We end the month of February this year with a story about a watcher who should have been watched. It concerns Gardner’s 23-year-old Jesse Holland (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). It also deals with the issue of Massachusetts search and seizure.

The Defendant is an involuntary guest of the Commonwealth this evening. He is being held without bail as the local prosecutors charge that he is too much of a threat to be let out of custody.

The Defendant works (or worked, at least) as a security guard at Waltham High School. He stands charged with possessing chemicals that could be used to make an explosive.. Law enforcement says that he stole these chemicals from the high school. The materials include iron powder, aluminum powder and magnesium metal ribbon.

Mixed together in the right way, apparently, a rather strong bomb can be made.

The Defendant was arrested on Wednesday morning in a Leominster store parking lot. Police say that, when they noticed him, he acted suspiciously as he was downloading a movie. Somehow, noticing him “act suspiciously” led to the search of his vehicle. During the search, officers say they found the chemicals, a hatchet and a stun gun.
Apparently, the Defendant was also give to making inculpatory statements to the officers. They say that he told them that he intended to throw the chemicals into a fire to “see what would happen.”

In the video I watched online, I saw one of the officers indicating that he did not see the Defendant as someone who wanted to hurt anyone.

Apparently, the prosecutors did not share that view at arraignment.

Attorney Sam’s Take On “What Could Have Happened”

It is important to realize the type of explosive we are talking about here. It is not of the atomic or nuclear variety. It will not blow up the neighborhood. However, as one can see on the video on the news, one can certainly cause damage and serious personal injury.
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Well, this week’s news in Massachusetts is not great for young children.

For example, in New Bedford today, a 23-year-old gentleman was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to an upgraded charge of murder in the death of his girlfriend’s infant daughter. He had previously been arraigned overcharges including assault and child endangerment. Now, however, the child has passed away and so the new charge is murder.

According to the Commonwealth, the nine-month-year-old child died from “blunt force trauma to the head” on January 24 when the defendant was alone with her.

Court documents say the defendant told police he was angry when the child became ‘fussy” . he admitted that his way of dealing with that anger was to cause the infant to hit her head twice on the floor. the baby was found to have a large blood clot on her brain.

Meanwhile, a Peabody man faced the final act in his pending child abuse case. Richard Elias was sentenced to up to four years in prison after pleading guilty to shaking and head-butting his 7-week-old daughter. The child’s Infraction was apparently that she would not stop crying while he drank beer and played video games.

Authorities say that the abuse took place in October 2011 while his wife was at a Halloween party. the couple took child to the hospital the next day. Doctors determined her injuries included swelling and bleeding in the brain and retinas.

According to the Salem news, Elias’ lawyer blamed the abuse on his client’s post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a tour of duty in Iraq with the Army in 2007.
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“Justice”, as we have discussed, does not always come swiftly. Today, a long-term investigation into a motor vehicle crime has come to court.

The accident which left two people fatally injured on U.S. Route 1 in Saugus took place six years ago. According to the Commonwealth in Salem Superior Court today, the accident was of the hit-and-run variety. When it was all over, Tina Tello and Christopher Zullo, struck by a vehicle as they tried to cross the highway late on the night of January 5, 2007, were dead.

Three people have now pleaded “not guilty” in the case.

Thirty-three-year-old Michael Tranchita Jr. has been charged with leaving the scene of the fatal accident, conspiracy and misleading investigators. His father, fifty-five-year-old Michael Tranchita Sr., and thirty-nine-year-old Lisa Cutting of Revere stand charged with conspiracy and misleading investigators. Ms. Cutting is also charged with being an accessory after the fact. The Tranchitas are from Winchester.

All three defendants were released on personal recognizance after today’s arraignment
Tello’s son, Michael Cowels, said outside court Monday he’s glad justice was “finally being done.”

Attorney Sam’s Take On Seemingly Sleeping Investigations

I have handled many criminal matters in which investigators, after an immediate, almost urgent, initial inquiry into my clients’ connection to an alleged crime seem to simply disappear.
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In my last posting, I indicated that I would answer some questions regarding the James Whitey Bulger multi murder matter currently pending in federal court. Of course, there are many questions that we all have. I was referring to issues brought up on my last few postings on the matter.

We began with talking about the immunity issue in the case. It did, more recently, occur to me that some people may not know what immunity is, much less whether the government can give it to somebody
Immunity is basically immunity from prosecution. In other words, Whatever you testify about, say in a grand jury, you cannot be prosecuted for. In such cases, the prosecution can, and does, give immunity in return for somebody’s testimony. Since the prosecution is the authority that will bring criminal charges, it is only the government, the prosecution, who can give immunity from prosecution. In the Defendant’s case, the allegation is that, in return for him giving information, acting as an informant, the government gave him widespread immunity from prosecution..

The Defendant claims that the government said that he is immune from prosecution for the rest of his life no matter what the crime is. Even murder. The government on the other hand is saying that they would not make such a deal …that to make such a deal which includes murder is against public policy.

This might be a topic for other blogs in the future. But I would like you to think about this right now.

Over the past years, including very recently, we have had situations where in law-enforcement officials have been found not to be living up to their olds and, in fact committing crimes. We have had more than one chemist discovered to be falsify evidence. We have had a detective admitting to stealing evidence from the evidence locker. These are just a couple of examples of what we know about. I will remind you that the government often takes the position when someone is arrested for the first time that the only reason they arrested for the first time is because that was the first time they were caught. Not that it is the first time that they committed the crime.

Apparently, the rules are different when it comes to someone who once worked on their side.

In any case, you may be thinking there is no big revelation here. After all, all these people are simply human beings with human weaknesses and foibles. I would agree with you.

And that is what I want you to think about.
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Although the week has been bumpy in terms of blogs (sorry about that), Attorney Sam’s Take has been discussing the theatrics and legal maneuvering of the multiple murder matter of James “Whitey” Bulger (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). Meanwhile, there was alittle drama taking place behind the scenes, far from the halls of federal justice.

Apparently, the Defendant was quietly examined at a Plymouth hospital last week for an irregular heartbeat. For some reason, it has been considered one of the top stories for Massachusetts today.

Perhaps it is because people wonder if health issues are going to prevent the Defendant’s date with a trial jury currently slated for this coming June. There has not been, yet, any suggestion that the defense will not be ready for trial as a result of said health issues however.

I found it particularly interesting how this news came to light. Apparently, the Defendant had written to a longtime friend of his last week letting him know about the incident and indicating that “Exercise is over for me.”

The significance of the exercise is that he had previously claimed that he had been doing more than 100 push-ups a day to stay fit while in isolation.
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As last week came to an end, Attorney Sam’s Take was discussing Boston’s favorite Multiple Murder Matter which is taking place in federal court.

It seems as if I am not the only one who finds the festivities in United States v. James “Whitey” Bulger (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) to be a performance fit for the Twilight Zone. I direct you to Matt Connelly and an article penned by him which link appears at the end of today’s blog.

Boston’s number one multiple murder matter continues to defy the spirit, if not the letter, of regular criminal procedure. Issues which seem to most of us to be “no-brainers” seem to be gut-wrenching and mind-numbing for the legal experts assigned to make the decisions.

When I was a prosecutor back in New York, I learned that it is of little value to gain a conviction if that conviction is likely to be thrown out by a court of appeals. Such ideas seem to have been part of criminal justice history in the Defendant’s case. The latest such issue plaguing the court is whether the Defendant should be able to present part, or all, of his defense at trial. This defense seems to be that the United States Attorney’s Office gave him carte blanche authorization to commit any crime whatsoever in perpetuity, including murder.

The federal prosecutors have presented a number of arguments why the Defendant should not be allowed to present this defense. They include, but are not limited to, the following reasoning:

“We would never grant such immunity. His argument is absurd.”

Interesting approach, but it seems like an argument against the facts asserted by the Defendant to me. In jury trials, questions of fact are left to the jury, not the judge. Therefore, at least as far as this argument goes…one would expect the defense should be presented and the jury should determine how “absurd” it is.

“Even if he was given immunity, he would not be given immunity to commit MURDER! That would be against public policy!”

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I warn you in advance…following this Boston murder story may well turn your mind into a pretzel and make you dizzy.

Not for the reasons you, and a lot of the media may think, though.

The subject matter is a case which Attorney Sam’s Take has discussed before. It is the continuing saga of James “Whitey” Bulger (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) and his federal prosecution for multiple murders laid at his feet occurring during the 1970’s and 1980’s.

I particularly think it is important for me to refer to him as the Defendant as I coontinue to notice that people need to be reminded where he stands in this matter. He is a criminal defendant. He has been convicted of nothing. Yet, everyone, from the press to many of my fellow defense lawyers feel comfortable forgetting that nasty word “alleged” when it comes to him. I suppose this is the case to do that, though. After all, the rules by which we handle criminal defendants seem to be turned on their collective heads ever since his return to Massachusetts.

But I have ranted about that enough in my previous blogs. Let’s deal with a more current aspect to the story. It involves the issues of whether the Defendant used to be an informant for the federal prosecutors and whether or not he was granted immunity by them for criminal acts during this time.

The Defendant’s defense team has argued that he was granted immunity which would seem to having resulted from the Defendant’s serving as an informant. Or did defense counsel ever really say that the Defendant was actually an informant who gave information to federal law enforcement?
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Valentine’s Day is coming later this week. What are you getting your sweetie? A card? Roses? How about a nice romantic teddy bear? They have all kinds of special and creative types now, you know.

You may not want to be too creative, though. You or your turtledove may end up like Lawrence Ligocki (hereinafter, the “Defendant”. His little gift has brought him all kinds of trouble.

You see, the Chelsea-based Defendant allegedly received a Valentine’s Day teddy bear through the mail. Law enforcement claims that the bear was stuffed with $10,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine. So they gave him another gift…criminal charges and the Commonwealth’s bracelets of shame.

Prosecutors claim that on February 5th, postal inspectors alerted police about a suspicious package that was addressed to the Defendant. When a state police drug sniffing dog confirmed the presence of drugs inside the bear, the package was delivered to the Defendant by a postal inspector pretending to be a mail carrier.

When the Defendant signed for the package, he was presented with a search warrant for the home and the bear.

In execution of the warrant, authorities claim that they found 96 grams of crystal meth inside the teddy bear and more in the home.

The Defendant claims that he was not expecting the package and has pleaded “not guilty” to charges of drug possession and trafficking.

He was released on $150 bail.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Packages, Timing And Search Warrants

This could actually turn out to be an interesting case.

It seems to me that the authorities jumped the gun here a bit. They got lucky, though, which may have saved the prosecutorial day for them.
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As we wait to see how traffic resumes on Monday, the first biasness day after the “Blizzard of ’13”, we have a traffic story from last week. Cases involving alleged drunk driving are not terribly unusual. There is one twist to this case, however. At least as far as the Boston Police Department are concerned.

The driver was the son of Boston’s top cop.

It happened last Tuesday. It was a typical traffic stop when a Boston patrolman pulled over the son of Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis. It was around midnight just outside the TD Garden garage. The officer suspected that the lad was driving under the influence of alcohol. Rather than arresting him, he gave him a ride home.

Now, Commissioner Davis has requested a police investigation into whether his son was in fact drunk at the time.

According to a report written by Superintendent-in-chief Daniel Linskey, there was a witness who told police that he was concerned that a driver of a truck inside the garage might be “under the influence”. The officer apparently then waited for the truck to leave the garage and then pulled the truck over. Once the driver happened to mention being the police commissioner’s son, he was allowed to park his truck and was offered a ride home after the officer finished his shift.

Want some quotations from Linskey’s report? Here are a couple that have been released:

“Officer determined that (name omitted) had consumed alcohol and was trying to determine if it raised to the level of impairment. (name omitted) informed the officer who he was and explained who his father was and stated something to the effect that he wouldn’t want to upset the officer or his father”

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Kevin W. Weeks, director of CBP Field Operations in Boston, is a proud man today. He announced the latest triumph against the drug trade, saying, “This arrest exemplifies the extreme measures criminals will undertake to smuggle contraband,”

He was referring to the arrest of a 38-year-old woman who has been arrested for smuggling cocaine at Logan Airport. Her name is Johanna Carolina Ortiz, although she is hereinafter referred to as the “Defendant”. According to federal officials, she was trying to smuggle 24 pounds of liquid cocaine in a variety of here product and lotion bottles.

The Defendant, a United States citizen, had just arrived on a flight from Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic on January 28. Customs and border protection officers searched and found what they called a “logic and suspicious amount of cosmetic products” in her suitcase according to officials.

When the officials looked into the beauty supplies, they found 24 pounds of a liquid cocaine mixture that was concealed in 25 different cosmetic canisters that were labeled as here products in hand lotions according to the report.

The authorities then turned the Defendant over to the state police. Prosecuted by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, she has now been arraigned on the charges.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Probable Cause, Drug Possession And Federal Prerogative

We know one thing already about this prosecution. There are either problems associated with it or the government considers it not quite big enough to be all that upset about.

How do we know that?
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