Your Shield Against Criminal Prosecution
Daniel Jourdet, 52, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was arraigned this past week for allegedly punching an MBTA inspector at the Copley Square Green Line Station in Boston on April 1. The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office reports that Jourdet, who was intoxicated at the time, was harassing or intimidating other passengers on the Copley Square Station platform. After the inspect asked…
Two men were arrested last week in Brookline, Massachusetts, for allegedly Trespassing in a parking lot where recent car break-ins have been reported. Victor Edwardo Pena, of Jamaica Plain, and Nathan Ortega, of Dorchester, were both charged with Possession of Burglarious Tools, Receiving Stolen Property, and Trespassing. The Brookline Police Officer who pulled the car over noticed a tool commonly…
Derek Capozzi, of Beverly, convicted of Murder in Massachusetts for the 1996 killing of a woman, escaped from federal custody the other day by kicking through the door of a prisoner transport van in Kentucky. In 2005, Capozzi was convicted in Federal District Court for the 1996 killing of Aislin Silva, then 19, of Medford, Massachusetts. Silva was allegedly killed…
Governor Deval Patrick signed into Massachusetts law a Cyber / Internet Crime bill that outlaws the transmission of sexually graphic instant message to minors. The new law was written to close a loophole that led to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversing the conviction of a man who was criminally charged with sending explicit instant messages to a 13 year…
In a follow-up to my blog posting yesterday concerning the murder of Charles Cantave in the Hyde Park section of Boston, new information was released suggesting that the incident arose from a car repair dispute. From information released by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, the criminal defendant, Mario Burns, and the victim, Charles Cantave, were involved in a small-claims…
United States District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbinia, in the Federal District Court of Columbia, recently applied the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller which created a constitutional right to have a gun. In Heller, the United States Supreme Court rejected a government’s ban on handguns along with a separate requirement that guns in someones home be…
If you have been following this blog, you have seen several recent posts about criminal convictions being reversed as a result of the Melendez-Diaz and Crawford decisions. These decisions have dramatically changed the landscape of permissible ‘testimonial’ evidence against a defendant at trial, but the scope of these decisions is limited. In the recent case of Commonwealth v. Dale McMullin,…
In the recent case of Commonwealth v. Jorge Vasquez, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently overturned the conviction of the defendant, who had been tried and convicted of Possession of Cocaine, as well as Distribution of Cocaine. Despite his criminal defense lawyer’s failing to object at trial to the admission of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory Certificates of Drug Analysis,…
In the case of Commonwealth v. Jason Loadholt, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled on whether a defendant’s criminal prosecution for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition is violative of a person’s ‘right to bear arms’ as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. In his appeal to the SJC for his Gun/Firearms Charges, the defendant claimed…
Another mistrial was declared yesterday in the murder trial of Antwan Carter and Daniel Pinckney, Jr. yesterday for the killing of Cedirick Steele, 18, in March of 2007. The Suffolk County Jurors who had been deliberating for over a week told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked against reaching a unanimous verdict. The key witness for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,…