‘An honest mistake’: Former state senator Steve Buoniconti steps down as Hampden County retirement board lawyer after flap over audit
Updated Mar 03, 2021;
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Former state Sen. Stephen Buoniconti has left a longtime post as legal counsel for the Hampden County Regional Retirement Board amid a flap over a recent state audit portraying the board as a poorly managed trough for political insiders.
Buoniconti, of West Springfield, is a former prosecutor turned state representative, turned state senator who has been living quietly as a Beacon Hill lobbyist since losing a bid for Hampden District Attorney in 2010. The onetime legislator said Monday that he stepped down from his position with the retirement board Friday, after 15 years, days after the board said it planned to terminate its agreement for legal counsel.
Cathedral High School graduate finds validation after Springfield diocese hears her sexual abuse claim against late Rev. Karl Huller
Updated Feb 12, 2021;
Posted Feb 12, 2021
The late Rev. Karl Huller s photograph is seen in a screen capture from the website for St. Michael s Cathedral in Springfield, where he once served as rector and a meeting room at the Bishop Marshall Center was once named in his honor. In 2004, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield settled claims by two men who alleged they were sexually abused by Huller as students at Cathedral High School. In December 2020, the diocese accepted as credible a third survivor s claim that she was also sexually assaulted by Huller as a student there in the 1960s.
More than 4,700 OUI defendants in Worcester County may be eligible for a new trial because of breath test evidence issues
Updated Feb 10, 2021;
Worcester County defendants charged with operating under the influence of alcohol based on breath tests conducted over the last decade may be entitled to new trials, Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said on Wednesday.
More than 4,700 Worcester County defendants will receive letters in the mail alerting them about the possibility of having their cases re-examined because of “problems with Breathalyzer evidence,” Early said.
Breath tests between 2011 and 2018 used in criminal trials were declared to be inadmissible evidence in a Northwestern district attorney decision announced on Monday. The letters from the trial court were sent to OUI defendants in Worcester County this week, officials said.
‘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.
West Springfield police charge Felix Gonzalez with dealing heroin from Hampden Street residence
Updated Jan 20, 2021;
WEST SPRINGFIELD - Police charged a Hampden Street resident with drug charges Tuesday after a drug raid on his home resulted in the discovery of cocaine and heroin packaged for street sales and more than $3,700 in cash
Felix Luis Gonzalez of 134 Hampden St. is charged with possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to distribute, and distribution of cocaine. Each charge is listed as a subsequent offense.
Gonzalez was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon after police executed a search warrant on his residence. The warrant was the result of an investigation over several weeks by the West Springfield narcotics bureau, the Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force, and the Hampden District Attorney’s Task Force.