Trials

Latest Articles

Paraphernalia paranoia: Allston head shops shut down

Busted
Who is responsible for the wave of "functional glass art" shop raids that has recently taken place throughout Allston?
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | July 02, 2010

Trail of jeers

Forget Paul Revere. This summer, treat yourself to a tour of Boston's worst in political corruption.
As summer officially kicks off this weekend, thousands upon thousands of people will be descending on our fair metropolis to get a glimpse of America's most history-drenched city.
By LAWRENCE ''HUGGY'' BERGMAN | June 26, 2010

Charges against former UMass student to be dropped

Justice Is Served Dept.
A Mattapan man's 28-month legal ordeal ended in a Northampton courtroom last week, as the Northwestern District Attorney's office agreed to drop all charges against him pending an additional two months of incident-free pre-trial probation.
By JEREMY C. FOX | June 09, 2010

Fighting back

Two cases in federal court here in Massachusetts could help turn the national tide against DOMA
Thanks to a federal law that codifies discrimination against same-sex couples, more than 15,000 legally married couples (and an untold number of children) are being denied basic benefits, such as the right to file their taxes jointly, or Social Security payments and health-insurance subsidies.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 04, 2010

Death penalty possible for Watland

Prison Murder
Gary Watland, the brilliant and mentally ill convicted murderer whose 2006 scheme to have his wife smuggle a loaded handgun into the Maine State Prison in Warren was foiled when another prisoner tipped off officials, faces a possible death penalty if convicted of a second murder.
By LANCE TAPLEY | May 26, 2010

Mirror, mirror

Smashing up cars in South Alabama; Plus, it's that frisky NFL draft time of year
Virtually every year, like clockwork, a college-football player is arrested for getting blasted and then running around town vandalizing cars — a crime that almost always involves ripping multiple side mirrors off of multiple automobiles.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 28, 2010

It takes an identity thief

How Karen Keester made off with $250,000 — and became one of Boston's most accomplished con artists
In late April 2006, shortly before the hearing to evict his tenant Karen Keester, Lee Gersch received a phone call from Keester’s twin sister, Michelle. She had just gotten divorced, Michelle claimed, and needed to move to Boston from Arkansas for a new job. She suggested that she and her cat could move right into Keester’s Beacon Hill flat.
By JACLYN TROP | April 27, 2010

QB freak

No charges for Roethlisberger, but Big Ben’s reputation might be sacked
Trying to parse the situation with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and his sexual-assault allegations, one comes to some interesting conclusions. The strategy pursued by law enforcement in this case speaks volumes.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 22, 2010

UMass racial-confrontation case may finally come to a close

Is justice being served?
A racial incident that rocked Western Massachusetts two years ago may finally be laid to rest this week, as a black former UMass Amherst student charged with aggravated assault returns to court, apparently having reached an agreement with the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.
By JEREMY C. FOX | March 31, 2010

The US Supreme Court has saved us from financial ruin

Not a modest proposal
There has been powerful criticism of the recent US Supreme Court ruling that corporations are truly people, and deserve all the rights people have, including the right to spend as much as they wish to support or oppose candidates in elections.
By JEFF INGLIS | February 10, 2010

Front Room battle goes to court

Food Fight
Next time you're at the Front Room, order that Old Fashioned with extra bitters. There's enough to go around.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 13, 2010

Unmaking a bad federal law

Justice for Some
It's been a depressing stretch for supporters of marriage equality.
By ADAM REILLY | November 24, 2009

Collateral damage?

Was Hasan suffering from PTSD?
Was Hasan suffering from PTSD?
By ADAM REILLY | November 11, 2009

Suspect speaks; victim’s family begins $1-million-plus lawsuit

Prison Homicide
The widow of Sheldon Weinstein, the Maine State Prison inmate who died in April several days after allegedly being beaten by inmates, has taken the first step toward filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against prison guards, Department of Corrections “policy-making personnel,” and prison medical-care providers.
By LANCE TAPLEY | November 04, 2009

You're all guilty!

In his new book, Three Felonies A Day , Harvey Silverglate dissects the corrupt justice practiced by federal prosecutors
Silverglate's thesis is as provocative as it is simple: justice has become sufficiently perverted in this nation that federal prosecutors, if they put their minds to it, could find a way to indict almost any one of us for almost anything. It is a truly radical notion.
By PETER KADZIS | September 28, 2009

What's the scam?

Trying to bilk the Scientologists
Back on the morning of June 7, 1982, a man walked into the New York branch of the Middle East Bank on the 25th floor of a Madison Avenue office building and tried to deposit a $2 million check. The man, a native of the United Arab Emirates, left without completing the transaction.
By JIM SCHUH | September 28, 2009

Prison ‘troublemaker’ confronts racism, medical abuse

Exiled
Vacillating between grit and despair — between aggressive lawsuits and suicide attempts — Deane Brown, the prisoner who in 2005 blew the whistle on the torture of mentally ill inmates at the Maine State Prison’s solitary-confinement “Supermax” unit, is struggling against prison conditions in Maryland, where he was exiled by the Baldacci administration.
By LANCE TAPLEY | September 09, 2009

Labor of Love

No rest for these union activists
Most of us will sleep in on Labor Day. Not the Southern Maine Labor Council, who will be working hard to remind us what the holiday's actually all about.
By JEFF INGLIS | September 02, 2009

Labor of Love

The punch that took two lives

Nearly 17 years ago, Joe Donovan initiated a tragic chain of events with a brutish act of machismo. But should he be in jail for life?
When he was 17 years old, Joseph Donovan made the first of two stupid, and even reckless, mistakes. On the evening of September 18, 1992, in a brutish act of machismo, the East Cambridge native and minor-league delinquent punched out Norwegian MIT student Yngve Raustein.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 05, 2009

Federal investigation requested

More prison turmoil
Stirred into action by the murder of a wheelchair-bound prisoner, human-rights activists have asked the federal Department of Justice to investigate the treatment of Maine State Prison inmates.
By LANCE TAPLEY | July 22, 2009

Review: One Day You'll Understand

Clumsy contrivance gives way to real tragedy
In 1987, as French television broadcasts the trial of Klaus Barbie, the Nazi "Butcher of Lyon," Victor Bastien is going through a related trial of his own.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 22, 2009

Boston's $10 Million Boo-Boos

Righting a wrongful conviction
The bill continues to come due for the string of nine wrongful convictions discovered in Boston between 1999 and 2004 — a tab that has now topped $10 million in court settlements.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 07, 2009

Scammer solstice

Football meets fraud in Georgia. Plus, Wazzu wackiness, and Tim Donaghy gets busted up.
It's summertime, and the scammin' is easy. What else can explain the recent appearance of a former NFL player in court to face 22 counts of . . . wait for it . . . mortgage fraud!
By MATT TAIBBI | June 17, 2009

Supreme court

Maine senators playing major role in Sotomayor confirmation
Next month, Congress will begin confirmation hearings to decide the fate of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, the 55-year-old Bronx native whom President Barack Obama nominated last month to fill retiring Justice David Souter's spot on the nine-member bench.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 17, 2009

White-supremacist code printed nationwide

One man's death spread the numeric code for "Heil Hitler" across the world.
While von Brunn survived to face federal criminal charges and may yet die slowly in federal prison, he did manage to get newspapers around the globe to print a white-supremacist code praising Adolf Hitler right next to his name.
By JEFF INGLIS | June 17, 2009

Sotomayor's mixed message on free speech

Freedom Watch
Minutes after President Barack Obama announced that he was nominating appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, battle lines were drawn on the pre-scripted questions of "post-racial" America.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 03, 2009

On Sotomayor

A noble pick that highlights a political flash point. Plus, California's shame.
There is a pleasing symmetry to President Obama's nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court.
By EDITORIAL | May 27, 2009

Judgment day

Taking stock of Judas Iscariot
Interesting premise. The Last Days of Judas Iscariot , by Stephen Adly Guirgis, suggests what could happen if Judas, the most despised of the New Testament villains, were put on trial in purgatory.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 20, 2009

Review: Crude

Quietly compelling
Joe Berlinger returns with a documentary that follows through on the promise of 1992's Brother's Keeper .
By BRETT MICHEL | August 10, 2009