In October, 2018, a motorcyclist was involved in a traffic accident and ended up injured in the median of a roadway. A Chicopee police officer came upon the scene and began to check on the well-being of the motorcyclist while calling for medical aid. The motorcyclist wanted no part of any interaction with the officer trying to render assistance. That desire presumably was a function
From Jim Russell | Special to The Republican November 9, 2020 GRANBY – An arbitrator on Wednesday determined the Selectboard lacked justification to suspend, without pay, the town’s former fire chief, John Mitchell, while he was still an employee earlier this year. The Selectboard’s office has not responded to a request for comment. “The Town is hereby ordered to immediately rescind the suspension, remove all
From masslawyersweekly.com By: Pat Murphy October 22, 2020 Lawyers who defend police accused of misconduct are alert to the potential impact that the death of George Floyd and other alleged cases of officers using excessive force against minorities could have on their own clients’ cases. “You are always concerned about the public climate and how it affects any case,” says Leonard H. Kesten, a Boston litigator who
In 2018, the plaintiff amended his complaint in an existing civil rights lawsuit to name two Waltham police officers as defendants. In the amended complaint, the plaintiff alleged that he was defamed by the police officers’ filing of false police reports about him, that one of the officers sought a criminal complaint against the plaintiff without prior notice or respecting his right to a show
In a recent arbitration award, Reardon, Joyce & Akerson, P.C. (“RJA”) successfully represented a Springfield police officer in connection with a five day suspension. Prior to the five day suspension, the officer, who was not at that point a member of the Massachusetts Police Association Legal Defense Fund, had been suspended from his duties based upon various allegations, including that the officer had not been
In the case of Commonweatlh v. Maguire, 476 Mass. 156 (2017), the Supreme Judicial Court addressed the elements of the felony crime of Open and Gross Lewdness and Lascivious Behavior under G.L. c. 272, §16. Based upon a failure to prove that the defendant’s conduct of exposing his penis to several females sitting on a bench at the Hynes Convention Center subway platform produced either
Recently, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the amendment in 2003 of the Commonwealth’s drunk driving law, G.L. c. 90, § 24, did not provide a reason for it to reverse its decision in Commonwealth v. Brazelton, 404 Mass. 783 (1989), that there is no right to counsel when a suspect must decide whether or not to take a breathalyzer to test whether they were
In a recent First Circuit decision concerning civil liability for police supervisors, Saldivar v. Racine, 818 F.3d 14 (2016), Reardon, Joyce & Akerson, P.C. (“RJA”) successfully represented the Fall River Chief of Police in a civil rights lawsuit in which the plaintiff, who sought $750,000.00 in damages, claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by a Fall River police officer. According to the plaintiff,
In Commonwealth v. Alleyne, ___ Mass. ___ (2016), the Supreme Judicial Court clarified that police officers do not need a suspect’s permission to record the suspect’s interview as long as the suspect has actual knowledge of the recording. The Court recommended that police departments do away with their interview forms that advise a suspect of a right to refuse recording and that require the suspect
