Chelsea

DA: Case against alleged gang member won't be hurt by courthouse theft of gun held as evidence against him

adamg — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:39:57 +0000

The Herald reports a clerk magistrate at Chelsea District Court has been reassigned to another court as investigators try to figure out how three guns being held in a court evidence safe were stolen.

Two of the guns were from cases in which the trials had already ended, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. The third, however, was being held as evidence against Sokhorn Sor, still awaiting trial in Suffolk Superior Court for illegal weapons possession.

The Herald says Sor's lawyer will move to have the case against her client thrown out. Channel 4 reports Sor is an alleged member of the Bloods gang in Revere.

Jake Wark, spokesman for the DA's office, says prosecutors still have a case even without the Sig Sauer P232:

T bus driver charged with faking attempted shooting, collecting worker's comp

adamg — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:16:38 +0000

Nancy Parker, 53, will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court today on charges she faked an attack on her MBTA bus in Chelsea, then collected worker's compensation.

Parker, of Burlington, is formally charged with worker's compensation fraud, misleading an investigator and filing a false report for the Oct. 2, 2007 incident on a 111 bus, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. The T fired her after they learned of discrepancies in her claim, the DA's office says.

In 2009, a Chelsea District Court judge tore into prosecutors, saying that while Parker had changed her initial story of being shot by a stranger in a robbery attempt to being shot by an ex-lover, there was little evidence to suggest she was lying about actually being shot.

Her arraignment today comes after an indictment by a grand jury.

Innocent, etc.

Tim Murray's little fundraising pal

adamg — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:50:56 +0000

That would, of course, be disgraced former Chelsea Housing Authority director Michael McLaughlin, whom the Globe reveals was just a bit more than the "campaign volunteer" Murray said he was - and that worrying about McLaughlin may have kept him up and led him to doze off on that Crown Vic-smashing ride.

Outrage of the month: A pity that Chelsea housing guy wasn't found out earlier

adamg — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:06:49 +0000

The Globe reports a public-housing tenant - a single mom - was evicted from her apartment, which was then given to one of the guy's toadies, who pays $25 a month in rent even though she makes $50,000 a year.

Chelsea man charged with ending argument by stomping pregnant woman, stabbing man in back

adamg — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:00:50 +0000

Already facing charges of witness intimidation, Miguel Rodriguez is now behind bars for allegedly throwing a pregnant woman to the ground and repeatedly kicking her and then, when he was done with her, stabbing her boyfriend so badly he needed 93 stitches to close all the holes in his back, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Didn't we expect better of Scott Harshbarger?

adamg — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:56:07 +0000

This Globe story doesn't exactly paint the former AG and Common Cause chief in the best of light. It's not just calling the governor's cell number to plead for that Chelsea housing guy but changing his story on whether or not he's the guy's lawyer and who put him up to it all. Moral compass, anyone?

Dan Kennedy, though, suggests:

Wouldn't take this at face value. Remember, Harshbarger is trying to stop casinos.

Man gets out of car on Tobin in rush hour, jumps over side of bridge

adamg — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:26:48 +0000

Witnesses on the upper deck of the Tobin Bridge watched a man get out of his vehicle and jump around 5:30 p.m., according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

The State Police Underwater Recovery Unit recovered his body in the water about 30 minutes later, the DA's office says, adding investigators are now working to identify him.

His death comes about 2 1/2 weeks after another man was talked out of jumping after causing a ten-mile inbound backup.

Chelsea pride: City housing director tops in nation

adamg — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:58:53 +0000

Or rather, was: Michael McLaughlin is no longer the highest paid housing director in the country; he left office rather suddenly this week.

When Chelsea caught fire

adamg — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:45:13 +0000

The Boston Public Library has posted 70 photos of the 1973 fire that destroyed 18 square blocks of Chelsea.

At its height, the fire became a near unstoppable firestorm so intense that buildings burst into flames before the fire actually reached them - the air pushed out by the conflagration was that hot. Amazingly, there were no deaths from the fires, which at one point were fought by crews from 67 Boston-area communities.

Would-be jumper causes massive backup at Tobin Bridge

adamg — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:12:54 +0000

Inbound traffic on Rte. 1 over the Tobin Bridge was backed up ten miles this morning when police ordered the bridge shut so they could try to talk down a man threatening to jump. State Police crisis negotiators rushed to the scene and talked him out of it shortly after 7 a.m.

All coked up

adamg — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:39:32 +0000

Police in Boston and Chelsea yesterday seized more than 100 pounds of cocaine in two unrelated busts - one of which also yielded a hefty amount of heroin, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

A Providence man stopped around 6:15 p.m. for a minor traffic violation on Columbia Road near the Southeast Expressway turned out to have 18 kilograms (40 pounds) of cocaine and 13 kilograms (29 pounds) of heroin in his rented SUV, the DA's office says.

When police stopped Santo Gonzalez, also known as Orlando Lopez, a license check showed the Suburban was an overdue rental; a routine search before it was towed back to Thrifty Rental uncovered the drugs, prosecutors say. A Dorchester District Court judge ordered Gonzalez held in lieu of $500,000 bail, the DA's office reports.

Meanwhile, police in Chelsea seized 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of cocaine from a tractor trailer yesterday evneing. Miguel Agular, 43, of Long Beach, CA, and Jose Cubais, 38, of San Bernardino, CA, were charged with trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy to violate the state's drug laws as part of an ongoing investigation, the DA's office reports. They were each ordered held in lieu of $950,000 bail, the DA's office says.

Innocent, etc.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, stage adaptation of classic Boston crime novel, opens Dec. 8 at Oberon

Eddie Coyle — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:25:39 +0000

Cambridge, Mass. — Tickets are on sale now for George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Stickball Productions’ world premiere stage adaptation of the quintessential Boston crime novel. The production runs Dec. 8–Jan. 15 at Oberon in Harvard Square, for tickets, visit www.thefriendsofeddiecoyle.com

It is the winter of ‘69 in Boston and Eddie Coyle is a bottom of the barrel hood attempting to stay alive and out of jail among his “friends” – cops, bartenders, radical hippies, bank robbers, hit men and informants. Weeks away from a prison sentence for trucking stolen booze, Eddie’s making a few bucks supplying the guns for a rash of brazen bank heists, while looking to tip someone in for a kind word to the judge.

George V. Higgins’ classic novel has been called the “best crime novel ever written” by Elmore Leonard, and literary scholars have compared his unforgiving and realistic depiction of Boston’s underworld with the works of Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Balzac. Through dialogue quintessentially Bostonian, and the most poignant homage to Bobby Orr and the ’69-’70 Boston Bruins in literature, The Friends of Eddie Coyle has set the bar for Boston crime stories for nearly 40 years.

Court upholds gun seizure from man witness claimed was a hired killer

adamg — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:52:33 +0000

The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today Chelsea Police acted properly when they went into an apartment and seized a loaded gun after getting a call its owner had shown off his gun and announced he'd been hired to kill somebody with it.

A Chelsea District Court judge had tossed the gun as evidence against Vladimir Samuel, ruling that while police had permission from an occupant of the apartment to enter, lifting the pillow under which a caller said Samuel had placed the gun would have required a search warrant - because the occupant did not give them specific permission to peek under the pillow.

Court: Condo managers who dragged feet fixing roof leaks can't claim statute of limitations has run out

adamg — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:09:21 +0000

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today reinstated a Chelsea condo owner's lawsuit against her condo trust and management company over leaks she said were so bad she had mushrooms growing on her doorframe and she eventually had to flee the unit on her doctor's advice.

Below the mud: Beneath Chelsea Street's new bridge, another work in progress

icoverthewaterfront — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:36:15 +0000

The Longfellow Bridge has its design challenges ahead, and the BU bridge has been no picnic for engineers.

But another bridge in Boston – the Chelsea Street bridge between Chelsea and East Boston – is a simple affair. By the end of the summer, the new bridge, designed by HNTB and built by J.F. White of Framingham, may be complete. It may even happen ahead of schedule.

Although the men working with iron above the river are having no trouble, the men who move mud below it have been facing a dozen daunting engineering tasks for over a year.

They’re all trying to figure out how to make the channel for oil tankers wider. Engineers, pilots, tug captains, oil companies, private landowners, and Coast Guard and Army personnel have been at the drawing board for two years now.

The new bridge, after all, will span the more than 200-ft. wide channel without interruption. That’s thanks to two superstructures that now dominate the Chelsea skyline (anyone can see them from the Tobin Bridge). So the bridge, when opened, might be wide enough to fit a “Panamax” oil tanker headed to the Gulf, Irving and Global tanks upstream.