The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld the dismissal of gun charges against a Dorchester man whom police say they watched showing off guns on Snapchat via a bogus Snapchat ID because both police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office refused a lower-court order to turn over information about all the fake IDs they used to monitor suspected gang members in Snapchat videos around the time he was arrested - twice - in 2018. Read more.
A former Boston cop who sued the city over his firing in state court in 2022 last week filed a similar suit in federal court - but added the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association to his list of defendants he says did him wrong. Read more.
A federal judge yesterday dismissed Dennis White's defamation and due-process suit against the city and former acting Mayor Kim Janey, concluding Janey didn't lie in her explanations for firing White in 2021, let alone say anything that rose to the level of"actual malice:" Read more.
James Carnes, 61, of Canton, was sentenced this week to six months of home confinement, followed by 18 months of probation for his participation in an overtime-fraud scheme at the Boston Police evidence warehouse in Hyde Park that netted him a little over $20,000 in unearned pay over 2 1/2 years, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.
A federal judge this week sentenced former Boston Police officer to six months in prison for her role in the overtime scandal at the BPD evidence warehouse in Hyde Park. Read more.
A federal judge this week sentenced a former sergeant at the Boston Police evidence warehouse to six months of home confinement and nearly $31,000 in restitution and fines for the overtime pay he got for hours he didn't work over a three-year period, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.
An Illinois lender yesterday sued the city of Boston, a Charlestown towing company and the Registry of Motor Vehicles over the way Boston lets tow companies not just seize cars on the order of Boston Police but sell them off without giving lenders the chance to get the car back first, which it charges is a violation of several of its constitutional rights. Read more.
A federal judge yesterday sentenced Thomas Nee, one-time president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, to two years probation and ordered him to pay $16,151 restitution and $2,200 in fines and fees for his participation in the overtime scandal at the BPD evidence warehouse in Hyde Park. Read more.
The Dorchester Reporter reports on the complaints over the way Eddie Crispin was demoted from deputy BPD superintendent to sergeant detective after he took a seat on the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
WCVB reports on the mistrial declared today in the second-degree murder case of Karen Read, charged with ramming her then boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a Canton snowbank. The Norfolk County DA's office said it would re-try Read, whose attorneys say O'Keefe died at the hands of his fellow officers.
OT slip showing he worked four hours one night when he left after two, via US Attorney
A federal judge this week sentenced BPD Sgt. William Baxter to seven months of home confinement, followed by 29 months of probation, for putting in for overtime for hours he did not actually work while in a position at the department evidence warehouse in Hyde Park. Read more.
Fisher ambles through the Capitol on Jan. 6, moments before attacking a Capitol cop.
A federal judge on Friday sentenced former BPD K9 officer Joseph Robert Fisher to 20 months in prison and two years of probation both for embedding himself in the screaming mob that failed to stop American democracy at the Capitol on Jan. 6 in general and ramming a chair into a Capitol police officer then pushing him to the ground in particular. Read more.
CommonWealth Beacon takes a look at the controversy over ShotSpotter, the expensive system police in Boston and other cities use to locate the source of potential gunfire: BPD Commissioner Michael Cox stood by the system at a Monday hearing, but critics say it has a large number of false positives, which means people in the minority neighborhoods where the sensors are located are more likely to be grilled by police investigating false leads. Chicago announced earlier this year it's abandoning the system.
Around 12:50 a.m. on Thursday, a resident of Bayswater Street in East Boston called 911 to ask if there was anybody who could say "happy birthday" to him. Read more.
Streetsblog Massachusetts reports on the cruiser crash Saturday afternoon on the sidewalk in front of the Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street, taking out a traffic light and damaging a hydrant, but not hitting anybody. The officer was on his way down Tremont to the Burger King, where other officers managed to arrest a man while he was still trying to hold the place up at gunpoint.
A federal appeals court yesterday dismissed a lawsuit by the sister of Juston Root, shot 31 times in 3 seconds by Boston and State Police officers along Rte. 9 in Brookline in 2020, ruling that the officers had more than enough reason to fear for their lives and the lives of nearby people, both because he had pulled what appeared to be a gun on officers outside Brigham and Women's Hospital and because when the officers approached they thought he was about to pull a gun on them. Read more.
Lawyers for Civil Rights and the law firm of Fick & Marx today announced a $4.7 million settlement of the civil-rights lawsuit they had filed on behalf of Hope Coleman, who called 911 to request an ambulance to transport her son to a hospital to get treatment for his mental illness, but who was instead fatally show by Boston Police officers outside his home on Oct. 30, 2016. Read more.
Update: Man charged.
A Boston Police officer wearing a ballistic vest was shot outside 80 Esmond St. around 9:40 p.m., a couple minutes after he arrived with other officers to investigate a report of a man skulking around with a gun. Read more.
A federal jury yesterday convicted the one-time head of the Boston Police evidence warehouse in Hyde Park of helping to run a long running overtime scam in which officers would routinely put in for overtime they never worked. Read more.
Wu and Bennett's nephew, Joey, hug as other Bennett familiy members and Alan Swanson look on.
Mayor Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox today apologized to Willie Bennett and Alan Swanson, who were investigated and even arrested for supposedly killing Carol Stuart when, in fact, it was her husband Charles who shot her after they left a childbirth class at Brigham and Women's Hospital on Oct. 23, 1989. Read more.
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