DiMasi.. and others cost our State dearly
The House has paid attorneys representing DiMasi around 378,000 according to the Globe. He even picked the law firm just days before he resigned. Only one Rep has called attention to this latest little secret buried away in the budget.
The 17 year veteran firefighter who was beaten badly by rouge cops who tired to cover up their pitiful actions during his arrest last year, will sue the City of Boston, the cops who beat him on civil rights violations. The firefighter was acquitted of all charges that were leveled against him, resisting arrest, etc etc. The firefighter in black of coarse
Thanks to a drug case here in Mass, the Supreme Court has ruled that defendants in drug and gun cases, should be able to cross examine the states forensic experts. Up to now, prosecutors just present evidence without the defendant being able to cross examine. A dozen or so drug and gun cases have already been overturned and I'll bet, many of the 46,000 drug cases in just 2007, will be appealed. I'm not a lawyer, but I wonder why no one has brought this up before. And in the end, it will cost us big bucks and as we already know, the forensic people have not enough time to have DNA samples tested, let alone, a few grams of coke or pot.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 1:16 PM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
They approved paying for his legal bills? When did that vote happen, and how did the vote on that go down? Find this out for us Jim. DId RIchardson vote for this? This is downright dishonest if you ask me.
Just another example of the cops thinking they are above the law. Nothing new in the attitude, but glad to see someone who also serves the people, a firefighter, is going to take them on. He is not as easy to ignore as some guy with pot in the back of a truck. I hope this goes all the way, and that justice is done and those cops, and the police department, are held accountable.
Frank... we learn today, it was ordered by Deleo to pay the lawyers and is now being looked into more seriously... they've already been paid that much and have an open contract.
And on that subject, a former state employee has agreed to pay a fine of 3K for her role in getting that software company to donate money to DiMasi.
And on top of that, one legislator has asked that the legislature does NOT vote to replace Coakley when she leaves for Washington next month, BECAUSE of the continued investigation into the DiMasi case. He thinks there are more skeletons in the closet.. and I agree, just in time for the elections next year.
I have a great idea. Lets take the money appropriated for Demasi’s defense and use it to pay for insurance for those of us who don’t have it so that they won’t have to pay fines, and they can afford to go to the doctor because they will have insurance. I bet we would still have a whole bunch left over which is a sick testament to the way this state is run.
What happened to that law that the accused has a right to confront all of his/her accusers? Why didn’t that apply to forensic evidence? Jim, do you know if MA was different from other states, or if that is what all states do? Something tells me that we were not playing by the rules, and now we are tying to clean up after our own mess. If that is the case I would bet there will be lots more overturned cases in this state.
You know sometimes I can not get to this blog, and when I send a complaint to blogspot they say it is because there is so much traffic on the blog and I should try back later, and it always works when I try back later. Is there really that many people reading this blog Pillsbury? Anyone else ever have trouble getting to this?
I want to know why I never heard about this before I read it here? Do I live with my head under a rock or is this type of stuff not being widley reported out there?
OB... we are all at the mercy of the media and what they allow us to read. There are dozens of things happening, each and every day, that effect our lives. Today, Saturday, the Senate is debating a huge spending bill and if everyone in the country or state heard what was going on with just that ONE bill.... most would be outraged over the pork and earmarks in the bill, which, will push us into uncharted territory with the largest deficit ever in this countries history.
I do have the time unfortunately, to read everything I can, see everything I can and write about it here. Gone are the days when we wrote an editorial, wait to see if it was censored or cut up and wait another month before we could do it again.
I think, if everyone who is unemployed were mandated to watch CSpan 3 hours a day, Bill Moyers once a week, and read a few web sites dedicated to neutrality and openness, most, if not all, of the elected elite, on both sides, would not be re elected. Few of us can operate at that level of dishonesty and even less of us can get millions of dollars every year for doing such a lousy job.
Our lives are so full of just making ends meet that we have lost the time to educate ourselves to the truth. We have also allowed ourselves to be sucked into working for industries that will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign and lobbying efforts, all to make sure of a seat at the table, when in fact, most of us will never have a voice there.
Can't,
The Drug War and it's advocates made it easier for prosecutors to allow drug evidence into courts, where by the labs would test the drugs to see if they were indeed drugs. The courts would allow the test results to stand as evidence. This has been going on for decades and has only come to light because of a case here in Boston that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
The rub here is that the State would need to have qualified scientific experts be on hand or available to testify at court, which we know now, was and is, so far under staffed, that if they could not produce an expert, cases would have to be dropped.
I'm not sure what happens in other States, but am pretty sure the same practice has been going on there also. But thinks to the Supreme Court, this practice will now end.
Keep in mind, the War on Drugs and the Patriot Act and now the War on Terrorism, have been the three biggest reasons why we have less rights today.
Dylan... I've only seen that message once before. I'm not at all sure how many people spend time on this blog but the provider may have limited server space for multiple readers. Perhaps there's a server expert out there that can fill us in?
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