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Even a Boston Criminal Lawyer has families…divorced or not.

Unfortunately, due to a death in the family, I am not available to post this daily blog as hoped this week.

I will be back on Monday…with a salute to the late Dr. King.

The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog sends its regrets…

From the end of last week through this week tales of Massachusetts murder, rape and robbery arrests and criminal appeals have not been posted. In fact, only this admission exists.

My defense is the collision of scheduled appearances between trial and appeal courts, as well as the Jewish Holidays.

Good morning. This Boston criminal lawyer is back after a few days out of town. Sorry about the missed blogs. I try to get 5 per week up there, but the week kind of got away from me. I do hope you had a great, safe and law-abiding weekend, though.

Apparently, 37-year-old Gerald Sullivan (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) of Charlestown did not. He is headed to a Woburn courtroom to face charges for a Medford home invasion case that includes a count of Massachusetts murder.

Kind of hard to have a terrific weekend with that hanging over your head!

According to the Commonwealth, the Defendant was one of two people who forced their way into the Medford home in February intending to rob the occupants of money and jewelry.
Things allegedly did not go according to plan.

There was a struggle. The father and son who were inside ended up shot during that struggle. The father survived, but the thirty-seven-year-old son did not. He was taken to a hospital where he died.

Authorities say that the Defendant was tied to the crime through DNA evidence. The criminal investigation is still pending as law enforcement is still searching for the second suspect
Attorney Sam’s Take On Home Invasion And Murder

This story brings to light an issue which many people still do not realize.
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Ok, I admit it. Sometimes, the extreme heat can even effect experienced criminal defense attorneys. Yes, even in Boston, although we generally never have to face temperatures that feel like over 1000 degrees as we did last Friday. The point is, though, that although I was able to handle my courthouse responsibilities, Friday’s blog did not happen.

Sorry about that…but here it is now.

As you may recall, we were looking for some closure regarding the messages underlying two of last week’s blogs. The first one, Martha Vinyard Man Faces Assault And Battery With A Dangerous Weapon Charges For Attack On Alleged Sexual Predator, left us with the odd statement I made at the end of the story, namely that, given today’s criminal justice realities, there was not much difference between the defendant’s receiving Pretrial Probation and an acquittal. The other posting, Massachusetts Juveniles At Risk In Romance, Retribution And Criminal Charges, ended with my indicating that a juvenile having to deal with a case in the juvenile justice system was only the beginning of said juvenile’s problems.

I told you that the reason was similar to the promised final word regarding the prior blog.

Here is what I was talking about.

Attorney Sam’s Take On The After-Effects Of Criminal “Justice”

I have often written about my view of the “presumption of innocence”.

I have told you that what I see is that it translates into an “Assumption” of guilt…at least, until the actual trial. What I have not spent a great deal of time writing about is what happens to that Assumption after the court closes its file.
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Yesterday was another day in the Whitey Bulger/ Catherine Greig Follies (hereinafter, the “Follies”). It was Day Two of the bail hearing for Ms. Greig, during which time witnesses with absolutely nothing relevant to say were given the chance to throw verbal barbs at the couple-at-issue as the court decides whether to hold Ms. Greig, a woman with no criminal record and charged with something punishable by relatively little prison time, without bail.

As you know, Greig is accused of helping Bulger elude authorities throughout their 16 years “on the lam”.

During the hearing, Ms. Greig’s attorney portrayed her as a woman who was subservient to her infamous beau and knew little about the extent of his crimes. With little else to gnaw on, fascinated onlookers surmise that this provides a crack through which her likely defense can be examined.

“This woman is not a violent person. … Her only crime is a crime of passion — falling in love with this gentleman,” the experienced criminal defense attorney argued. He described his client as a meek woman who knew little about Bulger’s crimes when she fled Boston with him. Thereafter, one is left to imagine, to whatever little degree she learned of his past, she was too frightened to turn him in.

Interestingly, F.B.I. testimony at the hearing reflected that the feds, in their own documents, acknowledged that it seemed as though Bulger treated Greig like a servant.

According to said reports, he was harsh and controlling and his wish was her command.

Prosecutors argue that she liked living like that. After all, “She liked bad boys”.

In one of the more interesting moments of the Follies, the defense attorney called Bulger’s former top lieutenant, Kevin Weeks, as a witness to testify on his client’s behalf.

Mr. Weeks testified that Greig was not involved in Bulger’s crimes (which, of course, chiefly occurred before she took off with the man). He further said that Bulger’s reputation among some people in South Boston as a Robin Hood who kept drugs out of the neighborhood and helped old people. In other words, his client had no real reason to suspect he was a bad guy.

Now who could question the credibility of such testimony?

Well, the government did. They argue that weeks is painting a picture that differs from reality. On the other hand, he was apparently to be believed, as far as the government was concerned, when he aided them in the investigation and trial in earlier years which gained him a “better deal” when he faced charges.

In fact, it is probably why he is free today.

As mentioned above, the capper of yesterday’s Follies were the relatives of four people Bulger is accused of killing being allowed to give victim impact statements during the hearing.

Such statements are, of course, heard at the end of trials when there is a conviction. Hence the definition of the word “victim” and the relevance to the convicted defendant(s).

In this case, people expect a trial…but I don’t see why. After all, both defendants have already been convicted, haven’t they?

Attorney Sam’s Take On Prosecutorial Deals And Credibility

You do see what is going on here, don’t you?
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Just a Police Cuffs

Nicholas Christian, a 30-year-old Lynn man, was to be arraigned today in Lynn District Court. He is charged with unarmed robbery on a person over 60, aggravated assault on a person over 60, and receiving stolen property under $250. The charges arose from the beating of an 89-year-old woman while a man stole her purse earlier in the week.

Christian has also been charged in connection with the robbery of a 35-year-old woman in the same neighborhood. That incident occurred on November 7. He was arrested yesterday at his home on unrelated warrants.

The defendant is facing serious felony charges for both of his robbery arrests. Often times, the issue in robbery cases will be the identity of the alleged robber. When there are police missteps in finding out the robber’s identity, evidence can be suppressed and charges can even be dismissed.

In addition, Christian will have to address his outstanding warrants. They are not going away, and it is never a good idea to ignore an outstanding warrant.

When someone is charged with a single crime or multiple felonies it is generally in their best interest to hire an experienced criminal defense lawyer to help them in their case. Hiring a top-notch defense attorney can make all the difference in the world. Among many other things, he or she will provide arraignment and bail advocacy, further your interests in plea negotiations, file motions to disallow certain evidence, represent you well at trial, etc.
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You know, even a Boston criminal defense attorney can start to lose faith. I mean, it has been great seeing my quotes in the paper and watching myself on TV again, don’t get me wrong. But, I really believe in the issues I write about in this blog and the subject of “bullying” and what to do about it has really raised my ire. And, as I suspected, the governor lost no time in signing into the law the new bullying bill, giving us the new holiday of “No Name Calling Day” in January and a host of other non-solutions.

And so, with nothing solved but a feel-good attitude that is likely to blow up in everyone’s face come September, if not before, I sit back to transfer the recorded Fox25 video (that can still be seen here) for my folks who are in town.

While awaiting my portion, I rewatch one of the bullying-related stories that was also shown. Although not in the Commonwealth, it presented a new extreme in the bullying issue.

Nope, it wasn’t yet another story of one kid torturing another, either physically, emotionally or verbally.

This time, the assailant was a teacher who was the villain of the piece!
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Last night, William T., 61, of Northampton (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was taken into custody after removing his criminal justice situation from the “Bad” column and placing it solidly under “Worse”. Now, his need for a gifted and experienced attorney has become even more critical.

You see, the Defendant was supposed to be in court Tuesday morning to face an arraignment. He did not make it. The court ordered a warrant for his arrest because of the default.

Last night, he was found. Another motorist noticed him struggling to operate his moped and called the police. It was 5:50pm when police say they responded to the call that someone seeming to be heavily intoxicated was trying to operate a moped but kept falling off the vehicle and trying to get back onto it.

Police came to investigate and they found the Defendant. Upon questioning the Defendant, police say they detected a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. They asked him to perform field sobriety tests and he complied…sort of. He failed. The police determined that he was, indeed, under the influence of alcohol, according to a police report. A further search of the moped, the police reported, revealed a partially consumed bottle of vodka hidden in a compartment under the seat.

This would be the Defendant’s Fifth drunk driving offense.
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Unfortunately, Attorney Samuel Goldberg is unable to post this morning due to his court schedule.

Stay tuned, however, for the rest of this week, which will have a theme. The theme concerns Sex, Money, Deceit and Murder.

Yes, that means it will include, but not be limited to, the so-called “Craig’s List Killer”. It will also include an update on one of our previous postings.