Braintree, Massachusetts firefighters responded to an alarm at an apartment complex two days ago sometime around 2:30 in the afternoon. After finding and eliminating the material that triggered the alarm they entered an adjacent apartment to make sure that the occupants were okay. While going through the home the firemen…
Sometime around three o’clock in the morning on Route 495 a Massachusetts State Trooper reportedly observed a car committing several motor vehicle violations, one of which was operating in the breakdown lane. The officer stopped the car. Then, according to a report in Boston.com, the officer developed information that resulted…
In Commonwealth v Ortiz, decided earlier today the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a conviction for drug distribution notwithstanding the failure of the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the substance charged was in fact cocaine. The facts of the case are as follows: In June of 2010…
A few weeks ago I was reading an article in the Vineyard Gazette reporting the death of a fifty-year old man presumable from a Heroin overdose. According to the report, at 9:00 a.m. the police were called to a home in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. There,…
A few years ago, Massachusetts decriminalized the possession of marijuana under one ounce. That event sparked a flurry of cases that related to whether the odor of marijuana provided probable cause for police officers to search a car during a routine motor vehicle stop. The case law seems to be…
Yesterday I read Douglas Moser’s column in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune about the rise in Heroin use in Massachusetts. The article touched on many aspects of the problem associated with the drug. It talked about overdoses, deaths from Heroin abuse, changes in the demographics of Heroin users and ultimately an…
This past Friday morning police in Oak Bluffs police were called to a location on a report of a dead body. When they arrived they went to a bedroom where they observed the body of a fifty year old man. Based on the presence of Drug Paraphernalia including baggies and…
Over two weeks ago police in Norwood, Massachusetts executed a Search Warrant at an apartment complex. This followed an investigation into alleged Drug Dealing activities by Henry Samuels, a twenty-four year old Norwood resident. In August of 2012 Samuels was arrested for selling marijuana to minors. At that time he…
Yesterday the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its opinion in the case of Commonwealth v. Chambers. Chambers was tried in the Suffolk Superior Court for the death of Edward Quiles. The district attorney proved that in the winter of 2008 Chambers lived with the victim and another (Ceurvels) in an…
Richard Hazzard, a 23-year-old Marlborough man, was recently charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute after a traffic stop. Police allegedly pulled him over for running a stop sign. The officer told local news that after he saw that the defendant was “moving around” in the car, he…