August 5, 2007
Interesting activities in political campaign expenses for Worcester DA’s candidates; past and present.
Former District Attorney John Conte has been freely spending his political campaign war chest; at the height of his surprised announcement not to seek re-election totaled $278,318.73. Many large donations in his 2007 campaign filings are connected to the Diocese of Worcester, while other minor donations are to youth services and other political candidates.
Several payments listed to Sonitrol, of Dallas, Texas for security amounting to $263.28 have been sent to the Office of Political Finance for review to see if they are within the guidelines of chapter M.G.L. 55 section 18 for residual funds of political candidates.
Newly elected District Attorney Joseph Early Jr., has been spending a rather large amount on a political consultant, Michael Shea. Campaign expense records for June 2007 illustrate a total payment of $5,000 for Mr. Shea. With the 2010 election three years away to spend such a hefty amount on a media consultant appears debatable. DA Early’s, June 2007 contributions generally can be attributed to lawyer’s doing business in Worcester County tallying $20,500.00. Campaign expenses for the same time period amounted to $15,934.71.
Mr. Early campaigned on promises to make juvenile justice a top priority and to improve the lives of all families in Worcester County.
August 7, 2007
Abduction suspect sought by police
BRIMFIELD— State police have released the name and a photograph of the man wanted for allegedly trying to abduct a jogger on Little Alum Road July 21.
Robert R. Burno Jr., 54, is wanted on warrants for annoying and accosting and assault by means of a dangerous weapon. The warrants were recently issued by Palmer District Court.
According to a state police news release, Mr. Burno allegedly drove slowly by the victim several times in his black 1989 Plymouth Horizon hatchback before trying to pin her against the guardrail using the car. The incident happened at 12:15 p.m. in a remote section of town.
Word of the attempted abduction spread via an anonymous e-mail that
alleged the incident was linked to the 2000 case of Molly Anne Bish.
Miss Bish was a lifeguard at Comins Pond in Warren. Police believe
she was abducted from her post and killed June 27, 2000. Her remains
were found three years later on a remote Palmer hillside and the
case remains unsolved.
State police said last week they have made no connection between the
two cases.
August 10, 2007
Defense says client was lost
PALMER— The lawyer for a 54-year-old man accused of assaulting a jogger in Brimfield last month said his client may only have been trying to ask the woman for directions.
Robert R. Burno Jr. was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty to the charges yesterday before Judge Phillip Beattie in Palmer District Court.
State police sought warrants for Mr. Burno on charges of annoying and accosting a person and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after a 20-year-old woman told them the driver of a black car had stared at her, turned around and followed her on Little Alum Road in Brimfield and drove so close that she was sure he was about to grab her..........
While Mr. Burno's former neighbors recalled him as a man with a violent temper, two of his daughters said yesterday their father would never harm anyone.
"He has an alcohol problem, and he will defend himself if he's drinking," Jennifer Burno said. "But he would never, ever, ever hurt anybody."
Ms. Burno said her father never hit his children, and speculation about his possible connection to the disappearance and death of Molly Anne Bish in Warren seven years ago was ridiculous. She acknowledged that her father looks like a sketch of a man wanted in connection with the lifeguard's disappearance, but pointed out that he is not the first about whom that could be said.
August 18, 2007
Guilty plea in murder-for-hire
plot
WORCESTER— Caroline M. Kotoski had very specific instructions for the man she believed to be a killer-for-hire.
The murder of her estranged husband, William Kotoski Jr., was to look like an accident or the result of a robbery, she told the undercover state police officer, who was posing as a hit man named “Harry,” during their Sept. 9, 2004, meeting in the parking lot of a supermarket on Gold Star Boulevard. She also made it quite clear that her two children were not to be present when the killing occurred.
“How come you don’t want this to look like a suicide?” asked the man Ms. Kotoski would soon learn was actually Peter LeDuc, a state trooper assigned to the office of then Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte.
....Ms. Kotoski’s guilty plea came on the day of her scheduled trial. Her lawyers, Mr. Gribouski and Joseph S. Oteri, had filed a notice of their intent to raise an insanity defense on behalf of Ms. Kotoski, who speaks fluent French and Spanish. She attended the University of Maine and Sorbonne University in Paris, before earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. ........
Alison Fife, a psychiatrist who evaluated Ms. Kotoski at Mr. Reilly’s request, would have offered a conflicting opinion, but both mental health experts agreed Ms. Kotoski was suffering from a major mental illness when the murder-for-hire plot was hatched, the prosecutor said yesterday.
September 5, 2007
MWCC president, prosecutors reach deal in hit-and-run
FITCHBURG -- The hit-and-run case against Daniel M. Asquino, Mount Wachusett Community College's president, ended Tuesday with Asquino entering into an agreement with prosecutors.
Asquino, 66, of Cranston, R.I., admitted to sufficient facts in the case, in which he was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with property damage.....
Rice paid more than $800 to repair her car after the accident, not including the money she lost for taking time off work for every court appearance, she said.
"I understand he has all these degrees and everything, but he left me with my 12-year-old daughter after he hit me," Rice told Harbour. "Every time he changes his mind, I miss a day of work."
McLaughlin said in court the accident happened at about 5:30 a.m. on Matthews Street in Gardner.
Rice slowed her Ford Escape to make a left turn into her driveway when Asquino, driving a Toyota Sequoia behind Rice, went over the double yellow lines to pass Rice on the left, McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said the cars collided, leaving damage to Rice's front bumper. Rice followed Asquino to the college and called police to report the accident, according to court records.
Officer Roger Robert wrote in his report about the incident that Asquino displayed a "poor attitude" and took an "uncooperative stance" when he was questioned by police.
September 10, 2007
Renowned lawyer Wendy Murphy releases new book Justice for Some.
Wrapped within this book embrace an exposure of our criminal justice system that has lost it way.
As Attorney Murphy writes “. . . with liberty and justice for all.” Let me repeat that last part for all—not just some.
For those of us who believe justice should be available to all this book is an eye opening exposure to the reality of what our justice system has become.
Attorney Murphy is an ex-prosecutor who specialized in child abuse and sex crimes cases. The first lawyer in the country to run a program to provide free legal services to crime victims, Wendy has been fighting for victims' rights for twenty years.
Attorney Murphy also exposes the corruption within the walls of Worcester that has besieged us during the John Conte regime.
Attorney Murphy took John Conte to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts for failing to perform his elect duty.
The Supreme Judicial Court lambasted Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte for botching the case of a convicted rapist James J. Kelly who never spent a day in prison despite being sentenced in 1988 to 10 years behind bars
``The record provides no plausible excuse for a delay,'' Justice Robert Cordy wrote in the opinion.
The court placed the blame squarely in Conte's lap citing the ``tortured procedural history of the case.''
Attorney Murphy has released a free excerpt from the book or it can be purchased at Barnes and Noble
or Amazon.September 11, 2007
Court’s in session Rave reviews at openingWORCESTER— The new $180 million Worcester Trial Court at the north end of Main Street drew generally rave reviews yesterday as it opened its doors to the public for the first time, albeit on a limited basis.
As part of what will be a gradual transition from old to new, Worcester Juvenile and Worcester Housing courts, two of five local courts that will eventually occupy the new regional justice center at 225 Main St., began settling into their new digs at 9 a.m. yesterday, after a hectic weekend of moving and unpacking..........
The new six-story building, which is wheelchair-accessible, features 26 courtrooms, 14 elevators, separate lockup facilities for juveniles and adults, a marble and glass staircase extending from the center of the first-floor atrium, marble counters and benches, African mahogany woodwork, epoxy-based floors with marble and mother-of-pearl inlays, information kiosks in English, Spanish and Braille and state-of-the-art security, digital recording and climate-control technology, according to Joseph Indrisano, operations and maintenance superintendent.