‘It’s gut-wrenching’: Edgar Bowser, man who killed Shrewsbury Police Officer James Lonchiadis in 1975, granted medical parole
Updated Feb 04, 2021;
In 1975, Edgar Bowser, armed with a .32 caliber handgun, shot and killed 28-year-old Shrewsbury Police Officer James Lonchiadis. Forty-six years later, Bowser has been granted medical parole.
The 62-year-old inmate has spent much of the past five decades behind bars but is now being granted medical parole after a decision was issued by Massachusetts Department of Correction Commissioner Carol Mici, sources told MassLive.
Bowser, an inmate at Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater, has been diagnosed with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a rare cancer that originates in the upper part of the throat. The cancer has spread to his bones, and he remains unresponsive, which is why he was granted medical parole in the first place, according to Bowser’s Somerville-based attorney, Rebecca Rose.
A New Bedford man who was a regional officer for the Massachusetts Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation pleaded guilty Thursday to racketeering charges after admitting in court to his part in several instances of gang-related violence.
Michael Cotto, known as “King Gordo,” 26, once a member of the New Bedford Chapter of the Latin Kings, admitted to participating in the gang s illegal drug business and to committing a variety of violent acts. One such act was a February 2018 beating, known as a “termination,” of an associate suspected of cooperating with law enforcement. The victim was found by New Bedford Police bleeding from his injuries and transported to the hospital, according to a news release from the Office of U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling.
MCI-Norfolk. (Michael Norton/SHNS)
Last month, Carmen Berry heard her 57-year-old son, Nelson Rodriquez, was taken from MCI-Norfolk, where he s been incarcerated, and hospitalized with COVID-19. Another prisoner called to tell the family. He has health issues, so we were really worried, Berry explains. My heart fell to my stomach.
When she called the Massachusetts Department of Correction to find out more, Berry says she was told the DOC could not provide protected health information about a prisoner. I wasn t asking for a diagnosis or a prognosis, I just wanted to know where he was, Berry says.
Berry says DOC staff told her that for security reasons they couldn t reveal to her, or her son s health care proxy, where her son was. She says she was also told that no one really knew.
Danielle Ray
Special to The Landmark
PRINCETON NEADS World Class Service Dogs was able to continue its mission to train and provide service dogs throughout the challenge that was 2020, a need that does not go away during a global pandemic.
“We have had to adjust, improvise, and in many ways, reinvent many aspects of our organization to adapt during this pandemic,” said Audrey Trieschman, manager of communications. “One thing we didn’t adjust was our commitment to quality: quality of dog training, quality of the process by which we match dogs with clients, and quality of our client training program.”
Jan 13, 2021
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) Phase One Step Two of the state s COVID-19 vaccination plan will start next week, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Wednesday.
Gov. Baker said the state s COVID-19 Command Center worked quickly with the state Department of Public Health to safely administer more than 239,000 vaccines to those who needed it first. Distributing vaccines to our residents can t happen fast enough, Baker said. And we ve made enough progress with our frontline healthcare workers and long term care residents that we re ready to start inoculating the next group of residents.
Starting Monday, January 18th, Baker said more than 94,000 eligible residents and staff in congregate care facilities, including residential facilities and residential treatment programs, shelter programs, and corrections facilities, will be able to receive the first dose of the two-part coronavirus vaccine.