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If you woke up this morning sensing a new era of safety and security in our society, you were right. Thanks to the never-ending struggle of brave champions against evil incarnate, law enforcement, we are free once again to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In other words, there has been another prostitution sting.

Three people, ranging from 37 to 55 years of age (hereinafter, collectively, the “Defendants”) were arraigned as last week came to a close in various district courts. The Defendants are accused of owning and operating massage parlors in Burlington, Needham, Revere, and Wellesley that were actually fronts for prostitution.

Facing high bail, the Defendants stand charged with one count of keeping a house of prostitution and two counts of sex trafficking. There is also talk that the Commonwealth may even be indicting the Defendants. As a result, the next court date is allegedly for a “Probable Cause Hearing”.

It has already been announced, though, that one of the Defendants cooperated after the arrest. Thus, that individual is likely to appear in the Grand Jury Minutes as a witness, not a defendant.

Announcing that in open court is fairly unusual in this type of case, but I am sure that Assistant Attorney General Deb Bercovitch had her reasons.
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I was the lone figure walking this evenng in the mist surrounded by the lamps’ dim lighting from one building to another to see my client.

It was the end of a day in which, perhaps more than I usually do, that I was living the life of a criminal defense attorney. I began the day finishing a domestic violence trial. I was ending it visiting another client who is presently a guest at MCI-Walpole at Ceder Junction
The jury trial had taken a bit longer than expected; they somehow usually do.

This is one of those trials in which I was reminded of one of my underlying beliefs…judges, prosecutors, jurors and witnesses are all human beings and are not simply defined by the role they play at certain events. If one can reach beyond the masks we don to live our daily lives and connect with the person underneath, then one can truly communicate. One has to understand that that person might have a different perspective than you…but people can disagree and still remain human.

This had been one of those trials. Reasonable prosecutor. Fair judge. Thoughtful jury.

Good trial.

What made it even better was that at this age, level of experience and reputation, I was not riddled with fear as in the days of old. I was also treated as a professional both in court and at prison.

You also get further with people without immediately engaging in hostilities. Again…recognizing a fellow human being goes a long way in being recognized as such back.

As I sat in the little room which was designated for my “attorney visit” and the corrections officer standing outside, I waited for my client and thought back over the last two weeks.
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Massachusetts schools are really not the same place they were when I was a kid.

Let’s take a look toward Marshfield High School. A 17-year-old student (hereinafter, “Young Gentleman”) was arrested yesterday for threatening to kill his fellow student.

According to law enforcement, police were called Tuesday night to investigate a report that Young Gentleman threatened a schoolmate while at school that day. In addition, says police, he is said to have made threats via social media to the school as a whole. In response, the police applied for and received an arrest warrant. Despite the alleged threats, no weapons were found when Young Gentleman was arrested.

Most schools these days do not take such threats lightly. However, THIS school was a school at which, in 2004, two students were charged and convicted of plotting a columbine-style massacre at the school.

They were taking no chances. Young Gentleman was charged with promotion of anarchy and two counts of threats to commit a crime. According to prosecutors, should he make bail, Young Gentleman has bail conditions to help keep the peace.

“Conditions of his release include GPS monitoring, a stay away and no contact order with the victim, weekly reports to probation, remain alcohol and drug free and obey all school rules,” prosecutors said in a statement.

While the court has not entered an order that prevents Young Gentleman from returning to school, the school district itself has apparently not made its decision yet.

In the meantime, Marshfield Superintendent Scott Borstel said that school officials were working with police to “ensure the care, welfare, safety” of students.

Meanwhile, Weston Middle-School has had its own recent issues when it comes to student conduct. Two students at the school have now been disciplined after pouring liquid used to clean whiteboards into their teacher’s water bottle according to school officials.
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Yesterday, I discussed the case of Antwoin Moore (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) of Brockton. Last week, the Defendant was allegedly driving around while his driver’s license was suspended.

The police say they tried to pull him over and he decided that flight was his best option. By the end of the episdoe, he lost his freedom and 49-year-old Maryanne Kotsiopoulos, whose vehcile he collided with, lost her life.

The Defendant is charged with a variety of motor vehcile crimes, including manslaughter..
Well, t turns out that, while it is worse this time, the Defendant has been in this spot before.

A year ago in fact.

According to local media, police tried to pull the Defendant over last year. He is said to have chosen the flight option then to.

He lost that race too, although it ended without anyone dead.

Last year, he is said to have told police that he did fled after running a stop sign because he did not have a license.

Last week, his attorney says that he did not stop for the unmarked police car because he thought he was being carjacked. The police say he had given them another reason. That he did not have a license.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Escalation Of Penalties

You probably do not need me to tell you that the Defendant’s predicament is more serious because appears to be the second time he was charged with such an offense.
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Yesterday, Attorney Sam’s Take began witth the question of what is a criminal We discussed the case of an Ohio bus driver and passenger who had clearly had a bad day. Their actions made them each vulnerable to criminal prosecution.

Today’s tale hails from Brockton; it is worse.

Antwoin Moore, 27, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) made a couple of bad judgment calls on Friday. As a result, he is presently a guest of the Commonwealth.

You see, the Defendant was out driving (allegedly) Friday. That might not have been so bad but for the fact that his driving license had been suspended. Even that might not have been all that bad if not for his second bad judgement call. When the police tried to pull him over, he apparently decided to to try and out-race them.

Naturally, he lost the race. Unfortunately, another driver lost her life when her vehicle was struck by the Defendant during the chase. When the dust settled, the Defendant was in custody and Maryanne Kotsiopoulos, 49, of Brockton was brought to Brockton where she was pronounced dead.
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What is a criminal ?

Technically, I suppose it is someone who is convicted of a crime. Some folks would even substitute the word “accused” for the word “convicted”.

Here in Attorney Sam’s Take, it can be someone who had a really bad moment and lost control. It could happen to any of us.

Some people think that 59-year-old Artis Hughes (hereinafter, the “Driver”) should be considered a criminal. He is the bus driver who had an altercation with a female passenger, 25-year-old Shi’dea N. Lane (hereinafter, the “Passenger”). In fact, there are others who feel that she should be considered a criminal as well.

For those of you who may have missed it, you can actually watch the highlights of the altercation on YouTube. It actually took place in late September in Cleveland.

According to law enforcement, the battle began when the Passenger boarded the bus. She complained that she could not pay the bus fare because she had forgotten her backpack. As the discussion continued, she asked questions like, “Are you putting me off the bus?” and “Is this how you treat people in Cleveland?”

Miraculously, the Passenger was suddenly able to pay her fare…which she did. And then she allegedly started cursing at the Driver and calling him names. Apparently deciding that the verbal altercation was not achieving satisfaction, she is said to have grabbed his throat, spit in his face and strike him with her fist. The Driver says he reached for his cellphone, but she knocked it out of his hands. The Driver says he finally “pushed her back” until the police could arrive.

Well, it turns out that one man’s push-back is another man’s upper-cut.

Watching the video, one can see the Driver stand up, wind up and smash her in the face with his fist. She is then seen flying backwards.
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…And then there is the story of Dorchester’s 28-year-old Yongda Huang Harris (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). His tale of woe seems a natural follow-up to yesterday’s blog when we discussed how things you say can get you into trouble.

For the Defendant, it was what he wore.

You see, the Defendant was heading home to the Commonwealth from Los Angeles International Airport, where he had a stopover on the way from Japan. He was in the airport when a customs agent’s attention was drawn to the fact that the Defendant was sporting some unusual clothing.

The Defendant was sporting a bulletproof vest along with the matching flame-retardant leggings and trench coat.

Curiosity aroused, the agents searched the Defendant’s luggage where say they found an array of items which got even more interesting. They say that the weird weaponry and other items they found included a smoke grenade, a hatchet, three knives, leather-coated lead-filled billy clubs, leg irons, handcuffs and body bags.

Interest turned into arrest due to the smoke grenade. The charge was charge was transporting hazardous material on an airplane. It is a charge to be answered in federal court.

The Defendant has retained L.A. Attorney Steven A. Seiden. Chris Williams, a spokesman for Seiden (who, in turn, would be speaking for the Defendant) has explained that this is one of those molehills transitioned into a mountain.

He claims that the interesting get-up and accessories were simply the Defendant’s latest fashion choice from the Far East, from whence he was returning.

“It was more of a fashion accessory than anything else,” explained Williams. “When you’re living abroad, you try to assimilate. And the Japanese kids, sometimes they wear wrestling shoes or knee pads. … When you’re in Japan, these kids wear unique little outfits.”

The Defendant is a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chinese descent and a graduate of Boston University’s Metropolitan College. While in Japan, he had been teaching English.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Questionable Fashion Statements

Well, now you know why Batman never travels in a commercial airplane.
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Many people do not understand how easy it is to be considered tampering with intimidating a witness or such similar Massachusetts crimes. Particularly during a murder trial.

Take, for example, Methuen’s Cesar Jimenez, 33 (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). He is a gentleman who has now been accused of threatening a witness in a murder. The basis is that the Defendant was apparently overheard by police officers muttering, in spanish, the words “snitch” or “whistleblower” near a witness.

It turns out that the son of the Defendant’s girlfriend, 24-year-old Daniel Lee Lopez, is one of two men on trial for the murder of a Chinese food deliveryman in 2009. Lopez and 20-year-old Ronny Ramos allegedly lured the man with a fake order, then assaulted him and robbed him as he lay dying, according to reports.

The Defendant was arrested and ordered to stay away from Salem Superior Court until an ongoing trial’s conclusion.

He was also held on $10,000 bail.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Intimidation Of Witnesses

Like the crime of Disorderly Conduct, Intimidation Of A Witness is a criminal charge which can mean many things. Those things can include allegations which you would never expect to have any potential intimidation effect to any witness.
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Well, it looks like Massachusetts sex crimes are still present here in the Commonwealth. Well, actually, the news would lead you to believe that Massachusetts sex offenders are still “at it” both here and abroad.

For example, take the case of 25-year-old Quincy woman Carissa Hads. Ms. Hads is in allot of trouble in Clarksburg, West Virginia. More specifically, she has pleaded guilty to one charge in federal court which leaves her facing up to 30 years in prison as well as a hefty fine.

Her crime?

Well, she apparently posed as a teenage boy in order to prey on a West Virginia girl. She has now pleaded guilty to a single count of traveling across state lines with the intention of having sex with a minor.

According to law enforcement, the “romance” began on MySpace as Ms. Hads pretended that she was an age-appropriate male in 2010. Since that time, investigators say that she visited the teen girl at least three times and had a sexual encounter with her in February.

She is said to have disguised her appearance with a back brace.

Somehow.

She is currently an involuntary guest of the United States government.

This is not to say that alleged sex offenders from Massachusetts never follow their “instincts” right here in the Commonwealth.

Closer to home, in the Boston area, the Suffolk County District Attorney has announced that a sex sting has nabbed about a “half dozen men from the Greater Boston area” who are accused of trolling for sex from girls under the age of 18.

Boston police arrested the six men yesterday in an undercover online investigation into illegal online prostitution by the Family Justice Unit, the Human Trafficking Division, the Youth Violence Strike Force and District A-1 detectives. The suspects were all charged with enticement of a person under 18 years old, Boston police said.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Internet Sex Crimes

Usually, when we consider sex crimes and computers together, we are talking about the possession and/or dissemination of child pornography. However, the internet provides a dandy location for folks to contact kids and set the stage for personal contact.

Such cyber-crime has become a focus of law enfrocement.
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For some reason, Attorney Sam’s Take has not discussed theft crimes at the workplace all that much. It happens, though, more than you might think. The crimes can be charged as larceny or embezzlement, among other things. These are white collar crimes that are increasingly ending up in incarceration…despite (usually) the lack of a criminal record.

Let’s turn our attention to Northampton, MA. There we see 21-year-old Cody Collier Slavis of Huntington and 22-year-old Roberto Roldan of Palmer (hereinafter, collectively, the “Defendants”).

The Defendants are two former employees of a local Walmart and have been accused of stealing and reselling more than $9,000 worth of merchandise from the store. They are said to have sold much of the merchandise on Craigslist and other outlets that resell used electronics.
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