WORCESTER Prosecutors in several jurisdictions across the state, including on Cape Cod, are halting the use of breath test evidence following fresh concerns raised about the machines and their stewardship.
The concerns, which appear to surround disclosure that some police officers conducted tests with expired Breathalyzer certifications, come just months after notices began going out to 27,000 people statewide regarding eight years’ worth of tests invalidated for a separate calibration issue.
“The issue involves an allegation of the certification of some of the Breathalyzer operators,” said Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe on Wednesday. “That is the issue that I’ve been dealing with in terms of how that impacts the appropriateness of introducing Breathalyzer evidence.”
FALL RIVER A Maine man will spend what amounts to life in prison due to his age after recently being sentenced to an additional two to three decades in prison for rapes that occurred in Easton and Taunton in the 1990s.
Ivan Keith, 63, formerly of Bridgewater, was convicted in Fall River Superior Court Tuesday of indictments charging him with five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of threats and one count each of breaking and entering, failure to register as a sex offender, failure to provide DNA and perjury.
In first 6 months of Massachusetts rape kit tracking system, state saw reduction in time to deliver kit to crime lab
Updated Jan 06, 2021;
In the first six months of using a tracking system to monitor the movement of sexual assault evidence kits from hospitals to crime labs, Massachusetts officials report a reduction in turnaround time for pickups of kits from medical providers and deliveries to the crime lab for testing.
A total of 366 sexual assault evidence kits were entered into the confidential tracking system in Massachusetts during fiscal 2020, though staffing limitations brought on by the COVID pandemic limited the movement of kits in certain instances, according to a report released Tuesday by the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.
Nashville Tennessean They re really kind of determining how it happened, almost more so than why, said Adam Hall, assistant professor in Biomedical Forensic Sciences at the Boston University School of Medicine. It s difficult, if not impossible, to say how long it would take them to identify an individual or individuals of interest. But at the same time, whatever physical evidence is collected is likely being prioritized for analysis so at least they can determine the type of explosive that was used, because that can give some indication as to what the source may have been.
Police came across a suspicious RV parked outside an AT&T building near Second Avenue and Commerce Street before 6 a.m., when initially responding to calls of shots fired in the area, said Metro police spokesperson Don Aaron.