Featured MA News Stories:
Questions raised over 'child safety zones'
SEAN GONSALVES
22 Nov 2006 12:00 am
A new town ordinance to create ''child safety zones'' to keep convicted sex offenders away from kids could face legal challenges and cost the town money in legal fees if court battles being fought over similar proposals across the country are any guide.
Just before the plan, called BASIC, was passed unanimously earlier this month, town council President Hank Farnham said the Barnstable Active Safety Information for Child Awareness ordinance would help protect children instead of ''scumbags,'' in part, by banning Level 2 and 3 sex offenders convicted of crimes against children from living within 2,000 feet of any place whose ''principle purpose (is) providing services to a child.''
Those areas include all property owned by the town, such as schools, parks, libraries and community centers.
Sex offenders who violate BASIC would be subject to a $300 a day fine.
The ordinance also includes two informational components, which require the town to post a map on its Web site indicating the locations of child safety zones, information about the environmental conditions in the area, and the incidence of traffic accidents.
The ordinance goes into effect in February and will be the first of its kind on Cape Cod that limits where sex offenders can live.
Candidates forum
Libby Firenze
28 Sep 2006 12:00 am
Reforming the state's Sex Offender Registry and the laws pertaining to the locating, charging and classifying of sex offenders must be addressed in the Legislature.
While the Senate has addressed some important issues, like the pre-release classification and registration of offenders, more needs to be done.
The leadership of the House of Representatives has been and continues to be far more complacent on these issues than the Senate. Clearly we need more energy and fresh ideas. In the coming legislative year we hope to close numerous loopholes and tighten current laws. We can make great progress through cooperation between the House and Senate.
In order to improve the Registry, offenders should be required to provide secondary addresses. Stiff penalties for failing to update listings should be instituted.
Yet to be addressed are measures that would create "predator free zones" or "buffer zones" of at least 1,000 feet around schools, day-care centers and nursing homes in which offenders would be prohibited from living or working.
Other states have taken bold steps to keep sex offenders away from the vulnerable. We cannot let Massachusetts fall behind and lose sight of those we are entrusted to protect.
Offender registry not in compliance
Megan Woolhouse
18 Sep 2006 12:00 am
The state board that determines the potential danger of released sex offenders has only one licensed psychologist, despite a law requiring the board to employ at least three.
The state Sex Offender Registry Board's work has become increasingly important as communities use its decisions to pass ordinances determining where released convicts can live and work. The current seven-member board includes a former prosecutor, a probation officer, and a state finance expert.
Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney, said, "All the members currently serving on the board are well-qualified and they have done an excellent job."
But in an e-mail, he acknowledged, "We are keenly aware that the next two appointments have to be either a psychologist or a psychiatrist."
Carol Donovan, special litigation director for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, said the lack of qualified members calls the board's work into question.
"I think there is a notion out there generally that this board is being run by a group of people who know everything there is to know about this and are being ever so careful," she said. "The reality is . . . the board doesn't serve that function."
Parents hooked on Internet safety forum
Janet Hefler
14 Sep 2006 12:00 AM
With her computer screen projected on the stage screen, the attendees watched as Ms. LeClerc entered the chat room and identified herself as a young, bored teenage girl at home in her room.
She explained that as soon as her screen name appeared, other online users, including possible sexual predators, would be looking up her profile to see if she was of interest.
Within a minute or two, three instant messages popped up on the screen, from senders who identified themselves as older males. After only a few one-line exchanges, one of the chat participants asked Ms. LeClerc for a photo.
Many parents seemed shocked. For Ms. LeClerc, the Internet Crimes Against Children Internet Safety Program Coordinator in the Corruption, Fraud and Computer Crime Division of the Office of Attorney General Thomas Reilly, it was a slow night. She said often the volume and nature of the responses is more alarming.
Attendance at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center program was restricted to adults age 18 and over, due to the graphic nature of Ms. LeClerc's discussion about the dangers children face on the Internet and what parents can do to educate them, monitor their activities, and control their computer access.
Assuring her audience that she was not there to tell them how to parent, Ms. LeClerc encouraged them to open the lines of communication with their children about the Internet. While most children have been taught the rule, "Don't talk to strangers," they don't make the connection that it applies to someone on the Internet as well, she said.
When sexual predators are successful in striking up an online relationship with a child, they use a careful and subtle "grooming" process to win a child's trust, Ms. LeClerc said. Consequently, the number one response law enforcement officials hear from child victims is, "But he was my friend."
Ms. LeClerc offered five rules for online safety:
1. Learn about your Internet Service Providers and what safeguards they offer. Call them for assistance in setting up parental controls online.
2. Install monitoring and or filtering software.
3. Do not allow children to post photos of themselves or send them to anyone online, because the pictures can then be sent to anyone and altered for use on child pornography sites. Ms. LeClerc also advised protecting online family photo albums with a password.
4. Tell children never to have a face-to-face meeting with someone they have met online. While that may seem like something children would already know, don't assume they do, and tell them anyway.
5. Monitor the times of day a child accesses the Internet and the duration of his or her online session. Excessive time online, especially during evening or late night hours, may be indicative of a problem. "There is no reason children need to be using the Internet after 9 pm," Ms. LeClerc said. "When we go online undercover, we go on at 9 or 10 pm, because that's when predators are online."
Above and beyond those five rules, Ms. LeClerc said her number one rule is, "Keep the computer out of your child's bedroom and in an area open to observation."
Bill would extend statute of limitations for sex offenses
Associated Press
08 Sep 2006 12:00 am
The statute of limitations for certain sex offenses against children would be extended from 15 to 27 years, and could be extended even longer if there's evidence to support the claim under a compromise bill approved by the Massachusetts House on Friday.
The Senate could take up the bill as early as Monday.
Both chambers had approved earlier versions of the bill but failed to reach final agreement before the end of the formal session in July. The House version was approved during an informal session.
Victim advocates have pushed lawmakers to lift the statute of limitation completely for those accused of sex offenses against children, saying many victims are unable to come forward until well into their adulthood.
Opponents, however, have argued that limiting the time to file charges reduces the risk of innocent people being wrongly convicted many years later, when evidence is scarce and memories not as sharp.
In the compromise version, the statute of limitation would be extended to 27 years, but legal action would be allowed after that time if there is independent evidence to support the claim. The evidence would need to be more than the opinions of mental health professionals.
Sex offender bylaw debated by board
Marc C. Sanguinetti
07 Sep 2006 12:00 am
The wording of a proposed sex offender residency bylaw was debated by the Board of Selectmen last night before the panel voted unanimously to present it to voters at a special town meeting next month.
The police chief and some residents at the public hearing raised concerns to selectmen about how effective the bylaw would be.
Selectman Allen R. Phillips proposed a bylaw that would prohibit sex offenders from establishing residence within 2,000 feet of parks, schools, school bus stops, day care centers, housing facilities for the elderly and places of worship. The bylaw would apply to level 2 and level 3 sex offenders registered with the state’s sex offender registry board.
Selectman John B. DiPietro Sr. asked the police chief for his personal opinion of the bylaw. Chief Minnich said that in his personal opinion he does not favor sex offender bylaws.
“Sometimes, laws like this push (sex offenders) underground so that they don’t register,” he said. But he added that current state laws don’t provide enough protection for residents. He said that state laws make it difficult to monitor convicted sex offenders as they are not required to register until 30 days after they have left prison.
Russell S. Chernin of 122 Lee St. told selectmen he does not support the bylaw, calling it “easy, feel-good legislation.”
He said that despite being the father of three daughters he opposes the bylaw. He said he prefers continual treatment programs for sex offenders. He added that the proposed bylaw would not stop or prevent sex crimes from happening and said it should not be placed on the town meeting warrant.
“We’re better off with no law than a bad law,” Mr. Chernin said.
Court victory puts crooked G-men on slippery slope
Peter Gelzinis
06 Sep 2006 1:54 pm
Yesterday, another federal judge confirmed what lots of people have known for almost 20 years: Special FBI Agent John “Zip” Connolly was as much a gangster as his rabid informants, James “Whitey” Bulger and Stevie “The Rifleman” Flemmi.
But this time, the truth came with a price - 3.1 million federal bucks to the family of an itinerant boat mechanic and part-time marijuana smuggler named John McIntyre.
Two months ago, James Greenleaf, a truly ridiculous gentleman who once ran the Boston FBI office, took the witness stand and claimed he never heard of John McIntyre.
Never mind that when Greenleaf was John Connolly’s boss, McIntyre was tortured, strangled, shot, had his tongue ripped out of his head and his teeth removed with pliers by Bulger and Flemmi . . . who acted on a tip from their favorite G-Man that McIntyre was talking to the feds.
Now, it’s possible that Greenleaf could go to his grave a bankrupt former gumshoe, cursing the name of John McIntyre. Horror of horrors, he might even spend the rest of his days relegated to public golf courses.
For the same team of lawyers who won $3.1 million proving the feds played a role in McIntyre’s gruesome demise will now lodge individual lawsuits against Greenleaf, John Connolly and three of their retired FBI cronies, who were all excoriated yesterday in U.S. District Court Judge Reginald C. Lindsay’s 110-page ruling.
As criminal enterprises in Boston go, the FBI may have been more disorganized, incompetent and corrupt than either the Italian or the Irish mobs, but even in their Robert Hall suits and Florsheim shoes, they, too, were crooks. Arrogant and stupid, perhaps, but no less lethal.
Advocate pushing lawmakers to sign child protection pledge
Edward Mason
22 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A children's advocate from North Andover is trying to make a campaign issue out of the Legislature's failure to give child abuse victims more time to report they've been assaulted.
Debbie Savoia wants House and Senate members to sign a "child protection pledge" saying they'll push for approval this year of a 12-year extension of the statute of limitations on reporting child abuse.
Reaction from candidates is mixed, with one saying he found the tone of the pledge language "insulting."
Savoia, vice president of Chelmsford-based Community Voices, said the election-year pledge request will put the heat on lawmakers to act.
Boston police corruption case detailed
Shelley Murphy
19 Aug 2006 12:00 am
As he huddled in an Atlantic City hotel room last May with a handful of reputed drug dealers, Boston police Officer Roberto Pulido boasted that he knew how to test the loyalty of officers he was recruiting to help protect cocaine shipments being trucked through Boston: threaten their children.
In a conversation secretly recorded by the FBI on May 24 and played by prosecutors during a bail hearing yesterday in federal court, Pulido said he approached three officers about helping him guard drug shipments and told them, "You're my family, but as family does, family sticks to their own."
He said he warned them, "If something goes bad and they're at fault, somebody is going to pay, either with their life or their children's lives, and as soon as they hear that, they're like, OK -- they back off. The only ones that step forward are the ones that I trust."
When one officer hesitated, he was left out, Pulido said, because "that was all I needed to hear." But the two other officers "stepped forward," he said.
Revere sex offender law dismissed
Thor Jourgensen
16 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A Chelsea District Court magistrate dismissed a city residency ban on registered sex offenders Tuesday, setting the stage for a possible city court Superior Court appeal.
City Solicitor Paul Capizzi said Clerk Magistrate Robert O'Leary "felt the ordinance was unconstitutional."
"He felt it was a bad idea and dismissed it," Capizzi said.
Last October, the council approved a local ordinance banning Level 3 offenders - those classified by the state as most likely to re-offend - from living within 1,000 feet of schools, child care facilities, parks and bus stops.
Online prey: Cops check up on kids’ Web behavior
JOHN ZAREMBA
12 Aug 2006 12:00 am
The South Shore police team that has nabbed 30 men charged as Internet predators now is after another target: they are talking to children online to see how safely - or how dangerously - the kids are acting.
‘‘The key is, obviously, how many are willing to meet a stranger?’’ said Marshfield police detective Steven Marcolini, a member of the High Tech Evidence Analysis Team. ‘‘It’s not to build criminal cases. It’s just to change behavior.’’
What the team members have done until now is log onto Internet chat rooms and represent themselves as a child, usually a girl 13 or 14 years old. Older men start an exchange of messages, and the officers respond. The police don’t bring up sex, but some of the men do, and that has led to arrests.
With what they’re doing now, the officers won’t be propositioning the teenagers; that would be illegal. ‘‘I don’t want to be one of the guys on the stand,’’ Marcolini said.
Instead, he said, the online conversations will remain general, but police will observe what kinds of information the children volunteer about themselves.
Rapist won’t fight rendition to Bay State
Norman Miller
11 Aug 2006 1:32 am
A convicted child rapist arrested in Louisiana on Wednesday after two years on the run waived his right to fight rendition yesterday in the Franklin Parish Court, authorities said.
Marlon Morris, 30, formerly of Framingham, will be brought back to Massachusetts early next week, said Middlesex Sheriff spokesman Michael Hartigan.
Morris repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted the 13-year-old sister of his then girlfriend on Nov. 17, 2002, in a Framingham apartment.
Bye bye badge
David L. Harris
10 Aug 2006 12:00 pm
He was an honorably discharged Navy veteran and father of two girls.
But now that the 31-year-old Somerville cop has been accused of allegedly sexually abusing his now-2-year-old niece he was babysitting, whatever record he had established in his six years on the force is overshadowed by the accusations.
An investigative team composed of the Melrose Police Department and the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office’s Child Abuse Prosecution Division allege that the child was assaulted by Winfield with a hot object, resulting in serious burns, some of which were inside the child’s vagina. Authorities said that the child’s mother returned for her later that day and the injuries, which the mother and her parents initially thought might have been a severe case of diaper rash, worsened over the next 24-36 hours.
