Criminal 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Far and away

Some of the strangest cases we've had
Man, has this been an interesting few weeks in sports crime, featuring some of the weirder cases you'll ever hear about.
By MATT TAIBBI | January 28, 2009

Advocates renew challenge to punitive probation practices

Violations
At the conclusion of its 2008 session, the General Assembly passed a bill that would have reformed state criminal justice procedure for probationers charged with new crimes.
By ARIEL WERNER | December 03, 2008

A mighty bad man

Balls, pucks, and monster trucks
October 3, 1995, brought my worst experience at the University of Memphis.
By RICK WORMWOOD | October 09, 2008

Blunt object

The political fight over a November marijuana-reform ballot question has sparked a Battle of the Bong
Question 2 supporters claim Massachusetts district attorneys committed “at least 15 violations of Massachusetts campaign-finance and election laws” in the runup to the marijuana-decriminalization vote.
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 25, 2008

The mentally ill, criminalized

Common nonsense
She is afraid he will continue to be kept in the Supermax, which will make him worse, she says.
By LANCE TAPLEY | September 11, 2008

Astro naught

Sports blotter: "More trouble for the Clemens family" edition
Always a darned shame when we hear that the Clemens family has fallen on hard times.
By MATT TAIBBI | September 10, 2008

Will race enter the race?

Dianne Wilkerson and Sonia Chang-Díaz don’t talk about the racial split in their Senate showdown, but it’s likely to make its mark
Two years ago, when Dianne Wilkerson inexplicably failed to submit the necessary signatures to get her name on the Democratic primary ballot for re-election as state senator, a 28-year-old upstart seized the opportunity.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 30, 2008

From janitor to detainee: one woman’s story

Immigration
As part of her job cleaning the Superior Court in Providence, Angela de la Vega often imagined how hard it must be to be a judge.
By AMY LITTLEFIELD | July 23, 2008

Head case

Media coverage of a State House sex scandal reveals the pitfalls of reporting on mental illness
Who is Jim Marzilli, exactly? Is he a predatory letch? Or is he a deeply troubled man who needs to be kept from harassing women — but also from hurting himself?
By ADAM REILLY | July 23, 2008

Darkness falls in the Dark Knight

Scars run deep in Christopher Nolan’s Götterdämmerung
“The night is darkest just before the dawn,” says District Attorney Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight .
By BRETT MICHEL | January 12, 2009

William Lemmer: Coming home

The further history of a Vietnam-era informer
This article originally appeared in the July 11, 1978 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By JEFFREY STEIN | July 10, 2008

Naked in the public square

Freedom Watch
In the finest Puritan tradition, Middlesex District Attorney Gerald Leone is crusading to save Harvard Square from the shock and awe of the nude human form.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND JAMES TIERNEY | June 25, 2008

You’re fired! Or not . . .

More naughty cops
This past summer, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis was outraged by the actions of four officers, including three lieutenants, accused of manipulating the detail system to defraud the department.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 14, 2008

More than a few loose ends

BPD to review Cowans evidence
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis has ordered a review of evidence in the wrongful conviction of Stephan Cowans, following a report in the Phoenix that raised questions about possible police misconduct .
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | March 05, 2008

See no evil

What’s on the videotape Dan Conley won’t make public? Plus, winners in the Times ’ McCain mess.
An intriguing battle pitting government against the press is currently percolating on the North Shore and here in Boston.
By ADAM REILLY | February 27, 2008

The case of Milan Kohout

The right of a performance artist represents the rights of all Americans. Plus, an opportunity with Cuba.
Kohout, a serious man, was engaged in the serious business of political protest.
By EDITORIAL | February 21, 2008