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Criminal Trials

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The Station’s long shadow

Five years on, getting by remains a day-to-day challenge for some of those touched by the fire
For most Rhode Islanders, the Station nightclub conflagration — the worst disaster in the state since the hurricane of 1938 — is like a receding object in a rearview mirror.
By IAN DONNIS  |  February 20, 2008
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Framed?

The Boston Police investigation of Stephan Cowans led to a wrongful conviction. Was it incompetent — or corrupt?
The Boston Phoenix has uncovered substantial new information about the Cowans case.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  February 07, 2008
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Righting a staggering wrong

It is time for the US Attorney to investigate how and why the Boston police wrongfully convicted Stephan Cowans
US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan should launch an investigation into how that department managed to help convict the wrong man in the 1997 shooting of a Boston cop.
By EDITORIAL  |  February 06, 2008

A close call

Another suspect was nearly charged with the Gallagher shooting
Another suspect was nearly charged with the Gallagher shooting
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  February 06, 2008
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Truth and illusion

The Big Dig settlement
There is a word for when a private party threatens to get someone indicted unless money is paid: extortion.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE  |  January 30, 2008
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Clampdown at the Providence Police Department

Esserman imposes tougher standards, but some cops cite inconsistent discipline
At age 42, former Providence Police sergeant Steven Petrella has the look of a besieged man.
By TE-PING CHEN  |  October 31, 2007
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Off point

Sports blotter: "Celtics fans still hate this guy" edition
Lots of class being shown this year by New York–area point guards.
By MATT TAIBBI  |  October 24, 2007
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P-town’s not-so-secret vice

Beating up gay guys appears to be all the rage ,  and   police and the DA are part of the problem
Something went seriously awry in Provincetown this summer, where several attacks with possible homophobic overtones were ignored by, and in one case was committed by, the town’s own law-enforcement officials.
By EDITORIAL  |  October 03, 2007

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