June 4, 2006
More questionable affairs by Chief Button arise.
By Tim McGuigan, Conte2006.com
I can understand wanting respect and privacy, especially when dealing matters as delicate and potentially damaging as the many rumors surrounding Chief Button’s departure. After all, no one likes getting caught with their pants down. I wonder did he ever concern himself with the privacy of the police officers and dispatchers he blindsided and abruptly dismissed or how his insensitive actions could have affected their families. I doubt it!
Having been kicked once or twice myself, I don’t make a habit of knocking someone when their down, however when I first began submitting to this site, someone who went by the screen name LAWMAN, took it upon themselves to badger me about my departure from Sturbridge. Like many, I’m certain Chief Button’s explanation, coupled with a heavy dose of character assassination was the version he heard.
June 9, 2006
After almost two years of a legal struggle to seek protection for his teenage son and receive accountability for the actions associated with Marlborough Police office James P Gough.
Father and webmaster Paul Pechonis of the Bonuskill.com website has had his criminal charges in Marlborough district court continued for dismissal by District Court Judge Douglas Stoddart.
June 11, 2006
Leominster rape case with many “questions” goes before Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court.
The twenty two year fight for Benjamin LaGuer will now be heard by the highest court in Massachusetts.
For those of us who have remained vigilant on the on goings in the DA’s office, the case of Benjamin LaGuer ranks up there with Bish, Scola, Bar Jonah and now Johnson.
What appears to be even more disturbing is the fact that we are left to believe that the partial print found on the phone of the victim had not been analyzed before trial.
We are to believe that the State police unit assigned to the DA’s Office unknowingly failed to notify or produce the other four fingerprints that were found on the base of the telephone.
June 12, 2006
Many question the "suicide" of Officer Robert D. Morrow Jr.
By Tim McGuigan, Conte2006.com
I wasn’t overly surprised when I picked up the T&G Sunday morning and read the caption ‘Suicide ruling doubted,’ in the case of East Brookfield Police Officer Robert Morrow. Speaking with a former colleague, I was advised that he didn’t believe that “Bobby had killed himself.” He went on to advise that Bobby’s death was the topic of interest at the weekly “part-timers” meeting and that several other officers from the area who were at the scene that night shared his sentiments. “They won’t talk to you he said, you know how it is”
June 13, 2006
Frustrated residents plea for
probe into shooting of officer
Doubt over suicide in East Brookfield
EAST BROOKFIELD— More than 30 residents last night told selectmen they want to call the FBI or pay for an independent investigation into the death of part-time Police Officer Robert D. Morrow Jr. .......
Residents said they do not believe the state police will conduct a thorough investigation of their own officers.
June 18, 2006
By Tim McGuigan, Conte2006.com
If you take a large group of people and apply a specific stimuli, you will get an absolute measurable response; hence “in and of itself man is unpredictable; however in numbers man is totally predictable.” With that being said and reflecting upon what is now being referred to as a “conspiracy theory,” one might ask why or how it came to be that thirty (30) people appeared at a selectman’s meeting to request an independent investigation on the death of Officer Morrow.
To look upon the Town of East Brookfield and reference it as a “stereo typical” small town, is not only shallow, but weak in terms of understanding human behavior.
June 20, 2006
Convicted
rapist deserves a new trial
ERIC GOLDSCHEIDER, Amherst
Now that the
Benjamin LaGuer case is going back to the Supreme Judicial Court,
the Worcester district attorney has seen fit to step forward with a
list of half-truths and outright misrepresentations about the case
(“DA says no evidence withheld in Benjamin LaGuer rape trial,”
Telegram & Gazette, June 10).
The fact is, it took 18 years to release a report showing that four
fingerprints from a key piece of evidence (a telephone, the cord of
which was used to bind the victim) did not match Mr. LaGuer’s.
District Attorney John J. Conte is quoted as saying, “We never knew
about additional prints, nothing was withheld.” He should know
better than anyone that it makes no difference if it is the
prosecutor, the investigating officer or the analyst who knew. The
commonwealth has an ironclad responsibility to disclose potentially
exculpatory evidence.
Mr. Conte falls back on a 2002 DNA test which failed to exonerate
Mr. LaGuer, claiming that it proves Mr. LaGuer’s guilt “to a
mathematical certainty.”
This is hogwash. First, it has no bearing on whether Mr. LaGuer got
a fair trial in 1984. Second, three independent DNA experts have
since reviewed the test concluding that it was unreliable.
In fact, Dr. Theodore Kessis in a letter to state Rep. Ellen Story,
D-Amherst, wrote, “Many instances of DNA testing errors have led to
the false conviction of innocent individuals. It is my opinion that
we have encountered such a case here.”
Mr. LaGuer deserves a new trial. That will be the appropriate place
to fully evaluate the DNA evidence.
June 21, 2006
Inquest judge, grand jury disagree
WORCESTER—The
judge who presided over an inquest into the fatal shooting of
Preston D. Johnson by State Trooper Donald C. Gray found the
trooper’s actions “wanton and reckless,” amounting to “criminal
negligence” that would have supported a manslaughter charge,
according to documents released yesterday in Worcester Superior
Court.
A grand jury has found insufficient evidence, however, to indict the
trooper in the Nov. 30 shooting of the 30-year-old Fitchburg man
after a police chase.
District Attorney John J. Conte confirmed yesterday that a Worcester
County grand jury returned a no bill Monday in the case of Trooper
Gray, who shot Mr. Johnson after he allegedly rammed a cruiser and
drove his SUV at a Fitchburg officer after a police pursuit.
June 22, 2006
Trooper
shooting witness sought
Mystery car likely stopped before incident
FITCHBURG— A
civilian driver who was at the scene when Trooper Donald C. Gray
shot Preston D. Johnson on Nov. 3, 2005, likely has knowledge to
share about the events of that day. He had apparently been stopped
by the trooper just minutes before the fatal shooting and was
allowed to leave, but no record of his name or vehicle registration
has been found by investigators.
The driver of the car that was stopped has never been identified,
and his drinking companion who testified about what he saw that
night claims no knowledge of the man’s name or address. The
passenger also said he wanted nothing to do with the case.
June 26, 2006
Worcester DA John Conte fails to seek justice and protects State Trooper from prosecution.
Judge Grecco's report released
by Tim McGuigan and Mary T. Jean, conte2006.com
Few forms of expression are more damaging then one’s own words. If the motive is clear, then the path to the objective usually becomes obvious. Respective of the fine reporters and the news organizations they represent, a review of news articles as well as the words that District Attorney John Conte sent to the media tells a different story.
A November 29, 2005 Telegram article, reporters state that District Attorney John Conte said he expects the judge's report to determine if someone is "criminally responsible" for Johnson's death.
Then, on December 8, 2005 Conte made an uncharacteristic move and submitted an editorial to the Fitchburg Sentinel. The letter in part states “the inquest is to be used simply as an aid in the achievement of justice by obtaining information as to whether a crime has been committed. Once that information is obtained, then I will decide whether there will be a prosecution.”
July 3, 2006
Thank you, to the Phoenix for their article, The Ninth Annual Muzzle Awards, which outlines the video case prosecution attempt by the Massachusetts State Police orchestrated by Worcester District Attorney John Conte.
MAY FREEDOM LIVE ON! Happy 4th of July to all.
July 9, 2006
Damn the Master not the Puppets:
By Tim McGuigan, Conte2006.com
For those of you who watched the Bish’s on Larry King recently or Nancy Grace several months ago and continue to wonder why the explanation of how Molly came home differs from what CBS / 48hrs reported in 2003, bare in mind, “Nothing takes precedence over finding out who did this to their daughter and if takes endorsing District Attorney John Conte’s version of events in order to ensure that this case continues to remain active, then they have no choice but to do so.”
However, I am in no way indebted to Conte and very much look forward to Worcester County moving forward with a new District Attorney and new detectives to run CPAC. For the record and so there is no longer any confusion about who contacted the State Police, when they were notified, how long it took for them to respond or if “other” law enforcement entities were involved in finding Molly, I offer the following.
Frustrated with our continued efforts, Chief Peter Fullam (North Brookfield) is advised to have me back off and to no longer discuss the case of Holly Pirainnen or Molly Bish with anyone. I am briefed on the directive and further advised by State Police Detective Joe Bleu, that he is no longer permitted to speak with me. State Police Detective Lt. Peter Higgins follows up with a meeting at the Brookfield State Police Barracks, C-3 and on February 22, 2001, Lt. Alfred Lussier issues a memorandum to Trooper Benoit further enforcing and expressing CPAC’s position.