Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog

March 3, 2009

In South Of Boston, District Attorney Is Disappointed At Sentence For Man Assaulting “Mouse”, Ripping Its Head Off

When my son was younger, he liked to go to a local Chuck E. Cheese restaurant for birthday parties. For those of the uninitiated, this is a child-oriented restaurant that has a game area and specializes in pizza. Every so often, a giant mouse in casual clothing (Chuck is a mouse…or rat, I have not decided) appears to sing and entertain a bit. Obviously, it is a person inside a big costume. The charade used to scare my son. I took that in stride. There was no physical contact. Today, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog explores a different family experience.

Same rat, though. Or mouse…

The non-animated cheese-related adventure ended in New Bedford on Monday. As a result, a gentleman from Fairhaven has been sentenced to pay a $500 fine after pleading guilty to assaulting a Chuck E. Cheese costumed mascot last year in Dartmouth.

Trahan P., 34, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) ripped the mascot’s headwear off, pointed a finger at the man underneath the costume, and yelled at him because he thought the mascot had picked up his son and pinned him against a video game, court records said.

The incident occurred in May 2008 during a birthday party for the Defendant’s 11-year-old son at the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in the Dartmouth Towne Center. During the party, the boy ran to his relatives crying, saying that “Chuck” the mascot had picked him up by the arms, pinned him against a game and ordered the boy to leave him alone, according to court records.

Jessie C., 19, (hereinafter “Inner Chuck”) who was dressed as the mascot, told police that while he was walking through the gaming area, a group of youths jumped on him, tried to knock him over and remove his costume. He said he put his arms forward to move the youths away from him, but never grabbed any of them.
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March 3, 2009

1 in 24 Massachusetts Adults in Prison or on Parole or Probation

by Altman & Altman

According to the Pew Center on the States, Massachusetts is the fifth state in the US with the most adults in jail or prison, on parole, or under probation. The organization’s report found that at the end of 2007, 1 in 24 adults in the state were either under community supervision or behind bars. That’s 206,241 adults.

More of the study’s findings:
• In 2007, some $1.25 billion was spent at the state and federal levels on corrections.
• Massachusetts was the third state with the most number of adults under community service: 1 in 28 adults (179,854 adults under the supervision of probation and parole officer at the federal and state levels).
• Massachusetts spent a dollar on prisons for every four cents it spent on parole.
• With 26,387 adults in jail in 2007 (1 in 90 people), Massachusetts ranked as the 47th state with its number of adults in prison or jail.
• Massachusetts’ Department of Corrections currently runs 18 prisons.
• It’s spending plan for this fiscal year, ending in June, is $543 million.
• The Massachusetts Parole Board’s budget for this year is $19.4 million. The board supervises about 8,000 parolees each year.

All too often in Massachusetts, people are arrested, charged, or convicted of a crime they did not commit or they are treated unfairly by the criminal justice system. While issues of mistaken identity or bad luck may seem like simple problems that can be easily remedied through discourse, this is not always the case when it comes to the Massachusetts criminal justice system.

If you are under investigation, have been arrested, or are charged with a Massachusetts crime or a federal offense, the consequences of the case against you-especially if you are convicted-could negatively affect your relationships, your career, and the rest of your life. For example, a Massachusetts DUI conviction may not only affect affect your auto insurance or your driving record, but it could land you in jail. Also, a conviction for a Massachusetts sex crime will follow you for the rest of your life as a registered sexual offender.

Study: Mass. fifth in nation for adults in prison, probation or parole, Boston Herald, March 2, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts Department of Correction, Mass.gov
Massachusetts Parole Board
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February 28, 2009

Chelsea, Massachusetts Court Clerk Charged in Boston Court with Receiving Sexual Favors from Prostitute in Exchange for Dropping Her Case

by Altman & Altman

In the US District Court of Boston, Chelsea Court Clerk James Burke has been charged with one count of deprivation of rights under the color of law one count of attempted deprivations of rights under the color of law. Burke, who works in Chelsea District Court as an assistant clerk magistrate, is accused of forcing a hooker to have sex with him in return for dropping her case. He has been suspended from his position until the Massachusetts criminal case against him is resolved.

The hooker involved appeared in Chelsea District Court in December 2008. She later told her attorney that Burke had dropped a previous case against her in 2005 after she she performed oral sex on him in the courthouse.

The woman, who in court papers is referred to as a “cooperating witness,” participated in an FBI probe against Burke. During a recorded conversation, he talked about their 2005 sexual incident and tried to schedule another encounter with her.

A seven-page affidavit accuses Burke of soliciting the prostitute three times. A second solicitation allegedly occurred in 2006 when the prostitute was back in jail. The woman says he told her he would help get her out but he did not follow up with her after that conversation. During the conversations that were recorded last December, however, Burke allegedly told the prostitute that he had talked to the district attorney’s office and he was going to help her resolve her case.

Massachusetts Prostitution-Related Charges Can Include:

• Soliciting sexual favors
• Offering sexual favors in exchange for money • Convincing a minor to have sex in exchange for money or other favors • Living off prostitute earnings • Hiring a person to work as a prostitute • Running a house of prostitution • Streetwalking • Drugging or detaining a person to perform as a prostitute

Clerk allegedly offered hooker favors for sex, Boston Herald, February 28, 2009
Chelsea court clerk accused of soliciting sexual favors, WBZ, February 27, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts Crime Rates, 1960 – 2007, DisasterCenter.com
Prostitution, Massachusetts Law About Sex, Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries Continue reading

February 27, 2009

Island To Boston’s South Watches Murder Defendant Who Played “Lawyer” Go To Trial

by Altman & Altman

In the daily Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog, I have often warned against making statements to try to either outsmart or rationalize when law enforcement comes a-calling investigating you for a crime. Often, by the time this happens, their “search for the truth” is over and it is just a question of building a case.

Unfortunately for Ronnie P. , 26, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”), I began this daily blog in 2008. It was too late to help him in his time of need, which was in 2007. On the other hand, it might not have made any difference. In his case, it was he who went to the police to turn himself in. Well, kind of. He told the police that he may have stabbed 36-year-old William L, 36 (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) to death.

The stabbing met the requirement of Massachusetts Assault and Battery with a Dangerous Weapon statute (among others). “To death”…well, that would mean Massachusetts Murder.

He found he had guessed correctly as he led the police to the Deceased’s home, where lay his dead blood-stained body. He had been stabbed multiple times and his throat was slashed according to police reports.

The Defendant was i charged with second-degree murder and faces a maximum possible sentence of life in prison. The trial has been occurring this week.

State prosecutors and police officers maintain the Defendant came to the Cape Coral Police Department and admitted to stabbing the Deceased multiple times during a struggle, during which the Defendant said he thought the Deceased had a loaded gun.
It’s not like the Defendant was not also injured. He had suffered a bite to his thumb, an abrasion to the left side of his body and a cut across the heel of his foot as a result of the altercation.

Sounds like the type of wounds the police call “defensive wounds”.

Detectives quickly booked Perez on murder charges and processed the scene for evidence, as well as the Defendant’s house, they testified Wednesday.
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February 26, 2009

The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog Welcomes Drugs And Guns Defendant Home

by Altman & Altman

Today, we welcome home Germaine G., 30, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). The Commonwealth has just welcomed him back by awarding him seven and a half years of free room and board. He had actually earned the award when he was convicted four years ago for violating Massachusetts’ drug trafficking and firearm laws. He was not there for the verdict, though. Apparently demonstrating his faith in how things went, he left his attorney behind and skipped out during jury deliberations. The former resident of north of Boston’s city of Lynn is now back in the Commonwealth’s warm embrace and it appears he will be for awhile.

The Defendant had been found guilty of trafficking over 28 grams of cocaine, trafficking cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school zone, distribution of cocaine as well as possession of a firearm and ammunition without a license.

Jurors had deliberated for five and a half hours over a two-day span, but reported their verdict to an empty chair on Nov. 30, 2004 after the Defendant, who had been free on $5,000 cash bail, failed to appear for the conclusion of his trial.

A Massachusetts warrant had been issued for his arrest.

He was intercepted in October on the warrant after trying to enter Toronto, Canada from Barbados.

Tuesday afternoon in Woburn Superior Court, Judge Elizabeth M. Fahey welcomed the Defendant back by ordering that he serve five years in state prison for the cocaine trafficking charge and also imposed another mandatory 30-month jail sentence for trafficking cocaine within a school zone, which will commence when he completes his state prison term.
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February 25, 2009

Boston Area Lawyer’s Gambit To Dismiss Sex-Related Charges Against Local Politician Fails…Maybe

by Altman & Altman

Bad day for the defense in Lowell Superior Court this past Monday. Just out of Boston is a place called Arlington. Not too long ago, Arlington boasted Senator Jim M. (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) as its local representative. Today, he is no longer a senator. This week began as he and his attorney were given the bad news. The court denied his motion to dismiss.

This is not the first time we have discussed this particular defendant. I call your attention to this daily blog’s posting on February 11th, entitled “Boston’s Supreme Judicial Court Upholds Prosecuting Attorney’s Refusal To Prosecute Sex Crime”. That was about a good day for the Defendant when the state’s highest court upheld the prosecutor’s refusal not to prosecute a new matter with similar charges against him. If he thought that was a sign that he was going to be able to crush the prosecutions already started against him…he was mistaken.

The Defendant was arrested last June and accused of a host of offenses. These include the sexual harassment of four women in Lowell. At his arrest, he initially fled police, according to police reports, and was captured in a Lowell parking garage. In addition to the four counts of annoying and accosting, the Defendant is charged with also attempting to commit a crime (indecent assault and battery); disorderly conduct; and resisting arrest.

The Defendant has pleaded not guilty and his trial is slated to begin in April. But he and his lawyer thought they had a shot at making that trial a bit shorter.

The rather novel argument was that the four counts of annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex are unconstitutional because he would not have been charged with the same crime if he were a woman.
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February 25, 2009

Three Massachusetts Jurors Ask Judge to Retry Case of Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for 1991 Bombing that Killed a Boston Police Officer

by Altman & Altman

In Massachusetts, three of the jurors who helped convict a man for the 1991 bombing that maimed on Boston police officer and murdered another are asking a federal judge to either grant Alfred Trenkler a new trial or free him. Trenkler was convicted in 1993 of making a bomb that killed Boston Police Officer Jeremiah J. Hurley Jr. and caused Boston Police Officer Francis X Foley to lose his eye, as well as his hearing in one ear.

Now, however, three of the jurors who helped put him behind bars are having doubts about the guilty verdict they reached and they are questioning whether he was wrongly convicted. The jurors sent letters to US District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel citing their doubts. Sheridan Kassirer, the jury forewoman in Trenkler’s criminal case, even has gone so far as to say that she thinks Trenkler may be innocence. All three jurors say they began to have doubts about the guilty verdict after reading a 700 page, unpublished manuscript written by a man who built a Web site for Trenkler.

Legal specialists say it is uncommon for jurors to have doubt about a verdict, especially one that was issued so long ago. Harvard Criminal Justice Institute Director Ronald Sullivan, however, says that the court can only act if new evidence, or evidence that had not been revealed before, has come to light.

Trenkler has long maintained his innocence and for years has sought to have the verdict appealed or his sentenced reduced. In 2007, the US Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Zobel could review the case based on Trenkler’s claims that there was new evidence that could set him free. Zobel reduced Trenkler’s double life sentence to 37 years in prison, but last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reinstated his original sentence.

Trenkler’s co-defendant and ex-lover Thomas Shay was also convicted for the same crimes in 1998, but the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the verdict. He was released from prison in 2002 after pleading guilty to a lesser offense but he was put back in jail in 2007 for probation violations.

Jurors who convicted in ’93 ask judge to retry case, Boston.com, February 23, 2008
It’s double-life in prison for Trenkler, Wicked Local, August 6, 2008
Related Web Resources:
Alfred Trenkler, Innocent Committee
Wrongful Murder Convictions, Massachusetts Continue reading

February 24, 2009

Boston Celebrity And Her Lawyer At The Bar In Drunk Driving Case

by Altman & Altman

You know, sometimes the weather gets to everyone. The cold Northeast winters…except for those midwinter days when we get 70 degree weather and then a blizzard the next day. It’s confusing and it could lead a person to drink. And that is basically what happened to Boston’s free-lance meteorologist Melissa B. (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) last Friday. Now, the 39-year-old celebrity needs a defense attorney to ensure that she is able to remain free to even see the weather.

It happened last Friday morning. A professional, she was back on the air that night.

The Defendant was driving the 2004 Cadillac Escalade at approximately 1:35 a.m. when she passed a state police trooper in the left lane of Soldiers Field Road “going well over” the posted speed limit according to state police spokesman Dave Procopio.

The Defendant’s vehicle “nearly struck the front of his cruiser as it cut in front of him,” said Procopio, quoting from the police report. The trooper reported the Defendant was driving between 50 to 55 mph (the posted speed limit was 40) and was “weaving between” the travel lanes. The road conditions were poor, the trooper stated, and Soldiers Field Road was covered in sleet and snow.

Procopio said the trooper pulled the Defendant over and he “observed a smell of alcohol” when he approached the driver’s side. The trooper reported that the former WBZ-TV meteorologist asked him a question that was “incoherent.”
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February 23, 2009

Debate Rages Over Sex For Money/Secrecy For Cash Case(United States Attorney Goes After Prostitute For Mistreatment Of Boston Gentleman, Part Two)

by Altman & Altman

Federal court in Boston has now seen what could be the final act in the drama of the United States Attorney versus The Hooker Who Would Extort. Michelle Robinson (hereinafter, the “Defendant” ) has pleaded guilty to the Massachusetts white collar crime of extortion in return for a rather unusual sentence.

Due to some unfortunate internet circumstances experienced out of state, this otherwise daily blog posting is the continuation Part One of the story which can be found here. It should have been posted last Thursday. However, in the meantime, the debate has continued to rage.

The alleged facts were laid out in greater detail in Part One. However, to briefly recap, a 60 year-old gentleman, (hereinafter, “John”), wanted what he calls a “last hurrah” with a young woman. He elected the Defendant, an alleged prostitute, to “hurrah” with him. After about 18 months, he ended his “hurrah”. The Defendant responded by informing him that, unless he gave her enough money, she would reveal his identity to the world as having engaged her services. At first, John paid. Then, when she wanted more, he hired a lawyer and made a deal with the federal authorities to blow the whistle on her scheme if they would grant him immunity from prosecution…as well as from identity revelation.

The feds had to jump through hoops in order to accommodate John. However, being as he had former United States Attorney Stern as his lawyer, and as John was an influential business man himself, jumped they did to build the case of wire fraud and threats in interstate communications, making what otherwise would have been a state-prosecuted case about prostitution and extortion.

The subject of the ongoing debate, however, is another hoop the government had to jump through. Namely, they had to keep John’s identity secret .

What to do?
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February 18, 2009

United States Attorney Goes After Prostitute For Mistreatment Of Boston Gentleman, Part One

by Altman & Altman

Hey, guess what? It turns out there are law enforcement officials in Boston who Believe that there are actually crimes more heinous than prostitution! Today, we salute the local United States Attorney’s Office for deciding that extortion is worse than the world’s oldest profession.

He (his name has been withheld, but we’ll call him “John”) is a prominent businessman from the Boston area, married and in his 60s, who later told authorities that he had merely wanted a “last hurrah” – sex with a young woman.

And he got it. She ( who has been named) was 27-year-old Michelle R (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). The Defendant is alleged to be a prostitute from Canton who was happy to oblige John’s “hurrah”. Through an escort service, John and the Defendant made a deal. Well, kind of several deals. They all involved sex for money as one encounter led to another, and then another, and so on.

The “hurrah” allegedly lasted for 18 months.

But then, it ended. According to the FBI, however, the Defendant figured that if she could not do it to him one way, she would do it to him another way. This past July, shortly after the liaisons ended, she allegedly called John and explained that someone had offered her $60,000 to publicly reveal their relationship. So, if John wanted her to keep her mouth shut, he would have to pay him more than that.
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