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A jury has found Michael D. Holden, a former Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School teacher, not guilty of two counts of forcible rape of a child. The alleged victim, who is now 20-years-old, had accused Holden of driving her to a parking lot, and, while in his SUV, forcing her to have sex and perform oral sex on him in 2004.

In January 2005, the school fired Holden after 14 years of employment. He also coached the boys volleyball team.

Holden’s criminal defense lawyer had accused the alleged victim of making up the allegations because the former teacher failed her for school work, recommended that the school suspend her, and admonished her several times for not dressing appropriately and being disruptive during class.

Following the announcement of the jury verdict, Holden expressed relief that he was exonerated.

Forcible Rape of a Child
In Massachusetts, a conviction of forcible rape of a child can lead to a lifelong prison sentence. This is considered a serious sexual offense and a violent crime. If you are under investigation for this crime, it is important that you consult with a Boston criminal defense lawyer right away.

Even as a suspect in a Massachusetts rape case, your reputation, career, and personal life can be thrown into turmoil. It is important that you have a legal team that knows how to provide you with the best defense.

Former teacher not guilty in rape case, SouthCoastToday, December 15, 2009
Ex-Teacher Not Guilty Of Child Rape, The Boston Channel, December 15, 2009

Related Web Resource:
Massachusetts Law About Sex, Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries Continue reading

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Some folks in Boston will go to great lengths to avoid contacting a criminal defense attorney!

Take the case of 36-year-old Francis V. (hereinafter the “Defendant”) for example. He wanted to avoid court so much he chose self-mutilation over consulting an experienced defense attorney.

The Defendant had a pending drug trafficking case for trafficking in which he had already defaulted. No, the Defendant did not simply have one warrant pending for his arrest…he had 13 such warrants pending.

In an attempt to keep those warrants pending, in other words not falling down upon him like a law enforcement net, he mutilated his fingers in order to conceal his prints.
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“Look, you seem like a good kid. Boston needs more people out there like you…productive citizens. I have no interest in jamming you up. Just tell me your side of things and I will talk to the District Attorney and see what we can work out.”

You would be surprised how comforting those words seem when coming from the police officer who has you in the little room at the local police station talking about that nasty-sounding murder that everyone is upset about. You may be even more surprised at how many people leap to those words as if from a burning building to tell their “side of things.”

The next time they see that “side”, it is often almost unrecognizable as it reflects from the pages of a police report. Yep, the prosecution went through anyway. Who knew?

As most daily readers of this blog know, there is no law that says you must talk to the police when they come to question you. Quite the contrary. You have a Constitutional right not to talk to them. You have a right to ask for an attorney to be present as well.

“Well, Sam, if I say I do not want to talk to them, or ask for an attorney, aren’t I basically confessing that I have something to hide?”
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A couple has been arrested for allegedly owning and operating a prostitution parlor in Tyngsboro. Yuanchun Pi, 60, and Charles Stewart, 66, each face one count of maintaining a house of prostitution. Pi also is charged with one count of engaging in sexual conduct for a fee.

The couple owned and ran Tyngs Tarry Massage Therapy until it was shut down last week. The Massachusetts town of Tyngsborough issued the cease-and-desist order after an anonymous tipster notified police that “illegal” activities” were taking place in the building. Another woman, Yin Hang, was also arrested and charged with sexual conduct for a fee.

Hang, Pi, and Stewart are to be arraigned at Lowell District Court.

Online ads for the business offered massages for $70/hour and $50/half hour. Owners touted the massage salon as a “clean and relaxing” for clients to bring their “stress and pain.”

Engaging in Sexual Conduct for a Fee
In Massachusetts, even if any sexual conduct did not occur, a person can still be charged for sexual conduct for a fee if an offer or agreement was made. The defendant can be the person accused of offering the sexual favors in exchange for money or the one who allegedly agreed to pay for the sexual favors. Either way, it is important that a person charged with a Massachusetts sex crime speak with an experienced Boston criminal defense law firm that knows how to successfully represent clients charged with prostitution.

A person convicted of engaging in sexual conduct for a fee can be ordered to spend up to a year behind bars. If the defendant is convicted of agreeing to pay, offering to pay, or paying to have sexual conduct with a child under age 14, he or she may be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Police say Tyngsboro massage shop sold sex; three face charges, Lowell Sun, December 3, 2009
2 Charged With Running House Of Prostitution, WMUR9, December 3, 2009

Related Web Resource:
Chapter 272: Section 53A. Engaging in sexual conduct for a fee; engaging in sexual conduct with child under age 14 for a fee; penalties, Massachusetts General Laws Continue reading

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Although it seems like the beginning of a horror novel, you know the scene pretty well by now. You are in your Massachusetts home in the evening just relaxing, watching reruns of Boston Legal. The knock come on the door and it is the police.

Before you know it, someone from the home is dragged out the door wearing the Commonwealth Bracelets of Shame. Maybe it is you.

“What is going on?”, you demand.

The police tell you that they are there “on a warrant”.

Your mind swirls. “On a warrant”. What does that mean? A search warrant? Arrest warrant? Bench warrant?

Before you can respond, it is all over. Maybe your lawyer can explain it to you.

Fear not. This lawyer can explain it to you.
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It was 6:10pm of December first and Joshua S., 32, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) may have expected it was dinner-time. It wasn’t. It was arrest-on-outstanding-warrant and meet-your-lawyer-time.

The Defendant, it seems, was found in the basement of a home when the Gloucester police showed up and found him. There was an outstanding warrant for him and so he was immediately taken into custody to be brought into court the next day.

No need for questioning. No need for further explanation.

End of story.
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A former Westboro middle school gym teacher and girls basketball coach is facing up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to one Massachusetts possession of pornography criminal charge. Brian Rossi, 37, was arrested last February after images of kids taking part in sexually explicit activities were discovered in his home during a search. Rossi’s sentencing is scheduled for February.

Arresting officers say Rossi threatened to commit suicide. He was given a psychiatric evaluation at St. Vincent Hospital and then placed under home confinement, where he has been taking medication to treat his depression and anxiety. He is also undergoing therapy.

Rossi’s Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer has asked the judge to let Rossi stay confined at home until he is sentenced so he can continue getting treatment. Rossi has admitted to owning the child pornography videos but there are no allegations or evidence that he ever touched anyone inappropriately. According to his psychological evaluation, the former teacher is not likely to reoffend.

Child Pornography
Child pornography is considered a violent crime and state and federal sentencing guidelines exist for distribution or possession of child pornography. Merely having child pornography in your possession can throw you in prison and require you to to register as a sex offender when you get out of prison. This can negatively affect your professional opportunities and personal and social relationships and alter the course of your life.

Under the General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 272: Section 29C, possession of child pornography consists of knowingly buying or having in your possession visual material showing a person under 18 engaged in sexual conduct.

Teacher guilty in child porn, Telegram, December 5, 2009
Ex-Mass. school gym teacher guilty of child porn, Boston Herald, December 5, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Chapter 272: Section 29C. Knowing purchase or possession of visual material of child depicted in sexual conduct; punishment, The General Laws of Massachusetts
What is Child Pornography?, Missing Kids Continue reading

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Bethany P., 21, of Londonderry, N.H. (hereinafter, the “Victim”) will not be returning to her Boston College senior class this week. You see, she met up with a Weston lad’s SUV this weekend. The lad was allegedly Benjamin K., an 18 year old gentleman (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) who the Commonwealth claims was driving drunk. The Defendant pleaded not guilty today, alongside his attorney. Nonetheless, he was ordered held on $50,000 bail.

The Victim was struck as she crossed St. Thomas More Road at around 12:55am Sunday morning. The Defendant was driving his parents’ Toyota Land Cruiser. She is said to have sustained “serious” injuries, but was listed in good condition Monday morning at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, according to state police and a hospital spokesman.

While the Victim was alone at the time of the accident, the accident scene is full of student dormitories and an administrative building.

According to the Commonwealth, the Defendant left the Victim unconscious and bleeding in the road and left the scene of the accident. He was thereafter apprehended by BC police after a bulletin was sent out about the SUV. He was arrested as he tried to exit the college’s grounds.
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…And once again we are reminded of this year’s movie The Watchmen, where the catchphrase was “Who watches the Watchmen?” The setting is Boston’s northern neighbor, Salem, Massachusetts. The person is Marie M., 38, a former accounting clerk of Lawrence’s Probation Department (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). That’s right, the same probation department entrusted to oversee criminal defendants as they try to follow advice and role models to work their way back onto the “straight and narrow”. The Defendant’s current position is beside her defense attorney, facing charges of embezzlement in the amount of more than two million dollars.

According to the Commonwealth, the Defendant had crafted an elaborate white collar scheme that managed to elude detection for nearly three years. During her 19 years with the department, she allegedly managed to employ a host of complex accounting maneuvers to pocket approximately $12,000 a week from 2006 through this summer, when she left work amid troubling questions posed by suspicious auditors.

Last Thursday, the Defendant was in court in Salem Superior Court, facing felony charges. During the hearing, prosecutors marveled what they called an intricate and sophisticated scheme. The Defendant was apparently the only person in the department authorized to change entries in the court’s accounting system and she is said to have used this position to manipulate records and bank deposits to cover her tracks. Further, prosecutors allege that auditors who uncovered the alleged fraud had only encountered one of the Defendant’s methods (known as a “negative, non-money error reversal”) once or twice over the past 20 years.
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Marie Morey, a Lawrence courthouse accounting clerk, has pled guilty to charges of larceny of property over $250 and filing/publishing a false written report. The 38-year-old woman is accused of developing and running an embezzlement scam that allowed her to steal over $2 million from the Lawrence probation department.

The accounting clerk, who has a GED and no formal accounting training, is accused of embezzling $2,037,725.21 in restitution and fees and of manipulating bank deposits and records. She allegedly stole $12,000 a month for about 3 years.

The prosecution also says she recently traveled to the Dominican Republic 30 times-although Morey’s criminal defense lawyer says his client only visited the Dominican Republic 10 times, which she did to see her mother.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Patten claims that the accounting clerk employed six operation methods so that no one would notice that she was stealing money. In the spring, Morey told auditors that she hadn’t reconciled payments on a monthly basis since November 2008. She was also allegedly unable to provide them with key documents.

State auditors have expressed concern about the court’s accounting practices since 2007. The Probation Office was singled out in a report that said there was “limited assurance” that the department’s records were accurate or that funds were properly protected.

Morey, who is the mother of two minors, worked as the court accounting clerk for 19 years. If convicted, she could serve a maximum five-year jail sentence.

Larceny
In Massachusetts, it is illegal to steal someone else’s property and depriving the victim of its use or ownership. Larceny of property valued at over $250 is considered grand larceny, which is a felony crime. The punishment if a defendant is convicted is harsh.

Clerk held in sophisticated $2m theft, Boston.com, December 4, 2009
Being held accountable: Prosecutor says paper trail led to courthouse clerk accused of stealing $2M, EagleTribune, December 4, 2009
Related Web Resource:
Larceny-Theft, Justia
The Massachusetts Court System
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