Another day, another State Police scandal. The most recent incident surfaced when the Boston Herald’s Howie Carr was tipped off that trooper Andrew Patterson allegedly exposed himself while harassing a […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
Families want to end prison phone call charges
AYANA AUBOURG MET her father Winchel Aubourg as an infant while he was behind bars for a drug-related crime. For the next 17 years, she spoke with him over the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Suffolk sheriff explains decision to cancel ICE ties
SUFFOLK COUNTY Sheriff Steve Tompkins insists his decision to sever ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement had nothing to do with protests, and everything to do whether the people in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, State House News Service
Senate ethics review of Brady winding up
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE NEARLY FOUR MONTHS after opening an investigation into Brockton Sen. Michael Brady’s drunk driving case, the Senate Ethics Committee is close to issuing its report that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker administration tying up medical parole program
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO, Peter Cruz began serving a sentence of life imprisonment for his role as an accessory in the armed robbery and murder of a Holyoke store manager. This past […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Walsh flooding the Mass. and Cass zone
BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH intends to flood the area around Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue with outreach workers, public works staff, and police officers in a bid to ease […]
Posted inOpinion
Mass. can prevent wrongful convictions like mine
WHAT WOULD A PERSON say to get out of jail? I learned the answer the hard way. Lies told by incentivized informants put me on death row for a murder […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Following the money through City Hall
THERE ARE several loose threads spilling out from the case of John Lynch, who pled guilty in September and is currently scheduled to be sentenced in January for accepting bribes. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
A stark view from inside MCI-Framingham
In 2013, Lee Unitt was sentenced to four consecutive two-year terms in prison and up to 20 years of probation, but according to an ongoing lawsuit, the real punishment she […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
A stark view from inside MCI-Framingham
In 2013, Lee Unitt was sentenced to four consecutive two-year terms in prison and up to 20 years of probation, but according to an ongoing lawsuit, the real punishment she […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Epstein, MIT, and ‘sugar-daddy science’
THE SORDID TALE of efforts at MIT to woo donations from Jeffrey Epstein but keep hush-hush the fact the school was welcoming money from the registered sex offender has put […]
Posted inOpinion
Promising program helps rehabilitate inmates
CRIMINAL JUSTICE has gotten plenty of air time in the presidential debates, including the most recent one. Policing reforms, sentencing reforms, closure of private prisons, and offender voting rights have […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Hefner pleads guilty to indecent assault
BRYON HEFNER SPARED his estranged husband the embarrassment of a public trial, and offered the victims of his sexual predation an apology as he pleaded guilty to three criminal counts […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Rollins scores big win with SJC
IN THE FIRST big legal test of her reform agenda, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins scored a decisive victory on Monday, as a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Defense attorney: Judge Sinnott ‘has no leg to stand on’
THE BAND OF RIGHT-WING provocateurs who staged a “straight pride” parade in Boston 10 days ago were hoping to stir the pot. But they likely never imagined that the tempest they’d […]
Posted inThe Download
Defense attorney: Judge Sinnott ‘has no leg to stand on’
The band of right-wing provocateurs who staged a “straight pride” parade in Boston 10 days ago were hoping to stir the pot. But they likely never imagined that the tempest […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Fall River mayor accused of shaking down pot firms
US ATTORNEY ANDREW LELLING on Friday accused Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia II of running the city as a “pay-to-play institution,” using the leverage provided by the state’s marijuana law […]
Posted inOpinion
Law on sentencing guidelines is clear
THE RECENT opinion piece published in CommonWealth on the judiciary’s illegal adoption of new sentencing guidelines was a muddle in need of clarification. The writer, identified as a former assistant attorney […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge jails defense attorney for arguing too hard
Add reciting case law in a Boston courtroom to the list of offenses that can get you thrown in jail. That’s what happened to defense attorney Susan Church yesterday. Church […]
Posted inThe Download
Judge jails defense attorney for arguing too hard
Add reciting case law in a Boston courtroom to the list of offenses that can get you thrown in jail. That’s what happened to defense attorney Susan Church yesterday. Church […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Disorder in the court
SIMMERING TENSIONS over Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins’s vow to turn a page on the traditional approach to prosecution apparently boiled over yesterday in Boston Municipal Court, where a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
From security vendor to suspect in Lowell
TIMOTHY GROVER’S FIRM was hired by city and state government to provide security services, but he was the one who raised the alarm Monday when he slipped into Lowell High School […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Hampden DA behind state’s first court for young adults
HAMPDEN COUNTY District Attorney Anthony Gulluni is on an ambitious mission to give young mid-level and serious criminal offenders a second chance. Gulluni is a member of a statewide task force […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Feds: Ex-State Police union chief ran criminal enterprise
ACCUSED OF RUNNING the State Police union like a criminal organization, Dana Pullman was arrested by federal agents early Wednesday morning along with Anne Lynch, a Beacon Hill lobbyist. Together […]
