Reporter to DA: Bring it on

By adamg on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 1:31pm

Five years ago, David Bernstein at the Phoenix wrote a long article about the Boston Police Department's really low success rate in getting murderers put away, The Worst Homicide Squad In The Country."

The article seems to come up whenever somebody wants to slam the BPD, most recently in the comments on this Universal Hub post about a Dorchester girl who wound up shot in the leg in her own house thanks to some thugs who decided to have a firefight on the street outside.

Jake Wark, spokesman for District Attorney Dan Conley, responded by tearing into the article.

And now Bernstein has responded by tearing into Wark and Conley, specifically over one particular case, that of a man whom Bernstein, in a separate article, said may very well be innocent of the murder charge he was convicted on:

... I have never before, publicly or privately, ever, in the slightest way, suggested that the DA's office may have declined to follow up on my Chatman story because of their personal feelings about me. I have never even entertained that notion, let alone alleged it. But the recent extraordinary invective toward me from Wark, and his dismissive mention of the Chatman case, made me wonder about it for the first time.

So please, Jake, prove me wrong. Show me that your dismissal of my 6000 words' worth of reporting was based not on your dislike of me, but on some actual information and knowledge within your office that my reporting was in error. Show me. You're the one who brought it up, so I'm asking you to back it up. Please. I am eagerly waiting.

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Comments

DA Rep to Reporter: It's already been brought'n

By Kaz on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 3:10pm.

I was going to repost Wark's comments at the Phoenix page here at UHub, but Jake can speak for himself here if he wants.

In a response to this

By JakeWark on Tue, 08/11/2009 - 3:27pm.

In a response to this posting over at the Phoenix, I pointed out that this defendant was convicted in 2002, that an appeal peripheral to his case was denied by the SJC in 2004, and that the article in question wasn't published until 2005. The case and the jury's verdict were built on facts, evidence, and the law -- not on personal feelings, which don't have any place in matters as monumental as life and liberty.

Dan Conley does not respect the First Amendment or Civil Rights.

By KingCaster on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 9:01am.

Well Jake, I respected you until I saw you laughing at this exchange while your boss disrespected a member of the media:

In February, 2009 he refused to speak to a former State AAG and newspaper editor who blogged 35 videos of a contentious murder trial in the death of Revere Officer Daniel Talbot. In this YouTube video he put his finger in this black man's face and asked him for "credentials" even though he was aware that Judge Patrick Brady had given the man such credentials to roll video, take audio and still pictures and to provide commentary

http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2010/02/dan-t...

The tone of my office is one

By Anonymous on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 11:55pm.

The tone of my office is one of accessibility to all residents of Suffolk County. I want to hear the concerns of every neighborhood in our four communities. Toward that end, I regularly meet with neighborhood groups, ministers, and other agencies and elected officials throughout the county. I am letting all of them know that I - and the office I lead - am there to help them.

"A message from District Attorney Daniel F. Conley to the citizens of Suffolk County" link

I think DA Conley owes you and the people he serves an explanation for his insistence that you have credentials in order to ask him questions and get answers from him, especially when that was his purpose being there at that moment. As you note, you waited until the reporter from WBZ was done and you noticed that after he confronted you about credentials as a reason to refuse to talk with you, he turned to another reporter to see if he had questions.

VIDEO w/sound (0:30secs)

IMAGE(http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk143/nfsagan/Jake-smirkWark-public-serva.gif)

the author

By Anonymous on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 12:45am.

of this article is a former US Supreme Court Clerk for Sandra Day O'Connor:

"Suffolk DA Dan Conley starting to look really silly" , the conclusion of which is: "Conley should quickly back off this silly move, de-escalate the turf war, and do his job. If he won't, Governor Patrick and the legislature should move to strip the Suffolk DA of his statutory authority to oversee homicide investigations in Boston and put it where it belongs: with the Boston police."

Conley has held the Suffolk DAs office since February 19, 2002, eight years next month.

It's time his office issued statistics on successful and unsolved murder investigations and prosecutions in Boston by neighborhood ... until he does, he'll continue to wear the yoke:

The worst homicide squad in the country
The Boston Police Department doesn’t catch killers, so the killing keeps getting worse
BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN August 19, 2005 (three year anniversary of Conley on the job.)
LINK

IMAGE(http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk143/nfsagan/Murder-boston.jpg)

Dan Conley is a rude, arrogant pig.

By TOUCH FM on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 9:48am.

Sorry Jake,

I cannot respect you because you stood by and laughed as your boss stuck his finger in his case while I was asking him a very important question in the Dan Talbot Murder Trial.

In February, 2009 Conley refused to speak to a former State AAG and newspaper editor who blogged 35 videos of a contentious murder trial in the death of Revere Officer Daniel Talbot. In this YouTube video he put his finger in this black man's face and asked him for "credentials" even though he was aware that Judge Patrick Brady had given the man such credentials to roll video, take audio and still pictures and to provide commentary:

http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2010/02/kingc...