As a rule, bail in Massachusetts is set by a clerk, an assistant clerk or a judge. Clerk’s and assistant clerk’s set bail after a person is arrested and held either at a police station or jail and prior to the person being arraigned on the pending criminal charge. Judges…
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…
A Methuen, Massachusetts man has been charged with two firearm offenses in the Lawrence District Court following a brief investigation. According to a report in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune, Jad Ali Mokdad has been charged with having an unsecured firearm and possession of a high capacity feeding device. Both cases…
While reading a Courthouse News Report earlier today I was again struck by the inflexible approach that federal judges take towards child pornography distribution cases. A federal judge in New York sentenced a teenager to thirty months in prison after he pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography. No doubt this…
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 twenty-five year old Woburn, Massachusetts man is being charged in Essex County for a stabbing incident that occurred yesterday morning. According to reports Timothy Wells slashed a Salem State College student on a shuttle bus and then stabbed the bus driver who came to the female victim’s defense. Wells…
Earlier today I was reading the Lawrence Eagle Tribune and came across an article about a Methuen, Massachusetts man just convicted of one count of Rape. The man, Kenneth Poirier was being tried for a rape that occurred over three years ago. It was alleged that Poirier picked up a…
There are recent reports that Dina Lohan, mother of the infamous Lindsay Lohan, was recently arrested and charged with operating under the influence of alcohol. In Massachusetts the offense of OUI or DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) is a misdemeanor but depending on the circumstances there can be…
According to a report on Boston.com Steven and Lori Palladino along with their son Gregory stole in excess of ten million dollars from forty-two victims some of whom are over the age of sixty. The Ponzi scheme, as it is being called, alleges that the Palladinos raised money through investors…
The Lawrence Eagle Tribune reports that two twenty-one year old men, Rodney McCray of Haverhill MA and Roberto Hilerio of Boston continue to be held without bail facing charges of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, intimidation of a witness…