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We have discussed many times that the criminal justice system is getting a bit close to our academic institutions. Usually I am talking about the criminalization of matters that should be handled by schools and parents.

Well, things are now changing in Dedham from the other direction.

Now, it is law enforcement turning to the schools for an extra kick in the pants for kids in trouble. Effective yesterday, Dedham public school students who get in trouble off campus may find themselves punished in school for the same offense.

This agreement between Dedham law enforcement and school officials, known as a “Memorandum of Understanding” , creates a long list of incidents that now must be reported to school principals, whether or not those incidents happen in Dedham. That list includes fights, or threats of fights, off school grounds.

Students, not surprisingly, do not like it. “I don’t think you should really get in trouble for something out of school,” says Dedham High School senior Annie Joy Abbott for example. “You’re not even on school property.”

Many patents are not fans of the “understanding” either.

Camilla Rush, for instance, is a mom with three sons, one of whom has already graduated from Dedham public schools; the other two are still students there.

“I do think that it’s good to have a backup,” Rush said. “But I think sometimes they need to let us parents be parents. Let us punish the kids. I do like if you need help, you can go to someone for backup, but let us be parents too.”

 
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Sometimes, pretending there is a crime is a crime.

Over the Labor Day weekend, a few fellows had the great idea to play a trick in Lawrence.
According to law enforcement, they decided it would be kind of neat to convince folks attending a religious festival that a stabbing was taking place.

They were successful, if you want to call it that. Convinced that the bloody crime was taking place, several people paced frantic calls to 911 to report the stabbing.

Police came and apparently did not see the humor of it all. They played a little trick of their own. They arrested the tricksters who may have videoed their little jest so that they could post it on YouTube.

And so it was that Josette Osorio of Haverhill, Vincent Bencivenga III of Lawrence, and Mark Hatch of Methuen appeared in Lawrence district court to answer charges including disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

They have all pleaded “not guilty”.

Police Chief John Romero says that the suspects were 50 yards from the Feast of the Three Saints, which attracted about 15,000 people. He says the stunt made “no sense.”

Attorney Sam’s Take On Hoaxes And Disorderly Conduct

What is funny to one person may not be funny to another; it certainly may not be funny to the police.

And then, you are in trouble.

The definitions of crimes like disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace are pretty general. Basically, if you offend the police, it fits into disorderly conduct.

“But what if you are simply exercising your Constitutional Rights…like the one to free speech?”

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The Boston Police Department has been credited with collaborating with New Hampshire law officials and the FBI in what is being touted as a “significant international drug bust.” Yesterday, on September 4, 2012, the US Attorney for the district of New Hampshire, John P. Kacavas, announced the arrest of several individuals of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel.

The arrest comes as the culmination of a three-year investigation that involved closely monitoring the movement of cartel henchmen as they conducted activities from New Hampshire down to Boston, and as far as Florida, in an attempt to establish and expand a market for their drugs in the United States. After constructing a foothold in New Hampshire, the cartel planned on running a pipeline of narcotics from Mexico to Europe, and then from Europe directly into New Hampshire. The drugs were to be sent across the Atlantic Ocean via boat. Dry runs were conducted with empty containers to test the viability of the plan.

Cheryl Fiandaca, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department, declined to reveal how the Boston Police were directly involved but instead praised the high level of cooperation between federal and also international police authorities. With the assistance from the Spanish National Police, the FBI captured 346 kilograms of cocaine, more than 763 pounds, and apprehended four of the plot’s suspects in the port city of Algerciras, Spain. Jesus Soto, Rafael Humberto Celaya Valenzuela, and Samuel Zazuetta Valenzuela were soldiers of the Sinaloa Cartel obligated with running logistics and financial planning. But the fourth apprehension, Manuel Jesus Guttierez Guzman is being considered the pick of the litter as he is the first cousin of the Sinaloa Cartel’s boss, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman-Coera.
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Yesterday,Attorney Sam’s Take discussed a fatal drunk driving incident from over the Labor Day Weekend. Today we deal with another automobile – related story. This time, it was what was found inside the car which is of import.

Somerville police say that they recovered eight handguns, six of which were fully loaded, during a traffic stop on Medford Street during the weekend.

The incident took place at around 4:00pm on Sunday. Somerville police pulled over a 2004 BMW for speeding. During the traffic stop, the driver, 37-year-old Sherwood Gustave of Mattapan, found himself in a bit more trouble. He was arrested for operating after his license was suspended.

But the trouble was not to end there.

Officers say that they spotted an empty gun holster in the rear seat of the vehicle. This triggered a more in-depth search of the car, officers said, which revealed eight pistols, six of which were loaded. Two of the firearms have been found to have been stolen according to law enforcement.

Mr. Gustave was not alone in the vehicle. There were two passengers in the car as well. They were arrested as well and are identified as Anthony Paulino, 18, of Somerville, and Gunter Vital, 47, of Cambridge.
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A routine traffic stop in Somerville this past Sunday, September 2, 2012, at around 4pm ballooned into a much more significant event. Officer Robert Hickey was working routine traffic enforcement duty when he noticed a 2004 BMW speeding on Medford Street. After following the car and watching it increase in speed, he activated his sirens and pulled the car over by Thurston Street. The driver, Sherwood Gustave, 37, of Mattapan was arrested after it was revealed that he had been driving with a suspended license.

After backup police arrived, an empty pistol holster was discovered in the backseat of the BMW. This discovery led to a thorough search of the vehicle which revealed eight handguns in total. Six of them were loaded. Later, it was confirmed that two of the handguns had been reported as stolen. Neither Gustave nor either of the two passengers possess a license to carry firearms. All three were charged with unlawful possession of handguns and ammunition. Sherwood Gustave was also charged with driving with a suspended license and speeding. The trio of suspects were presumed to be arraigned in Somerville court this Tuesday morning. There has not yet been any word from their legal counsel.

Chief Thomas Pasquarello praised the work of his officers, extolling them for a job that helped to make their community a “little safer.” The following is a list of the discovered weapons:
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New England students are coming back to school. First order of business…let’s party!

Well, here is a sad reminder of where that can lead.

Anthony Ciccone, 20, of Pepperell, MA is dead. He was killed in a traffic accident. He was the passenger of another 20-year-old gentleman who was allegedly driving 50 miles over the speed limit. The car smashed into a utility pole Sunday morning.

20-year-old Rhode Island Christopher M. Bennett (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was that driver. He survived.

Police were contacted from security personnel at University of New England, reporting two men who “were reportedly intoxicated and trying to forcibly enter a residence hall dorm room,” Biddeford police said in a statement. The school’s security personnel attempted to stop the two men from driving but were unsuccessful.

The two were apparently not students at UNE, but were reportedly visiting friends.

Biddeford Police officers spotted a Ford Explorer which matched the description that the school’s security had provided. It was reportedly travelling westbound on Pool Street at 80 miles per hour. The speed limit was 30. An officer tried to stop the car, “but lost sight of the vehicle almost immediately,” the statement said.
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Hello and happy Labor Day.

Speaking of which, Boston’s law enforcement is about to have some extra labor it is going to have to shoulder. Particularly prosecutors.

I was on CBS Thursday night discussing this one in case you happenned to tune into the 11:00 pm news. It is a story which is likely to bring new problems to the prosecution of drug crimes in the Commonwealth.

In order to prove a case of possession or distribution of illegal drugs, the prosecution must prove that the material in question is indeed the illegal substance it says it is. Further, in many cases, the weight of the substance is also an ellement of the crime. In order to prove these elements, the prosecution relies upon chemists who test and weigh the substances, provide a written report and then testify at trial.

Usually, the one witness the prosecution can call at trial and not have to worry about too much cross-examination is the chemist.

Until now, that is.
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Approximately 125 undergraduate students from Harvard University have been accused of using unethical methods to complete a spring take home exam. In what may be the largest Ivy League cheating scandal in recent memory, Harvard University is taking determined action against suspected undergrads that may call for the immediate assistance of legal counsel. Accusations of plagiarism or academic dishonesty can have longstanding effects on an individual’s personal and career goals.

Suspicions of a conspiracy originally rose in May when a teaching fellow noticed striking similarities with many of the tests’ answers to short questions and even essays. The fellow then informed the professor of the class who contacted Harvard’s administrative board, the governing body that monitors student behavior.

None of the answers from students appeared to be blatantly lifted from outside sources. But according to Jay Harris, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, some students obviously plagiarized or came close enough to suggest collusion. The non-collaboration policy printed on the exam leaves little room for the possibility that any student partnerships were merely oversights. The 125 suspected make up nearly half of the entire class comprised of students from all four levels of college. Some of the accused have already graduated. And though Harris has not confirmed or denied whether any students who are found guilty of cheating will be stripped of their diplomas, he did indicate that Harvard is treating the matter as grave.
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A dumbfounding revelation has closed down one of Massachusetts’ three criminal drug labs. Governor Deval Patrick ordered state police to shutter the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Jamaica Plain after a probe showed that the actions of a single chemist may have tainted countless articles of evidence. Such a disclosure threatens to cripple the integrity of possibly thousands of convictions according to Anthony Bendetti, chief counsel for the committee of Public Counsel Services.

State Police Colonel Timothy Alben has confirmed that this particular lab conducted about half of the state’s testing. Cases from the counties of Suffolk, Bristol, Norfolk, the cape and islands, and sometimes Middlesex and Essex are all involved. Currently, the main priority is to determine how deep the violation of procedures goes.

The state’s eleven district attorneys have requested lists of the possibly contaminated tests. They also released a joint statement vowing to take swift action if confronted with unjust convictions or inappropriate sentencing. Furthermore, public defenders have been assured that they will be provided with a list of all cases that may have been compromised as soon as possible. Notable Massachusetts defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio averred that state defense attorneys have been aware of the allegations for some time and have been awaiting the lists of affected cases.

The concern that there may be many, if not just several, people falsely convicted due to the improprieties looms heavily. But the Attorney General’s office must also be troubled by the potential cost of having to retry so many cases due to appeals.
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As mentioned yesterday, in my “mini-blog”, Harvard University is investigating 125 undergraduates who are suspected of cheating on a spring take-home final exam. It is the largest cheating scandal in recent memory to hit the university.

Any allegation of cheating in any way is a serious thing, of course. However, in an institution like Harvard University, it takes on the air of scandal as well.

Nearly half the students in a class of more than 250 are suspected of jointly coming up with answers or copying off one another, said Jay Harris, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education. Independent groups of students appear to have worked together by e-mail or other means on responses to short questions and an essay assignment, violating a no-collaboration policy that was printed on the exam itself.

A teaching fellow noticed the similarities in May while grading a subset of the exams. He alerted the professor, who approached the college’s Administrative Board, the body that oversees student behavior. The board was worried enough to spend the summer interviewing some of the students and reviewing every exam in the class.
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