Massachusetts

Whitey Bulger supports convicted inmate, says he knows the real killer

Lawyers for a convicted murderer who maintains his innocence are citing some unusual evidence in a bid to overturn the conviction: letters from convicted mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, who says he knew the real killer. Fred Weichel was convicted based largely on eyewitness testimony by a teen who said he…

Apr 7, 2014 12:04 PM CDT

Former Mintz Levin IP practice leader among 6-partner life sciences team joining Cooley

A former co-chair of the intellectual property practice group at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo is among a six-partner life sciences team joining the Boston and New York offices of Cooley. Announced Tuesday by their new law firm, the move by former co-chair Ivor R. Elrifi, Heidi A.…

Apr 3, 2014 9:05 PM CDT

Glenn Beck sued for alleged defamation over Boston Marathon ‘money man’ comments

A Saudi Arabian student injured at the Boston Marathon bombing has sued radio personality Glenn Beck for suggestions that the 20-year-old youth was the “money man” behind the attacks. The suit by Abdulrahman Alharbi says Beck labeled him as a suspect even after federal authorities found he had no connection…

Apr 1, 2014 11:55 AM CDT

Judge gives custody of teen to state in case of conflicting medical diagnoses

A Massachusetts judge has awarded custody of a 15-year-old girl to the state in a court battle spurred by conflicting diagnoses. Judge Joseph Johnston in a March 25 order (PDF) that the girl’s Connecticut parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier, were impeding progress in the case and they needed “psychological and…

Mar 27, 2014 1:38 PM CDT

Where are they now? Laid off after 2008 crash, ex-associates rebound into new careers

In retrospect, attorney Nancy Cremins calls her 2008 maternity leave ill-timed. She had been at Robinson & Cole for five years and two leaders of the firm cried in her office when they told her in 2009 that she was among five percent of the firm’s workforce being laid off.…

Mar 6, 2014 5:40 PM CST

Upskirt photos not illegal under Mass. law, state high court rules; legislature then bans it

Image from Shutterstock. Updated: Upskirt photos and videotapes of fully clothed women aren’t illegal under a Massachusetts Peeping Tom law, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said the Peeping Tom law does not apply in the case of a man accused of secretly taping women…

Mar 6, 2014 1:04 PM CST

Convicted chemist ‘sole bad actor’ at Mass. crime lab, but IG report questions 2,300 tests by others

A now-convicted chemist serving a 3- to 5-year prison term was the “sole bad actor” in a scandal over falsified test results at a Massachusetts drug-testing laboratory, says a report released today by a state inspector general. But the IG also said protocols and supervision were lacking at the now-shuttered…

Mar 4, 2014 5:30 PM CST

Jailed former NFL player Aaron Hernandez faces civil suit accusing him in 2 more slayings

Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez—already charged with murder in Massachusetts and facing a Florida civil suit by another man who says Hernandez shot him—has been accused in two other slayings. In a civil wrongful death suit filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, the survivors of two men…

Feb 27, 2014 6:35 PM CST

Cops need a warrant to track cellphone location data, a second state high court says

The top court in Massachusetts has ruled that police need a warrant to obtain cellphone location data to track a suspect for more than a brief time period. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court based its ruling on protections from unreasonable searches and seizures in the state constitution, report the Boston…

Feb 19, 2014 2:21 PM CST

Former law student in police standoff after law school said he sent threatening email

A former law student at Roger Williams University was being evaluated Tuesday night following an incident in which he allegedly sent threatening email to faculty and administrators at the university’s law school and then refused to leave his home. Kevin Pacheco, 36, emerged from his Dartmouth, Mass., home Tuesday night…

Feb 6, 2014 1:00 PM CST

Must state pay for sex-change surgery? Prison seeks en banc 1st Circuit review of panel ruling

After a decision earlier this month by a divided federal appeals court panel that the state of Massachusetts must pay for a prison inmate’s sex-change surgery, the Department of Correction has decided to seek en banc review by the full Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the 1st…

Jan 31, 2014 8:25 PM CST

Eric Holder says feds will seek death penalty against accused Boston Marathon bomber

Eric Holder Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against accused Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, said U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in a written statement released Thursday. “After consideration of the relevant facts, the applicable regulations and the submissions made by the defendant’s counsel, I have…

Jan 30, 2014 9:05 PM CST

Accused hit-and-run driver held without bail as ‘menace to everyone on the road’

Saying that a woman charged with leaving the scene of an accident last week is a “menace to everyone on the road,” a Massachusetts judge the next day ordered the 38-year-old defendant, Melissa Leblanc, held without bail for at least 60 days. Leblanc, who had been out on bail following…

Jan 21, 2014 5:35 PM CST

Federal appeals court says state must pay for inmate’s sex-change operation

In what is being billed as the first such decision by a federal appeals court, the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday agreed with a trial court judge that the state of Massachusetts must pay for an inmate’s sex-change operation. Upholding a 2012 decision by U.S. District…

Jan 18, 2014 12:32 AM CST

Former lawyer for deceased stage actress Julie Harris sues to invalidate her will

Fired in 2009 by award-winning stage actress Julie Harris, her former lawyer and onetime potential executor, Herbert Nass, has filed an objection to her will in a Massachusetts probate court. He claims in the Barnstable Probate and Family Court filing that Harris, who died in August at age 87, “was…

Jan 14, 2014 11:55 PM CST