Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog
They are cases involving one of the issues that make the criminal justice system, and related law enforcement, tremble. After all, part of the job of police, prosecutors and judges is to protect the public. Nothing has more of a tortured history in that regard than cases involving domestic violence.
The two cases referenced in today’s blog did not take place in Massachusetts. However, they might as well have. The fact scenarios hardly differ to cases the Commonwealth has seen in the past.
Case One. Rhode island’s Evelyn Burgos, the mother of four, had been concerned for her safety since a recent break-up. Her 25-year-old daughter, Vanessa Perez spent the night with her and the three younger kids for that reason.
It is alleged that there was good reason for that concern and more. Daniel Rodriguez (hereinafter the “Defendant”) has been charged for the deaths of the two women and the kidnapping of a 2 year old boy who was later found waundering around outside later that night.
The bodies of the two women were found this past weekend.
“They were good people. They didn’t deserve this,” said Lucy Rivera, the victim’s God sister…The day he removed his stuff I guess she had her locks changed and everything,” said Rivera.
Interestingly, the police first suspected Evelyn Burgos’ current boyfriend. However, law enforcement now says that he had no role in the crime. Instead, they said he gave information that helped them find the Defendant and ultimately the missing child.
“Crowell cooperated fully with investigators and assisted us in locating Isaiah, the missing 2 year old,” said Tamburini.
Well, I am sure that that original suspicion will be very interesting to the defense.
Case Two Also this past weekend, there was another high-profile domestic violence matter which took place in Manchester, New Hampshire. There, authorities say that 54-year-old Muni Savyon, shot his 9-year-old son dead before turning the gun on himself.
The apparent reason? To spite the boy’s mother, his ex-girlfriend.
The tragedy took place at a YWCA, all in front of a social worker during a supervised visit.
People are understandably stunned. “There’s a lot of sadness and also anger on the part of everyone involved that a father would take his son’s life for no other reason than apparently to spite his mother,” said New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin. Apparently, Mr. Savyon had made threats about a year ago to harm himself, his ex-girlfriend and their 9-year-old boy, Joshua Savyon, Strelzin said.
The social worker was not harmed during the attack, which was captured on video about 10 a.m. after the boy’s mother had dropped him off. Strelzin said the YWCA regularly hosts supervised visits and sometimes uses a metal detector to screen parents, but did not do so yesterday. He said despite the past threats, no one suspected Savyon was capable of violence.
“From what we know right now, no one saw this coming today,” Strelzin said. “She had reservations, which is why he was having supervised visits. She wasn’t there. She dropped her son off and unfortunately his father decided to take his life.”
Strelzin confirmed that Savyon emailed a note to someone before the attack that is now being studied by investigators. He wouldn’t comment on the contents.
Rabbi Levi Krinsky of Chabad Lubavitch, who said he knew Savyon and had seen the email, said it explained what Savyon
intended to do, and that he would be dead by the time the person read it. He declined to identify the recipient.
Ellen Vig of Billerica, Sayvon’s ex-wife – not the mother of his child – said she has a copy of the letter, written in Hebrew.
“It was his intentions. What he wanted to do with his property,” she said. “It’s a suicide note.”
Attorney Sam’s Take On The After-Effect Of High Profile Domestic Violence Cases
There is not much to add to the stories. They are tragic and senseless. There is, however, an additional message to take from it. It is a message of caution.
You do not need this Boston criminal lawyer to tell you that one should not stay in an abusive relationship and to take whatever precautions possible to protect yourself upon leaving one.
I do want to remind you, though, that is the attempt to prevent stories like this that fuels the system’s oft-times over-reaction to allegations of various types of abuse. As tragic as these stories are, there are times when folks make a criminal complaint simply out of anger. There are times they lie to authorities and figure they can simply take the allegations back when it is convenient.
It does not work that way.
If you feel you may have been accused, or that you will be, of something that could be considered domestic violence, you should seek the advice of an experienced criminal defense attorney immediately.
The mere allegation, with nothing more, can easily land you in jail.
To read the original stories upon this blog is based, please go http://cdn.localwireless.com/wap/news/display.jsp?sid=254&cid=21162&scid=-1&title=News and http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/08/nh_official_father_shot_son_self_to_spite_ex
