Tag: massachusetts

Massachusetts Man Arrested for Vandalizing Pro-Trump Sign With a Swastika

A Massachusetts man has been arrested for vandalizing a pro-Trump sign with a swastika.

The sign sits along Route 3 in Cohasset.

Frederic Laidlaw, 74, was visited by police at his home on Thursday. When they arrived, he reportedly said, “Guilty,” and asked, “What took you so long?”

The Cohasset Police wrote in a post on X, “LAIDLAW will be arraigned on a felony charge of defacement of property in violation of MGL. The AGs Office, Civil Rights Division, has been notified of the arrest. Investigation remains open.”

According to a report from Breitbart News, the sign belongs to Kevin O’Donnell, who is chair of the Cohasset Republican Town Committee.

“I just thought we were above that. I just thought that wouldn’t occur in this election, or any election — there’s no Nazis in America,” O’Donnell said.

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Whistleblower Reveals Trans-Identified Male Had Been Admitted To Women’s Rehab Unit In Massachusetts And Sexually Harassed Female Patients

A whistleblower has come forward to reveal that a trans-identified male was allowed on an all-female addictions rehabilitation unit at Massachusetts’ Behavioral Health Network (BHN), leading to the sexual and physical harassment of female patients.

John*, a veteran of the Marine Corps, is a rehabilitative specialist who worked at BHN for just over one year beginning in June of 2023, and worked with patients on multiple units within the BHN care center. One, known as New View, was an all-female unit intended for women under Massachusetts’ Section 35 – a mandatory rehabilitation order.

“You can [admit] yourself, but usually a spouse or family member goes to the courthouse and tries to section you. You have to be ‘a danger to yourself or others’ and a judge makes the final decision,” John explains, adding that even he didn’t feel comfortable being assigned to the unit due to concerns for the dignity of the women there.

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Massachusetts Governor Uses Emergency Powers To Fast-Track Sweeping Gun-Control Law

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has signed an emergency preamble to the state’s sweeping gun control bill, fast-tracking its implementation and halting an ongoing effort by gun rights activists to delay its effects.

The law, H.4885, was originally scheduled to take effect on Oct. 23, or 90 days after Healey signed the bill in July, but her decision to proceed with signing the emergency preamble means it goes into effect immediately.

Under Massachusetts law, governors have the authority to issue an emergency preamble to expedite legislation when “the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or convenience” is deemed necessary.

The law’s expedited enactment was praised by gun control groups but sharply criticized by gun rights advocates, who had hoped to gather enough signatures to delay its implementation until a potential 2026 referendum.

H.4885 expands Massachusetts’ already strict gun regulations, in part as a response to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which affirmed an individual’s right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

The expedited law includes provisions banning untraceable “ghost guns,” expanding restrictions on “assault-style” firearms and large-capacity magazines, and tightening the state’s “red flag” rules. It also mandates that firearm license applicants pass a standardized safety exam and complete live-fire training, while also providing mental health information to local licensing authorities.

“This gun safety law bans ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme Risk Protection Order statute to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others, and invests in violence prevention programs. It is important that these measures go into effect without delay,” Healey said in an Oct. 2 statement to media outlets.

The governor’s decision to fast-track the law has drawn swift condemnation from gun rights organizations. Tody Leary, owner of Cape Cod Gun Works and a leader of the grassroots Civil Rights Coalition, sharply criticized the move, accusing Healey of bypassing the democratic process.

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South Shore cult ‘elder’ guilty of child rape to serve at least 30 years in prison

A leader of a South Shore religious sect will spend at least 30 years in prison after he was found guilty last month of raping and abusing two girls in the “tribe,” officials said.

Nehemyah Smith, 37, was convicted of all 25 charges last month, including 12 counts of aggravated child rape and multiple counts of indecent assault and battery. 

Smith was sentenced in Fall River Superior Court Wednesday to 13 to 18 years in prison for rape and child rape charges. He will then serve 17 to 22 years for aggravated child rape charges with a ten year age difference, according to the court clerk.

Smith, of Plymouth, was a “trusted elder” within the Twelve Tribes, an international religious organization led by men where families give up their possessions and live communally, according to court records. The known abuse took place between 2016 and 2020. 

The Twelve Tribes has communities in Milton, Raynham, Hyannis, and Plymouth, where members run a restaurant called the Yellow Deli. Smith’s victims were abused in all of those towns except Plymouth, according to court documents.

The group’s website describes it as “an emerging spiritual nation” whose members aim to live like the early disciples and follow the Old and New Testament. 

An investigation from the Denver Post in 2022 described the Twelve Tribes as a cult that exploits members, pushes racist, misogynistic, and homophobic teachings, and fails to protect children from sexual abuse.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, said Twelve Tribes is a white supremacist cult that extensively beats children who misbehave and believes that homosexuality should be punished by death.

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Illegal migrant accused of raping Nantucket pre-teen child went free on bail before ICE could nab him

Local authorities in Massachusetts allowed an illegal migrant accused of raping a pre-teen child to walk free on bail — and never called immigration authorities, according to a shocking report from ICE.

Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, 28, was charged on July 26 on the wealthy island of Nantucket with one count of rape of a child with a 10-year age difference and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, authorities said.

Three days later, he was released on bail by Nantucket District Court.

ICE officers ultimately arrested Aldana-Arevalo on Sept. 10 after tracking him down.

He is in federal custody awaiting his day in immigration court.

ICE Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons called Aldana-Arevalo’s alleged crimes both “detestable and disturbing.”

“He represents a significant danger to the children of our Massachusetts communities. ERO [ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations] Boston will not tolerate such a threat to the most vulnerable of our population. We will continue to prioritize the safety of our public by arresting and removing egregious noncitizen offenders from our New England neighborhoods,” said Lyons.

Aldana-Arevalo made his way to the island of Nantucket after sneaking into the US from El Salvador.

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REVEALED: The northeastern state that won’t tell voters about its ‘secret’ $1 billion spend on migrants

Massachusetts Republicans have demanded the state’s Democratic leaders come clean on their alleged ‘$1 billion in secret migrant crisis spending.’

The Bay State’s GOP filed public records requests asking Gov. Maura Healey’s administration to provide a detailed breakdown of spending on shelters, meals and other costs.

The request comes as Massachusetts scrambles to accommodate the roughly 50,000 non-legal migrants who’ve entered the state since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.

The Boston area has in recent weeks been roiled by outrage, after Stoughton school district cut bus services to local kids but kept them running for young migrants living in shelters.

Against this troubling backdrop, Amy Carnevale, the state’s GOP chairwoman, demanded that Healey come clean about how taxpayer dollars were being spent.

Her ‘administration has shrouded nearly $1 billion spent in secrecy, leaving Massachusetts residents in the dark,’ Carnevale said.

‘They have withheld critical information on 600 incidents involving police, fire, and EMT.’

When reporters asked questions about migrant costs, Healey’s team was ‘blocking them at every turn,’ said Carnevale.

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Shall Not Be Infringed: Massachusetts Supreme Court Strikes Down Switchblade Knife Ban

The Massachusetts Supreme Court on Aug. 27 struck down the state’s ban on carrying switchblade knives, finding the prohibition violates the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

The case was brought by David Canjura, who was arrested in 2020 after a domestic dispute and charged with carrying a dangerous weapon in violation of the switchblade ban following a search by officers.

Canjura said he knew that carrying the knife violated the law but filed a motion to dismiss the charge, arguing that the ban violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms. A judge denied the motion, leading to an appeal that reached the state’s high court.

Massachusetts officials did not identify any historical bans on switchblades or their historical analogue, pocketknives, justices said on Tuesday. That means the ban is not allowed under a test outlined in a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

“The commonwealth does not identify any laws regulating bladed weapons akin to folding pocketknives generally, or switchblades particularly, in place at the time of the founding or ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Serge Georges wrote for the unanimous court. “Accordingly, the commonwealth has not met its burden of demonstrating a historical tradition justifying the regulation of switchblade knives.”

The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has also found that the right to bear arms includes items such as stun guns. In one decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, justices said that “arms” refers to “weapons of offense, or armor of defense” and “any thing that a man wears for his defense, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another.”

The Massachusetts Supreme Court said that the Second Amendment covers knives, citing the historical use of knives for defense throughout U.S. history.

“In short, folding pocketknives not only fit within contemporaneous dictionary definitions of arms—which would encompass a broader category of knives that today includes switchblades—but they also were commonly possessed by lawabiding citizens for lawful purposes around the time of the founding,” Georges said. “Setting aside any question whether switchblades are in common use today for lawful purposes, we conclude switchblades are ‘arms’ for Second Amendment purposes. Therefore, the carrying of switchblades is presumptively protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment.”

Under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, government officials must, when facing a challenge to a regulation implicating the Second Amendment, provide proof the regulation is consistent with the nation’s history of restrictions.

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Massachusetts shuts down 12-year-old’s ice cream stand supporting special needs kids

A boy from Norwood, Massachusetts, has gotten creative after town officials shut down his ice cream stand, citing a food code violation.

Danny Doherty, 12, and his mother, Nancy Doherty, began a small stand in their neighborhood with some profits going to a charity that hits close to home for them.

After only one week, they had to stop the sales of their homemade ice cream.

“I think the most disappointing part of that was that someone, one of our neighbors, somebody driving by, decided to take time to complain about a kid’s stand,” Nancy Doherty told Fox News Digital.

“I was really not mad. I’d say more disappointed that [it] happened,” she added. 

When her son became bored during summer vacation, Nancy Doherty gave him the idea to start an ice cream stand and donate half the proceeds to charity.

“I suggested to him, ‘Instead of a lemonade stand, if you really want to generate some interest, why don’t you make ice cream?’” the mom said, noting that her family makes their own ice cream at home.

Danny Doherty loved the idea and worked with his mom to come up with various flavors for his “Tree Street Treats” stand.

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Massachusetts bill aims to remove gendered language from birth laws to ‘ensure legal parentage equality’

A new bill making its way though the Massachusetts legislature aims to remove all mentions of “mother” and “father” and replace them with gender-neutral alternatives. Proponents of Bill H.4750 have argued that it will “ensure legal parentage equality.”

Should the bill be signed into law, all instances of the traditional terms for the male and female individuals necessary to bring a life into the world will be erased from the “Return and Registry of Births, Marriages, and Deaths” chapter of the state’s General Laws, with “person who gave birth” and “parent” taking their place. “Paternity” and “a man and a woman” are also replaced by “parentage” and “persons,” respectively.

Also on the chopping block are terms such as “his” or “hers.” Instead, the document would say “their” regardless of which parent was being discussed, or “the defendant’s” during legal proceedings related to the child. A line which currently reads, “father unless he is or was the mother’s husband” would be changed to “parent unless they are or were the spouse.”

The legislation was passed by the state House on June 12 and sent to the state Senate, both of which are dominated by Democrats. It is currently being reviewed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

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Pregnant woman who accused three cops of sexually abusing her as teen may have been killed — despite initial suicide finding: pathologist

A pregnant Massachusetts woman who accused three cops of grooming and sexually abusing her as a teenager did not commit suicide and may have been killed, a high-profile pathologist hired by her family has claimed.

Sandra Birchmore’s death had been ruled a suicide by a state medical examiner after the 23-year-old was found hanging in her Canton apartment back in February 2021.

The medical examiner and investigators had said at the time that the young woman’s autopsy — which also determined she was three months pregnant — had shown no evidence of foul play.

But former New York City chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by her family amid an ongoing civil legal battle against the three cops, has since rejected those findings, the Boston Globe reported.

“I must disagree,” Baden wrote in a June 18 letter to a lawyer for Birchmore’s estate.

“Ms. Birchmore did not die of suicidal hanging … The cause of Ms. Birchmore’s death is ‘Strangulation’ and the manner of death is ‘Homicide.’”

Baden said the extent of Birchmore’s injuries, as well as the placement of a ligature found on her body, were among the reasons for his determination.

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