described as one of the largest payment-card thefts in recent history.

The Defendant has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he helped engineer the theft of more than 40 million card numbers from retailers like TJX Cos Inc and BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. Of course, that’s just in Boston. Last month, in New Jersey, the U.S. Justice Department charged him and two others with conspiring to steal another 130 million payment card numbers, the most ever.

Both cases put the Defendant at the center of the action — especially bold conduct since authorities say he was a Secret Service informant earlier this decade.
Continue reading

by

Today, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog returns to a subject that dominated headlines for much of the early months of the year. This would be the Bernard Madoff nightmare and his infamous Ponzi scheme. As you will recall, we learned that the Ponzi scheme was originated here in Boston and many of Madoff’s victims indeed lived here in the Commonwealth.

Yesterday, in a New York courtroom, a gentleman by the name of Frank DiPascali, 52, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) proved all of us who claimed that Madoff could not have acted alone right…thereby exposing Madoff to be, among other things, a liar.

Now, that’s a surprise, isn’t it?

The Defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy, securities fraud and eight other charges Tuesday as part of a cooperation deal in which he’s expected to help prosecutors target other suspects in the massive embezzlement scam.
Continue reading

by

While we were all watching the recent episodes of “The Professor And The Officer”, did you know that other arrests were taking place? It would appear that even more violent crimes than disorderly conduct were still being committed around the Boston area and defense attorneys were being assigned or retained to handle them.

Let’s take three teenagers in Stoughton who were arrested early Monday morning for armed robbery for example. They stand accused of allegedly robbing a pizza delivery person at knifepoint.

Two adult youths, Reynold E., 18, (hereinafter, “Defendant 1”) and Jeovanni A., 19, (hereinafter, “Defendant 2”) were charged with various counts of conspiracy, assault and battery with dangerous weapon, and armed robbery while masked. A 14-year old female (hereinafter, the “Juvenile”) was also charged with similar counts in the alleged conspiracy.

The purported victims were a female delivery person ( hereinafter, the “Employee”)from Papa John’s Pizza and her boyfriend (hereinafter, the “Boyfriend”). After the alleged robbery and assault, they returned to the shop and called 911 in the early hours of Monday morning.
Continue reading

by

Massachusetts criminal charges have been dropped against Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates was arrested on July 16 at his home in Cambridge.

The 58-year-old Harvard professor, who is one of the most prominent African-American scholars in the US, had just returned home from a trip abroad. He was standing outside his home when he motioned to his driver to help him open his front door, which was jammed. A passerby who observed the interaction contacted police to report a possible break-in.

According to the report, Gates was arrested for his allegedly “loud and tumultuous” conduct and taken away in handcuffs. Gates claims that he turned over two forms of ID to the police officer and when he asked the cop to provide his name and badge number, the police officer refused. Disorderly conduct charges were filed against the Harvard professor.

The arrest sparked an outcry among those who believe that Gates’s arrest involved racial profiling. A number of his colleagues say that this type of profiling is not uncommon in Cambridge.

In 2004, Allen Counter, a neuroscience professor at Harvard said two campus police officers apprehended him after mistaking him for a robbery suspect. They threatened to arrest him when he was unable to produce identification.

Reverend Al Sharpton says the incident involving Professor Gates is an example of abuse of police power.

Racial Profiling
Racial profiling involves law enforcement officers using race as their basis of suspecting someone of having committed a particular crime.

Gates lashes out after authorities agree to drop criminal charge, Boston.com, July 21, 2009
Prominent Black Scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Sees Charges Dropped, ABC News, July 21, 2009
Profiling Charge In Black Scholar’s Arrest, CBS News, July 21, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard.edu
Racial Profiling, Amnesty International
Police Department, City of Cambridge Continue reading

by

I’ve regretted at times that I never had a brother. I’ll bet that summertime can be great fun for two brothers. The weather is nicer, there is no school, and the possibilities seem endless. Of course, for some brothers, perhaps the “endless” part can be a bit of a problem. Let’s take two brothers from the south of Boston city of Brockton. It would seem that, armed with their own attorney, they are about to share something new…court dates.

You see, John S., 19, and Jose A, 32, of Brockton (hereinafter, the “Defendants”), are now suspects of at least two armed robberies in their home city according to the police. The Defendants were arrested last Thursday.

The younger brother is suspected of robbing a deliveryman from Five Star Pizza with another man at gunpoint. In that event, the deliveryman was allegedly lured to an abandoned house with a fake order and then robbed. As we discussed last Thursday, ironically, a robbery combines the elements of larceny and, physical force…usually with an assault. In this case, the charge would be, at least, assault with a dangerous weapon, to wit: the gun. At any rate, the young man was spotted at a Burger King at the Brockton Fair Thursday night at around 9:00pm due to a photo identification which had taken place earlier. He was arrested for the armed robbery, conspiracy to commit a crime, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (the gun) and larceny from a person.

Earlier that day, at around 6:30 p.m., officer William Carpenter arrested the elder brother in connection with a mugging at knife-point that had occurred June 25 at 12:45 a.m. on Denton Street.
Continue reading

by

In days of old, if there was a financial dispute, one might expect to be sued by whoever claimed you took, or owed, money. Well, that can still happen. However, one should also be wary of being criminally charged with the crime of larceny… in one way or another.

“Larceny” is basically another word for “theft” under the Massachusetts General Laws. According to Chapter 266of such laws, anyone ” Who steals, or with intent to defraud obtains by a false pretence, or whoever unlawfully, and with intent to steal or embezzle, converts, or secretes with intent to convert, the property of another… whether such property is or is not in his possession at the time of such conversion or secreting, shall be guilty of larceny”.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?

Well, not so much.

Actually, there are varying degrees of larceny. While larceny seems to simply be what we call in the outside world, “stealing”, how it was done and how much was stolen come under different sub-headings in the law and are treated differently.
Continue reading

by

Remember when you were young and parents, teachers and clergy kept insisting upon the benefits of sharing? Well, Investigators in Western Massachusetts have recently learned those benefits first-hand. As a result of sharing information with other police departments, West Stockbridge law enforcement believe they have stopped a spree of burglaries and larcenies. Of course, the other passenger on this sharing train is the gentleman they arrested; he gets a lawyer.

Timothy W., 40, of Great Barrington (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is that gentleman. He was arrested Thursday and arraigned in Pittsfield Superior Court on Friday. At that time, he was merely being charged with the break-in and theft at Rouge, a restaurant on West Center Road in West Stockbridge. However, law enforcement now believe that Rouge was one of a number of late-night break-ins which took place in the town last week.

Counting the eatery, there were allegedly six buildings broken into late night Wednesday or early Thursday morning, including three restaurants, a gift shop, a real estate agency and a vacant home.

Unheard of? Apparently not.
Continue reading

by

Well, this one cuts alittle close to home; I went to Tufts. Of course, I graduated undergrad there a long time ago. Long before I was a Boston criminal defense attorney. Long before the alleged white collar criminal activities to which Josephine N. (hereinafter, “Defendant 1”) and Raymond R. (hereinafter, “Defendant 2”) have now pleaded guilty. The pair were fairly high up on the funding ladder for the University at the time of their alleged misdeeds. Now, they have fallen off that ladder and landed in state prison.

Last week, Defendant 1, the director of Tufts’ Office of Student Activities from 1996 to 2007, and Defendant 2, the budget and fiscal coordinator for the Office of Student Activities from 2001 to 2007, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of larceny in Woburn Superior Court. According to the Commonwealth, Defendant 1 had stolen $37,576 and Defendant 2 had pilfered $604,873. The two had been indicted on July 1st by a Middlesex Grand Jury for counts of larceny over $250.

Yes, those would be felony charges. Each defendant was sentenced to two years to two years and one day to be followed by five years of probation as well as full restitution of the funds they have admitted to stealing.

“These two employees abused the access that they were given by the University to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars that was meant to help students,” District Attorney Leone said. “We want to thank Tufts University for referring this case to our office as soon as they uncovered this scheme and then working cooperatively with us to conduct a full investigation.”
Continue reading

by

Two Massachusetts Criminal Defense Attorneys have new clients resulting from their dealings with local police departments this past weekend. The two men handled the situation differently, but both methods ended in the same place…custody.

First there was the adventure of Randy G., 25 of Boston (hereinafter, “Defendant 1”). Defendant1 indicated that he was rather fond of doing business with a certain undercover police officer. In fact, he liked him so much, he thought it would be nice for the undercover to be a regular customer for his drug trade.

How did he do that? Well, the good old fashioned way – he tried to entice him with a bargain. He offered the undercover detective a lower price on crack, cocaine, if he would buy in volume.

The bargain was that Defendant1 would sell the UC seven or eight bags of crack for only one hundred dollars if he agreed to join his cadre of regular customers.

Not a bad deal…if you are in the market for that sort of thing.

The UC, however, wasn’t. He responded by offering Defendant1 a pair of the Commonwealth’s Bracelets of Shame. It was a deal Defendant1 could not refuse. Literally.
Continue reading

Contact Information
Cambridge, MA
Main Office
675 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: 617.206.1920Fax: 617.491.3299Toll Free: 800.481.6199
Boston, MA
1 State St
Suite 2
Boston, MA 02109
Phone: 617.547.1205Toll Free: 800.481.6199
Needham, MA
250 First Avenue 2nd Floo
Needham, MA 02494
Phone: 781.675.2329Toll Free: 800.481.6199

Some Select Cases are referred to other attorneys for principal responsibility

By publishing this information on this Website, the Boston, Massachusetts law firm of Altman & Altman LLP is not claiming to represent any clients or cases mentioned here. The content provided is designed to inform readers and is not intended as legal advice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2024, Altman & Altman LLP
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design