5 takeaways from legislative hearings on the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home COVID outbreak: How much more do we know now?
Updated Feb 28, 2021;
Posted Feb 28, 2021
State Rep. Linda Dean Campbell chairs an October 2020 legislative hearing on the COVID-19 outbreak at the Soldiers Home in Holyoke, held at Holyoke Community College. (Don Treeger / The Republican file)
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Nearly a year after the beginning of the deadly pandemic that has changed the face of life as we knew it, the state Legislature’s Special Oversight Committee has held six hearings since October to examine the outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. The state-run, long-term care facility for veterans went from a sought after placement for end-of-life care to a touchstone of the horrors the virus can bring when unchecked.
SJC rejects bid for new trial by David Chalue, convicted in 2011 Berkshire County ‘Hells Angels’ triple murder
Updated Feb 23, 2021;
Posted Feb 23, 2021
The state Supreme Judicial Court has rejected a petition for a new trial by David Chalue, convicted of three counts of 1st-degree murder in the 2011 homicide of three Pittsfield men (Michael S. Gordon/The Republican file photo)
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BOSTON The state’s highest court on Tuesday rejected a bid for a new trial by David Chalue, one of the three defendants convicted for a 2011 Berkshire County triple murder where three Pittsfield men were abducted, killed and dismembered, and then buried in the woods in Becket.
Prosecutors drop murder charge against 16-year-old girl in fatal Springfield shooting of Jonathan Martinez
Updated Feb 18, 2021;
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SPRINGFIELD The district attorney’s office is dropping a first-degree murder charge against a 16-year-old girl in connection with the fatal shooting of Jonathan Martinez after prosecutors determined there was not enough evidence to gain a conviction.
The girl, D’Jalee Burgos of Springfield, is still facing assault and other charges in connection with the Oct. 19 incident that began as a car chase through downtown Springfield and ended with Martinez being shot on Acushnet Street in the city’s South End.
Her lawyer, Jeffrey S. Brown of Greenfield, said he is pleased the murder charge is being dropped but argued she never should have been charged in the first place.
Updated: 5:59 PM CST February 11, 2021
PITTSFIELD, Mass. A former altar boy who says he was sexually abused by a now-deceased Roman Catholic bishop has filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for the suffering he alleges was made worse by a church coverup.
The now-grown man from Chicopee, Massachusetts, identified in court papers as John Doe alleges in the suit filed in Hampden Superior Court that Diocese of Springfield officials, including former Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, engaged in a coverup to protect the reputation of Bishop Christopher Weldon, The Berkshire Eagle reported Tuesday.
Weldon served as bishop from 1950 until 1977. He died in 1982.
Rozanski is now Archbishop of St. Louis.
A former altar boy who says he was sexually abused by a now deceased Roman Catholic bishop has filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for the suffering he alleges was made worse by a church coverup.