Heath Street gang associate with three gun convictions in five years switches things up and gets convicted for coke possession

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Heath Street Gang associate to 22 months in prison after he admitted that, yes, he was the guy housing police officers found with saleable amounts of cocaine on him in the Mildred Hailey Apartments in Jamaica Plain last September, even though he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the complex because of his earlier convictions on gun charges.

Michael Van Rader, 24, pleaded guilty in April to possession with intent to distribute cocaine within 1,000 feet of a public housing facility, the US Attorney's office reports. He was arrested Sept. 3 of last year at Mildred Hailey, despite a BHA stay-away order and while on probation for one of his gun convictions.

Those convictions included firing a gun at the basketball courts at the Annunciation Road housing development in April, 2018, to which he pleaded guilty. Van Rader later sought to have that conviction thrown out on the grounds the police initially stopped him near the shooting scene because he was Black, but the Supreme Judicial Court concluded the cops stopped him because they had reasonable suspicion he might have had something to do with the gunfire not long before they stopped him, not because of his race.

In a sentencing memorandum, assistant US Attorney Sarah Hoefle wrote that in addition to the Annunciation Road incident, Van Rader had also been convicted on illegal-gun-possession charges in May, 2020, after he was spotted leaving Mildred Hailey and in August, 2021, when officers found a loaded gun in a fanny pack he was wearing - after he tried to run from them, also at Mildred Hailey.

Hoefle wrote that his latest arrest, around 6 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2023 came after BHA officers had observed him for nearly 90 minutes as as he congregated with other Heath Street members two months after BHA officers ordered him off the property.

Hoefle continued:

It was in the face of and despite being arrested with firearms three times within a three-year period; having been convicted of such on all three occasions; while on probation for his most recent firearm conviction; and with blatant disregard for the no trespass order that Defendant decided to once again endanger the same community – this time, by engaging in cocaine trafficking on the grounds of the Development.

Defendant has consistently showed a disregard for the safety of the community, the rule of law, and an unwillingness to comply with court-ordered conditions. Put simply, Defendant has shown an abject indifference to any criminal justice obligations. As such, the sentence here must send a clear deterrent message to Defendant, as well as to others who might otherwise consider profiting from this dangerous drug.