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There are certain times that tend to promote domestic violence. Assault cases between family members, for example, seem to rise around the holidays. Is it the drinking? The being cooped up with one’s loved ones that makes one want to kill them? This varies.

Winter storms, such as the one we are experiencing at the moment also tend to bring about such crimes..

Today’s blog, though, is about a woman who apparently could not wait until the storm outside. Allegedly.

Shawntina Burston, 39, of Medford (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) has been charged with assaulting her husband. Said husband was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. There, he was pronounced dead.

The Defendant is accused of attacking her, now ex, husband with a knife. She is scheduled to be arraigned today in Somerville District Court.

There is a veil of horror which shrouds murder cases, regardless of which side of the aisle you are on. I learned that years ago when I was prosecuting homicide cases and it continues today as I defend those charged..

In many such cases, one cannot help but turn away amazed at how one moment…one very bad moment…can end one life and shatter many others;.
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This past year, there was a lot of attention paid to Massachusetts drunk drivers and those who drive negligently. For example, a new law was passed to prevent people from texting while driving.

We also had more than our fair share of vehicular homicide cases, including the killing of a police officer due to Massachusetts motor vehicle crimes.

There was one vehicular homicide matter, however, that may not have gotten enough attention. I say this only because it happened again.

Two cars were involved in an accident this weekend which left two cars overturned on interstate 495. Fortunately, nobody was killed.

The cause according to the Commonwealth?

One driver, Jenifer M. Scott, 43, of Milford (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) fell asleep and so lost control of her vehicle. A second driver, at 51-year-old man from Harvard, took measures to avoid the Defendant’s Toyota Corolla and, as a result, went over the guardrail and rolled down an embankment. His 56-year-old female passenger was taken to Marlborough Hospital with minor injuries.
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It would appear that Fall River’s Shawn Drumgold, 45, (hereinafter the “Defendant”) has clutched defeat out of the jaws of victory. He was once wrongfully convicted of a 1988 Boston murder. He ended up being exonerated and released. He then even won a lawsuit, and a $14 million judgment for said conviction.

That’s where the good news ends.

Yesterday, he was back before the bar of justice…now arrested on drug charges, including possession of a Class A substance with intent to distribute. After pleading “not guilty”, he was released on $500 cash bail.

According to a Boston police report, an informant told police earlier this month that drugs were being sold out of a particular Roxbury. Police raided the apartment on Wednesday, the report states, and recovered several bags of heroin and crack cocaine, as well as $304 cash from the Defendant’s person. He was arrested along with several other suspects, authorities said.

The Defendant had been released in November, 2003 after prosecutors said they believed he was wrongfully convicted because he did not receive a fair trial. In April 2008, a federal jury in Boston ruled that a city police detective violated the Defendant’s civil rights during the investigation by concealing that he gave money to a key prosecution witness before that witness testified in the murder trial. The jury awarded the Defendant $14 million, plus interest, in October 2009.
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Marblehead Massachusetts is not normally thought of as the assault capital of the Commonwealth. Neither is Swampscott for that matter. However, one week ago today, there was an explosion of violence between kids from these towns…complete with dangerous weapons.

Now, we are not talking Boston here, so the weapons are not uzis or other types of firearms. They included primarily baseball bats, pipes and chains.

I am told by one high school juvenile that the fight had actually been scheduled to take place outside the Marblehead High School. However, authorities learned about it before it had a chance to commence and made the kids leave.

The ignited spark of anger was not extinguished by the change in venue, however. It simply moved to a regularly quiet residential street. And then…boom!

The cause of the fight? I am told that a young gentleman of one town made some passes at a young lady of the other town. Unfortunately, said lass had a boyfriend from her own town.

The press coverage of this has not been great. If not for the fact that I live in the area, I might not never have found out about the brawl.
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Chuck Turner (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) faced the federal judge yesterday. Finally, after listening to lord knows how many hours from the Defendant, the judge got to have his say. It was sentencing day for the Defendant. The final act of the recent federal trial during which a jury found him guilty of white collar crmes

The defense argued for leniency for the 70-year-old civil rights crusader. They pointed to his four decades of service as a community activist and elected official…aside from whatever other corruption one might assume took place during those years. They appealed to the court to give the Defendant probation, allowing him to avoid obligatory government housing altogether.

The prosecutors suggested a prison term of 33 to 41 months. They argued that the Defendant lied on the witness stand (aka perjury) and that he made a mockery of public office and the criminal justice system.

The Defendant was convicted in October of attempted extortion and three counts of providing false statements to FBI agents. He protested his innocence then and does so now. He blames his conviction on a government conspiracy to discredit elected officials of African-American descent.
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…And as we prance away from acknowledging the realities of the criminal justice system, we dance along with Governor Deval Patrick. His new proposed dance-step bows politely to law enforcement. It’s a nice dance, really. The only people likely to be hurt are the poor and disenfranchised. But then, if you follow the tune, you will realize that when they are accused of crimes, they are probably guilty anyway. So, perhaps still stinging from criticism that made him cave in the Parole Board fiasco, he is in no mood to consider them.

That’s right. It’s gonna be another one of those blogs.

We discussed this issue awhile ago. Massachusetts’ prosecutors are whining that those big bad criminal defense attorneys who are hired to represent indigent criminal defendantsr, after a proper nickel and diming and receiving only a fraction of what their work is worth, are making too much money. Never mind the vastly uneven playing field in which prosecutors who do not have anywhere near the professional expenses and yet have all of the resources available to their disposal. Forget about the fact that those poor crusaders of justice are able to support families and build a nest egg while their indigent-representing-opponents can barely meet the expenses that law enforcement agencies meet for the “good guys”.

Do you realize that those scourges of justice, the defense lawyers, have the temerity to believe that they ought to be able to meet expenses? Some such misanthropes even think they should earn a living!

Well, the governor has decided to solve the problem in true Shakespearean style. While he is not going so far as to “kill all the lawyers”, he is taking a dramatic stand with they who seem to have the power…law enforcement. Of course, there is not enough money to give better salaries to prosecutors yet, so why not crush the other side of the aisle a bit more? Who’s going to complain? The poor who depend on those attorneys for a chance at a fair trial? Oh, come on, now. Those professional vermin the defense attorneyes? Grow up!
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The Boston Police Department (hereinafter, the “Department”) has taken a large, and very laudable, step forward . They are realizing that if they want to be a trusted, and effective, member of the community, they have to communicate with said community.

As you know, there have been various complaints regarding the use of undue force in various cases. In fact, a You Tube video emerged last fall that showed several officers forcefully subduing a 16-year-old boy,

The video, recorded on a student’s cellphone, showed at least six officers at Roxbury Community College surrounding and then “taking down” the teenager who they said was resisting arrest. The Department claims that the juvenile, who had been wanted on a warrant, had swung at the officers, police have said.

Many were outraged and made claims of excessive force. The Department, however, said that the procedure was consistent with what officers’ training in cases where a suspect refuses to be handcuffed.

The Suffolk district attorney’s office has been investigating the incident. In the meantime, the Department is reaching out to officials, media and the public to demonstrate that police officers receive proper training which includes strict guidelines regarding the use of force.
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Well, Gerald M. Hill, 48, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) got good news and bad news yesterday at Boston’s Suffolk Superior Court. The good news? The robbery charges against him have been dropped. The bad news? He’s going back to jail, perhaps for life, anyway.

You see, the Defendant was on parole when he was accused of robbing a taxi company at gunpoint in 2009. His prior case, on which he was out on parole, involved the participation in two 1977 killings. I don’t know much about that case, but can tell you that he had not been found guilty of Murder in the First Degree because, if he had been, he would not have been eligible for parole.

The new charges were dismissed yesterday because the evidence against him were suppressed by the court because the court found that critical evidence against him had to be suppressed because of the police’ failure to follow “the rules” of search and seizure. Because the evidence was suppressed, prosecutors said, they no longer had enough of a case to prosecute the Defendant.
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It may take awhile for felony prosecutions to come, but, usually, when the police painstakingly take their time in their investigation, suspects emerge. This is being played out in Boston’s Suffolk Superior Court. Kimani Washington, 35 (hereinafter the “Defendant”), has been arrested in connection with the quadruple homicide in Mattapan in September. He was charged with various charges, including armed robbery, armed carjacking, trafficking cocaine, and being an armed career criminal.

He has pleaded “Not Guilty” and was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail after arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court.

Interestingly, the Defendant was not charged in the actual murders, although the prosecutors allege that he was a mastermind behind the armed home invasion that precipitated the deadly shootings.

Apparently, during the investigation into the murders, police found over 28 grams of crack cocaine allegedly taken during the robbery, as well as two guns. They say that these were found in a location where the Defendant often stayed. The Commonwealth also claims that one of these firearms were fired during the multiple homicide.

The Defendant is not the only one charged in the case. Another man has been actually charged with the murders and are expected in Suffolk Superior Court shortly. Further, another gentleman was arraigned previously arraigned on murder charges and held without bail.
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We haven’t talked about drug cases for awhile. As you know, possession of a small amount of marijuana has been decriminalized. However, that does not mean that having it is now problem free.

Confused?

Well, it depends on the circumstances in which you possessed it. For example, if there is even the hint that you might be sharing or otherwise distributing pot you are going to be charged with possession with intent to distribute.

And then there was the case of Ms. Sue Thayer, 65 (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) She was charged with felony drug charges when it was discovered that she was growing marijuana. Apparently, she was growing it for her son.

In 2007, the Defendant was charged with possessing more than 25 pot plants. She said she grew the plants out of necessity because the marijuana improved the appetite and general condition of her son, who suffered from chronic wasting.

She tried a defense of “necessity”. It did not fly.
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