Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog

September is a-coming. It would appear that it will soon be time, once again in Massachusetts, for those school-time hijinks like bullying, assault and vandalism.

And police investigations.

Well, it looks like some people just can’t wait. No, not a high school or college campus crime this time. The event took place at Julia F. Callahan Elementary School in Lynn this past weekend. Vandals trashed the school, dumping paint, spraying fire extinguishers, shattering glass, overturning desks and copiers, and spewing classroom materials throughout the building, according to Deputy Superintendent Jaye Warry and Lieutenant William Sharp of the Lynn Police Department.

The police describe that the “school was entered and extensively vandalized,’’ Superintendent Warry, who has worked in the Lynn school system for 25 years, said this break in was “up there on the extent of damage.’’ She went on to say that the vandalism affected most of the two-story building and that the principal’s office was destroyed.

Continue reading "Attorney Sam Warns Students About Criminal Investigations After Lynn MA School Is Vandalized" »

One thing that you get enough of as a Boston criminal lawyer is human drama. An example is the 10-year-old boy who accidentally fatally shot his cousin in 2007 in Roxbury. He has now testified at the trial of the boy's mother, who is now facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for not properly storing the gun used in the shooting.

At the time of the incident, he was 7 years old.

The boy began his testimony with smiles...but that soon changed as he recalled the day at issue.

He recounted that he had been watching TV with Liquarry J., 8, (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) when the Deceased showed him the gun that he said belonged to his teenaged half-brother .

"I asked him if there were bullets in the gun. He said, 'No,'" the boy said.

"I did it by accident," he said.

Continue reading "Roxbury MA Homicide Of Child Re-lived In Gun Trial Against Mother." »

Here is another one in a series of people being prosecuted for having parties wherein juveniles are allegedly given alcohol. As mentioned last week, ‘tis the season apparently.

Specifically, Elizabeth M., 50, and her son Taylor, 18, of Cohasset ( hereinafter, collectively, the “Defendants”) now face charges in Quincy District Court. They have pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that they hosted an underage drinking party that drew dozens of teenagers to their home on Saturday night. Her charges include furnishing alcohol to minors under the ‘‘social host law,’’ keeping a disorderly house, and disturbing the peace. He faces charges of furnishing alcohol to minors and being a minor in possession of alcohol.

Both were ordered to abstain from drugs and alcohol and undergo in-home sobriety testing, while they wait for trial.

Continue reading "Cohasset MA Mother And Son Charged Giving Alcohol To Juveniles – A Boston Criminal Attorney’s View" »

Here is something a Boston Criminal Lawyer does not see every day. The father of a tragically deceased daughter, who’s death the Commonwealth is looking use as a tool of political expediency, is showing the compassion.

You remember the word “compassion”, don’t you? It is the word I used when discussing the tragedy and the problem of bullying in the first place.

Yes, I am referring to the father of the late Phoebe Prince, who committed suicide earlier this year. The local prosecutor decided to blame the death on local bullies and take the extra step of indicting the kids. Now, with Ms. Prince dead, other potential reasons for the suicide coming to light, her father, unlike the “cool heads” of law enforcement, is said to be seeking “justice, not vengeance”.

Jeremy Prince, the father, in an interview with the online publication slate.com, said he would be willing to ask a judge for leniency if his daughter's alleged tormentors expressed their remorse in open court.

Continue reading "MA Bullying Victim’s Dad Suggests Leniency In Sentencing Of Students" »

Well, we began this week on the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog discussing crimes that occur in the summer. Yesterday, I was reminded of a companion crime to drunk driving and too much partying.

Two Palmer residents now face criminal charges that they supplied alcohol to a 17-year-old boy who later died in a dirt bike accident.

For those of you who are not sure, the drinking age is currently 21.

Police say 45-year-old Robin K. and 28-year-old Kenneth D. (hereinafter collectively, the “Defendants”) will be summoned to appear in court on charges of procuring alcohol for a minor.

Detective Sgt. Scott Haley told the Republican newspaper of Springfield that
the teenager, Erik N. (hereinafter, the “Deceased”), drank alcohol during a bonfire in April at the apartment complex where the Defendants live.

Continue reading "MA Couple Are Charged With Giving Alcohol To Juvenile After Deadly Traffic Accident" »

Gee, it seems like only yesterday that this Boston criminal defense attorney was going against the grain and calling the indictment of six kids from South Hadley a senseless exercise of political grandstanding…or words to that effect. Don’t believe that I saw what everybody else was heralding as “heroic” as folly? Check out my postings since January as well as my comments on the equally “heroic” legislation on both the blog and Fox25!

Now, a couple of developments have some people reconsidering the events.

When 15-year-old Phoebe Prince committed suicide in January, six fellow South Hadley students were blamed for relentlessly bullying her. It was an easy fix for SuperDA Elizabeth Scheibel – indict them all and ruin their lives.

Whoops!

A new report shows there may have been factors other than bullying that led to the death of the South Hadley student.

Court documents, recently obtained by Emily Bazelon of the online magazine Slate, contain police interviews with Phoebe's mother, classmates, teachers and administrators that tell a different story; one that suggests the teen's troubles extended beyond the halls of South Hadley High.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Bullying Indictments And Legislation Controversy Are Revisited In New Reports" »

As a Boston criminal defense attorney, there is an oft-said and ill-fated sentence claimed by clients. It reads, “…but I didn’t know that was illegal!”

Unfortunately, such lack of knowledge does not usually matter. They really mean it when they say “ignorance of the law is no excuse”. Further, there are times when ignorance of the facts is basically irrelevent.

A prime example of the latter is the case of statutory rape. “But I didn’t know she was just shy of her thirteenth birthday…she told me she was twenty-five” is not going to be a viable defense.

Another example is something that a psychiatrist who teaches at Harvard Medical School (clearly not an ignorant man by any estimation, yet, hereinafter, the “Defendant”) said this week about the trouble in which he has now found himself.

He had been hosting a graduation party in New Hampshire. He has released a statement that he didn't know that there were students drinking at the high school graduation party .

Apparently, however, there were.

Continue reading "A Boston Criminal Defense Attorney’s View Of Knowledge And Guilt In The Criminal Justice System" »

In the Boston area, nine young men, ages ranging from 15 to 21 are now in need of criminal defense attorneys. They are accused of horribly assaulting a 19 year old developmentally disabled teenager in Dorchester.

They left him bloodied and screaming for help, the prosecutor said.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley issued the statement that ''A crime like this just shocks the conscience...It’s obscene."

The scene of yesterday’s arraignments was a familiar one. The court read the charges, the prosecutor filled in the blanks, adding the detail and commentary about the allegations and the defense attorneys denied all guilt for their clients who were basically “good kids”.

As is often the case in such matters, there are differing views of what happened. While the defendant is not required to give his this early, or, actually, at all, there are claims that some of the nine defendants were actually trying to help the victim, not attack him.

The attack came to the attention of law enforcement when police were called by a man who apparently witnessed it shortly before 5:00 PM on Monday. His attention was drawn to it when he was working in his back yard and heard a "God-awful scream”.

Continue reading "Nine Boston Youths Are Charged With Assault And Battery In Bullying Attack Of Disabled Teen" »

Middlesex Superior Court Judge S. Jane Haggerty has sentenced John Odgren to life in prison without parole. Yesterday, a jury convicted the 19-year-old, who has Asperger’s syndrome and a history of mental illness, of Massachusetts first-degree murder.

The Princeton teenager fatally stabbed Lincoln-Sudbury 15-year-old James Alenson in 2007. The two boys teens didn’t know each other but they happened end up in the high school bathroom at the same time.

Odgren’s Boston criminal defense team had mounted an insanity defense, claiming that paranoia, depression, Asperger’s, and the fear of the number 19 are what compelled Odgren to attack the high school freshman. Now, his homicide lawyer is arguing that because Odgren was a juvenile when he stabbed Alenson, the life sentence he received should come with the possibility of parole. The teenager’s legal team is calling the sentence a violation of not just the Eighth Amendment but also of an international treaty that was signed by every United Nations members except for Somalia and the United States.

Massachusetts and Connecticut are the two US states where a child can be sentenced to life in prison without a parole. Citing constitutional issues, the Odgren murder defense team has filed a motion with Judge Haggerty to sentence him as a youthful offender. She has yet to rule on the motion.

Odgren is being sent to MCI-Cedar Junction, a maximum security facility in Walpole, while he waits for his permanent assignment. His criminal defense attorney wants him to stay in a mental health unit and is concerned for the 19-year-old’s well-being. People with disabilities are at risk of being victimized while in prison.

John Odgren sentenced to life in prison; lawyer concerned for safety, MetroWest Daily News, April 30, 2010

John Odgren guilty as charged, Boston Herald, April 30, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Juvenile life-without-parole sentence too harsh, reports says, Boston.com, September 30, 2009

The Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts

What's Unique about Asperger's Disorder?, Autism Society

Continue reading "John Odgren Receives Life In Prison Without Parole for Massachusetts Murder of Schoolmate" »

Well, it looks like the state Legislature has unanimously approved the new state law cracking down on bullying. It must be a great thing, right? After all, it passed unanimously! How could so many politicians in the Boston area be wrong?

The legislation would require school employees to report all instances of bullying and require principals to investigate them. Now, how could that be a bad thing?

"Bullying is not new. Bullying has been with us from time immemorial”, explained Senator Robert O’Leary, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. “But what has changed is that it appears to be more pervasive, more destructive By this, one would imagine he refers to the new cyber-bullying. In fact, it would appear that it used to be more violent. As for “destructive”? Well, recently two victims of bullying have tragically taken their own lives

"We're going to send out a message that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and the community needs to deal with it," O'Leary said.

Meanwhile, Representative Martha Walz, House chairwoman of the Education Committee, said the bill was "very strong legislation that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of children in our state."

"This is a day that we can be proud we have done something positive – to eradicate bullying and to demonstrate to this Commonwealth and to the nation that bullying will no longer be tolerated," said Representative John Scibak, whose district includes South Hadley, where the case of Phoebe Prince drew international attention to the issue of bullying.

Both the House and Senate had previously passed versions of the bill. A House-Senate conference committee on Wednesday released a compromise version.

The bill now heads to the governor's desk. A spokeswoman said Wednesday the governor would review the bill but considered passage of strong anti-bullying legislation "a top priority."

And so you have it, right? Short blog today. Nothing to say. All is good in the Commonwealth, or it will be as soon as this bill is law.

Well, maybe not so short after all. I have a few concerns.

Continue reading "A Boston Criminal Defense Attorney Looks At The Question Of Whether The Antibullying Bill Is The Solution (Part Two)" »

Oboy! It’s so exciting to solve age-old presumably unsolvable problems! Here in the Boston area, we seem to be doing just that. Can it be that our government is going to come up with really well-thought-out solutions and reduce the need for lawyers running around in civil and criminal courtrooms dealing with the fallout?

Sure. We’ve also finally outlawed the Ozone Layer.

Sweeping ant bullying legislation is poised for passage after lawmakers have struck agreement on a measure that proposes to require school employees to report all bullying incidents and require principals to investigate them. And that's just for starters!

The bill now moves to the House of Representatives and Senate, where it is expected to win overwhelming approval any minute now.

Governor Devil Patrick has also voiced strong support for the bill, which gained momentum after the highly publicized deaths of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince and 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, who took their own lives after being bullied.

Representative Martha Walz, the bill's primary author, said the mandatory reporting requirements will help deter bullying and prevent it from reaching dangerous proportions.

Gee, and I thought the indictments against 9 kids brought by certain very public super-heroic district attorney was supposed to have done that…!

Continue reading "A Boston Criminal Defense Attorney Must Ask…Is The Antibullying Bill, Now Leaping Over Legislative Hurdles, the Solution? (Part One)" »

Earlier this week, when I said “ Tomorrow: Back To Bullying!” in the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog I had intended to be writing myself about the South Hadley Bullying/Indictments issue. Unfortunately, this week’s schedule made it impossible for me to do so...for a few days (sorry about that). In the meantime, though, it would appear that just about everybody else was covering for me.

In an article today, the Boston Globe puts the cap on the week’s coverage by declaring that “Witch hunts won’t bring Phoebe Prince back”.

The article went on to discuss how the local world has spent the week condemning South Hadley school administrators for the girl’s tragic suicide. Apparently, the Globe indicates that said “witch hunters” are passing such judgment without benefit of all the facts, going further to explain that, under the law, school officials are constrained in what they can say about students or the school’s actions.

Since I have spent some time over the past couple of years condemning witch hunts, the article caught my attention. Let me review some of the history of this matter for you.

Continue reading "A Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Take On Bullying, Criminal Charges And Credibility (Part One)" »

This week, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has focused on what so many in Massachusetts and beyond have been talking about. The topic is “bullying”. It is a somewhat vague term that schools and summer camps have endured since we decided to group kids together in one place.

For some reason, though, we do not care about summer camps for now, so we continue to simply focus on schools because that was the setting of the recent suicide.

Some other states are actually looking at us in wonder. They are wondering why it has taken us so long to “catch up”. You see, some other states already have laws banning bullying. By the way, some other states still have laws on the books banning “copulation” too.

I kind of like to look at Massachusetts as a Commonwealth that does not need to mindlessly follow the lead of other jurisdictions though. After all, we were the first state to legalize gay marriage. We have recently realized that having a small amount of marijuana for personal use is not necessarily a threat to humanity (although for someone to have given it to someone for their personal use is…but that is a different topic).

The point is that we, as an independent state, can think for ourselves. What I am trying to urge with this is topic is that we do actually think. Not simply act by knee-jerk and not make decisions based on publicity or political goals.

Nine kids are already indicted. Unless there is a dismissal, they are most likely already done. Once they are arraigned, their record is marked and will be for many years. I’ve kicked that dead pony enough this week. Let’s just make one last point on it before we move on to the legislature’s attempts to curtail bullying.

Continue reading "A Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Take On Anti-Bullying Laws" »

People are furious in and out of Massachusetts. The people of Ireland are angry at South Hadley, Massachusetts. The people of South Hadley are “enraged” at South Hadley High School. District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, daring da from Western Massachusetts, is angry at nine kids. Oh yeah, speaking of the 9 kids who get to have their lives ruined next Tuesday…I wonder who they are made at. Maybe their attorneys will tell us during the arraignment.

You see, something that I pointed out in the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog yesterday has begun to dawn the local populace. The daring da’s annulment of criminal culpability and earlier admissions aside, it turns out that staff members at the school did know that the late Phoebe Prince was the target of harassment long before her death.

And so, not missing a beat, residents and public officials have been begun to angrily accuse the school system of neglecting vulnerable students and have called on top administrators to resign. “Now we find out they knew all along, and did nothing,’’ said Joe Marois, who runs a local construction company. “People are just bewildered they didn’t step in, and are wondering why they weren’t included with the students in the prosecution.’’

Is the next step a superseding criminal indictment by the daring da? Perhaps the legislature will begin work on a new ANTI-TURNING-YOUR BACK WHEN PEOPLE IN YOUR CHARGE ARE BEING HARASSED bill.!

Continue reading "Investigations Into Massachusetts Bullying Indictments Continue To Spread Guilt" »

A judge has ruled that 12-year-old Jordan Brown will be tried as an adult for the first-degree murder of his dad’s pregnant fiancé. If convicted, he would be the youngest American to serve a lifetime in prison without parole.

Jordan is accused of using a .20-gauge shotgun to kill Kenzie Houk, who was 9-months pregnant in February 2009. She was sleeping when he shot her. Her unborn baby also did not survive the shooting.

Judge Dominick Motto called the incident an “execution-style killing.” He says his decision is based on the boy’s refusal to accept responsibility for what he did.

Jordan’s lawyers had requested that the murder case be moved to juvenile court. A psychologist for the defense had testified that the child was at “low-risk” for committing future violent acts.

Prosecutors say that Jordan killed his soon-to-be stepmother because he didn’t like the fact that he was asked to move out of his bedroom. His unborn half-brother was going to be named after his father.

Jordan’s murder trial could begin in May. The 12-year-old’s criminal defense lawyers are trying to decide whether to ask the judge to let them take the case to the state Supreme Court.

In Massachusetts, persons as young as 14 can be sentenced life in prison without parole if convicted for murder. In September 2009, up to 57 people that were also first-time offenders were serving these mandatory sentences in the state's prisons.

If your child has been charged with a crime, an experienced Boston juvenile crimes lawyer can fight to take the case to juvenile court where the penalties are less harsh. Human Rights Watch says that sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole is cruel and unfair. According scientific research, there are difference between adult and adolescent brains that explain why many teens often don’t comprehend the consequences of their actions.

Juvenile life-without-parole sentence too harsh, reports says, Boston.com, September 30, 2009

12-year-old boy to be tried as adult, UPI, March 30, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Juvenile Court Department, The Massachusetts Court System

The General Laws of Massachusetts

Continue reading "12-Year-Old Could Be Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole if Convicted of First-Degree Murder" »

After writing yesterday’s Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog, I went back to my daily business of practicing law. Then, I took a look at some of the latest news and commentaries regarding the indictments about which we “spoke” yesterday as well as the pending legislation regarding bullying.

I started with Boston.com, were I found the positive spin that, “So, finally, an adult in authority in South Hadley stepped up for Phoebe Prince.” This was, of course, applauding District Attorney Betsy Scheibel who has indicted nine youths who apparently bullied the late Phoebe Prince, 15. Ms. Prince tragically took her own life, presumably because of said bullying.

Part of the prosecutor’s stated rationale was that the bullying went far beyond typical bullying that we have seen amongst school peers since the invention of schools. Of course, yesterday, when we looked at the examples she listed…they did not seem to be very new at all.

Unspoken, of course, was any political ambitions the da might have, given that her office is a political one.

I remind you that this had already become a hot issue and one that is being kicked around by the legislature in the way of anti-bullying legislation.

Continue reading "The Massachusetts Anti-Bullying Law Movement – A Path To A Criminal Justice Solution? " »

The death of Phoebe Prince, 15, the South Hadley teenager who allegedly took her own life in response to a barrage of bullying (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) is looming over Massachusetts criminal justice. It has inspired new lawmaking in the legislature and, yesterday, hit the criminal justice system hard.

Indicted felonies for 9 teenagers hard!

The charges include statutory rape, violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, and disturbing a school assembly. Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel announced the charges today.

"Their conduct far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship-related quarrels,'' Scheibel said of the nine teens, the oldest of whom is 18 years old.

Really? Let's look into that.

You have probably heard about this story with a different allegation involved…bullying.

Continue reading "A Boston Lawyer’s View Of 9 Kids Indicted For Bullying (On Campus And Off) And Statutory Rape In Suicide Case" »

In Massachusetts, nine teenagers have been charged in connection with the death of Phoebe Prince. The 15-year-old was found hanging in her bedroom last January.

The teenagers are accused of stalking, harassment, and bullying Prince at South Hadley High School and on Facebook. Among those charged:

• 17-year-old Sean Mulveyhill from South Hadley is charged with criminal harassment, statutory rape, violation of civil rights, and disturbance of a school assembly.

• 17-year-old South Hadley teen Kayla Narey is charged with criminal harassment, civil rights violations, and disturbance of a school assembly.

• 18-year-old Austin Renaud from Springfield is charged with statutory rape.

• 16-year-old South Hadley resident teen Flannery Mullins is charged with stalking as a youthful offender and civil rights violations as a youthful offender.

• 16-year-old Ashley Longe, of South Handley, is charged with violation of civil rights as a youthful offender.

• 16-year-old Sharon Chanon Velazquez, of South Hadley, is charged with stalking as a youthful offender and civil rights violations as a youthful offender.

Three female juveniles, all South Hadley residents, have been charged with juvenile crimes, which include criminal harassment, civil rights violations, disturbance of a school assembly, and assault by means of a dangerous weapon.

Prince had moved to South Hadley from Ireland. According to Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, one of the alleged bullying incidents occurred in front of a school staffer and other students, but no one reported what happened.

Bullying as a Crime
Many teenagers and younger children don’t realize when they’ve crossed the line that turns “merely picking on another kid” into a Massachusetts crime.

If your son or daughter has been charged with committing any crime, you should contact a Boston criminal defense lawyer to discuss your case.

9 charged in death of South Hadley teen, who took life after bullying, Boston.com, March 29, 2010

Phoebe Prince, South Hadley High School's 'new girl,' driven to suicide by teenage cyber bullies, New York Daily News, March 29, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts Law About Bullying and Cyberbullying, Massachusetts Trial Court Libraries

Juvenile Crime in Massachusetts, Mass.gov

Continue reading "Nine Teenagers Indicted in Connection with Massachusetts 15-Year-Old’s Bullying Suicide" »

It is not terribly unusual to hear about a case in which a student is accused of getting into a fight with another student. However, a Newton high school student has now been charged with Massachusetts assault and battery against someone else...a teacher. But it does not end there. He will also have to tell his new attorney how to defend against the charge that illegal drugs were the issue of the altercation.

The 16-year-old lad (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was charged with assaulting the teacher on Friday after a metal box full of marijuana was allegedly confiscated from him at school, police said.

According to the Commonwealth, a teacher caught the Defendant in a school bathroom with the box in a, and took him into an office, where he was told his parents would be contacted. As the Defendant was being escorted to another school office, police said, he allegedly grabbed a different teacher's hand in an attempt to retrieve the box. The teacher was not injured.

Police say that the box contained five packages of marijuana.

Continue reading "Massachusetts High School Student Arrested For Assaulting Teacher And Intent To Sell Drugs" »

Another teenager has pleaded guilty to charges she attacked a 13-year-old girl. The assault was shot on video and posted on YouTube.

Footage shows two girls shouting at and hitting another teen while other students stand by, cheering and laughing. The attack was allegedly planned in advance. The 3-minute video was removed from YouTube after the victim’s mother complained that it was posted on the site.

In December, one of the juveniles pleaded guilty to aggravated battery. She will receive her sentencing this month. The second teen pleaded guilty to a charge of mob action. Prosecutors had initially charged her with aggravated battery. Her criminal defense attorney noted that his client is very remorseful and that this is a one-time incident.

Massachusetts Juvenile Crimes
Teenagers make mistakes and sometimes those errors in judgment can land them in juvenile court. If this happens, it is important to retain an experienced Boston juvenile crimes lawyer who can protect your child’s legal rights and achieve the best outcome possible. A Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer can defend your son or daughter against the charges or negotiate a plea agreement that can decrease detention time or lead to less harsh punishments. There may be grounds for dropping or reducing the charges.

You want to do everything possible to make sure that your child’s future opportunities are not compromised by a conviction.

Second Girl Pleads Guilty to YouTube Attack, NBCChicago.com, January 8, 2010

1 girl pleads guilty in Lombard attack posted on YouTube, Chicago Tribune, December 10, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Juvenile Court Department, Massachusetts Court System

The Juvenile Court System, Massachusetts Bar Association

Continue reading "Juvenile Crime: Second Minor Pleads Guilty to Attack of 13-Year-Old Girl Shown on YouTube" »