The Suffolk County District Attorney's office said today it has dropped charges against a man charged with a February rape because of "a continued investigation that developed evidence to sugest he was not the assailant."
The man was arrested while playing basketball at a North End community center after the victim saw him and called police.
UPDATE: Pfaltzgraff will be a landlubber for at least the next three weeks - Boston Municipal Court Judge Thomas Horgan imposed $5,000 bail and ordered a three-week evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital, the DA's office says. This comes following an 18-month term in a county jail for a similar incident in 2010.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that the group that runs free tours of Old North Church is not liable for the injuries a Georgia tourist suffered when she tripped on a pew riser in 2006, because it's covered under a state law that exempts sites that offer free access or tours from injury liability.
Boston Police say the man in this video is a suspect in a March 16 attack in which a woman was grabbed from behind as she entered the lobby of her building at Hull and Salem.
If he looks familiar, contact the Sexual Assault Unit at 617-343-4400 or the anonymous tip line by calling 800-494-TIPS or texting TIP to CRIME (27463).
Oh, for the good old days when it was just North End parents battling it out with dog owners letting their hounds run free over the asphalt of the Gassy park. Now, NorthEndWaterfront.com reports, it's dog owners vs. dog owners in a battle to the death, or something, over their right to unleash their pets in a park clearly marked "No dogs allowed" - complete with photo by one owner of another guy's dogs looking like they're going right for his jugular.
North End Deals reports:
A dog owner just told me he noticed blue rat poison at small park on Charter St., North End, Boston. WTF. As a dog owner I am BS!!
Emily Fraser reports:
My co-worker's dog ate blue rat poison at that park Friday and, thank God, survived.
Valerie Collanton adds the same thing happened at the park last year.
Boston Police report a woman was "indecently assaulted" from behind when she entered her apartment building's foyer at Hull and Salem streets around 10:30 p.m., Sunday - right around the corner from where another woman was attacked last month.
Seems things are getting a bit uglly between the North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association and the North End Neighborhood Council, as shown in this letter from the former to the latter:
When a body like NEWNC no longer has the self-awareness to know when its position is in conflict with its constituency, or worse, is mired in obvious conflict-of-interest - well - it’s time for that body to hang up the cleats, rather than trying to trip the other better players. We hope that Mayor Walsh considers this as he decides what to do with NEWNC and other less productive neighborhood councils.
UPDATE: Suspect released on personal recognizance, although required to wear a GPS device, after the judge questioned the evidence against him.
NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the victim was attacked by two women and a man at Cooper and Endicott streets while returning home from some grocery shopping Monday night.
Jim Salini, president of the North End/Waterfront Residents' Association, writes he's tired of stepping over three homeless people who sleep outside Haymarket station and says if they don't vacate the premises and police refuse to do anything, he's going to court and press charges against them somehow.
If I see any individuals lying there or loitering, I will immediately dial 911 and ask police to remove them. I will press charges. I will at the same time call the press.
I know that you cannot force individuals to go to a shelter. But they have no right to trespass on MBTA property, inconveniencing commuters and making our neighborhood and entire city look stupid or worse.
Keith Munsell spoke tonight at a candlelight vigil on the waterfront for his son Eric, missing for a month now.
Matt Conti has more details and photos.
Photo posted under this Creative Commons license. Tagged as universalhub on Flickr.
A concerned citizen reports this forlorn snowblower, just sitting on Battery Street:
It does not belong to building management. Apparently it was left here by a group of intoxicated people "riding" it around the neighborhood at 2am the other night.
Boston Police have released copies of two surveillance videos of a person of interest in the sexual attack early Friday on a woman entering her Unity Street apartment building.
If you know this guy, videoed at Salem and Sheafe streets around the time of the attack, contact the sexual-assault unit at 617-343-4400 or the anonymous tip line by calling 800-494-TIPS or texting TIP to CRIME (27463)
Boston Police report a woman entering her apartment builing on Unity Street around 1:10 a.m. yesterday was jumped by a man who sexually attacked her and then, when he was done, whipped out his cell phone and took a photo.
He's described as white, in his 20s, with a medium build, short blond spiked hair and blue eyes. He was clean shaven with possible freckles on his cheeks and wore a dark pea coat, jeans and Timblerland-style jeans.
Not something you see every day in the heart of the North End:
I think that the duck was a mommy duck looking for Valentine’s Day treats for her little ducklings.
The last any of his friends saw Eric Munsell was around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Market Lounge on Broad Street.
If you see him, call 911.
He's 24, 6'0" and 165 lbs., with a scar on his left cheek. He was last seen wearing a blue checkered shirt and blue jeans.
Friends have set up a Facebook page with more photos.
City Councilor Matt O'Malley (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury) says clean business districts are better and even safer business districts and wants to look at increasing fines on "chronic" litterers.
At a City Council meeting today, O'Malley said Boston's maximum littering fines are only $25, compared to $300 in New York and $1,500 in Chicago.
O'Malley also wants to look at expanding the city "hokey" program, in which workers with trash bins on wheels go around business districts cleaning up and introducing new technolgy, such as the sort of "binless bins" the T uses for recycling newspapers.
NorthEndWaterfront.com has the details on yesterday's short car chase in the North End, including the contents of the bag the driver allegedly tried to run away with: Godiva chocolates and Fusion razors.
Kim Angelovich looked out her North End window early this afternoon to see the end of a car and foot chase through the North End involving a stolen Mercedes.
NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the driver, apparently suddenly realizing he was driving a big-ass car instead of a Mini Cooper, apparently abandoned the car on Sheafe Street and tried to outrun the long foot of the law, only to fail.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
