NBC10 Boston’s Mary Markos got a chance to sit down with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday, who hit on a variety of topics, including the ongoing Steward Health Care crisis, why she thinks former President Donald Trump won’t deb…
Massachusetts
Child falls from 3rd-floor balcony, Revere police say
Police in Revere, Massachusetts, say a child was hospitalized Wednesday after falling from a balcony.
The incident happened on Shirley Avenue. Revere police say a 5-year-old boy fell from the third story.
The boy was brought to Massachusett…
Gourmet cheese shop specializing in charcuterie boards opening North of Boston
[This story first appeared on Boston Restaurant Talk.]
A food service business and caterer that is known in part for its cheeses is going to be opening a storefront in the northern suburbs of Boston.
According to a poster within the Fr…
Homeowner injured, garage destroyed by explosions, fire in Gloucester
One person was injured in a fire and a series of small explosions that destroyed a garage filled with flammable materials Wednesday morning in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Gloucester Fire Chief Eric Smith said in a press release that his department was called to a home on Marina Drive shortly after 10:30 a.m. for a report of a structure fire. When they arrived, they found a two-story, single-family home with an attached garage fully involved in flames.
A resident of the home had already gotten out on their own, but had suffered injuries and was taken by ambulance to Beverly Hospital for treatment.
Firefighters knocked down the main body of the fire before entering the garage to keep the flames from spreading to the attached home, Smith said. He said several flammable containers and an oxygen tank burned inside the garage, causing what appeared to be small explosions as the gases vented and fueled the fire.
The main body of the fire was knocked down by 11:09 a.m., and the blaze was fully under control by 11:20.
“Crews did an outstanding job attending to the victim and knocking the fire down quickly,” Smith said. “We’re hoping his injuries are minor and that he is released soon.”
The garage is a total loss, Smith said, but the rest of the home suffered only smoke damage. The family that lives there will be displaced, but told authorities they have family in the area who they can stay with until they are able to return to their home.
Rockport firefighters covered Gloucester stations while their firefighters battled the blaze, and eventually responded directly to the scene to provide additional manpower.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but fire officials said it appears that welding might have been involved.
More Massachusetts stories
‘A civil matter’: Does Mass. law need to change to hold bad contractors criminally accountable?
Watch this story tonight on the NBC10 Boston News at 6.
Across Massachusetts, we’ve seen an endless collage of abandoned holes in the ground, unfinished projects, and expensive homeowner headaches since launching our “To Catch a Contractor” investigative series.
During that statewide tour, a common theme has emerged. Upon losing thousands of dollars, consumers often attempted to report their situations to local law enforcement.
“It’s a civil matter,” was the response homeowners told us they received the majority of the time.
Those exchanges were recounted again and again during our interviews with customers of a pool contractor who left a wake of unfinished projects; a paver eventually convicted of taking deposits and never doing the job; a contractor who became the focus of a private social media group; and a nurse practitioner moonlighting on home improvement projects.
To people who lose thousands of dollars in hard-earned savings, the experience can certainly feel like a crime.
So why is it that authorities often don’t view the scenarios as criminal matters?
In Massachusetts, the way the statute is written, prosecutors have to prove a contractor never intended to finish a project.
More from the ‘To Catch a Contractor’ series
Accepting a deposit and disappearing can be an open-and-shut larceny case. However, the legal hurdle is trickier once a shovel digs into the ground or a hammer hits a nail.
“How do you get into somebody’s head? How do you prove that was actually their intent at the time of the receipt of the money?” said Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz. “That’s a challenge.”
It’s a challenge Cruz’s office will be taking on with pool contractor Steven Docchio.
After our investigation detailed a path of destruction across Massachusetts, a grand jury indicted Docchio last year with a long list of criminal indictments.
The contractor is currently out on bail and awaiting trial. At his arraignment last July — which featured a number of animated moments in the courtroom — Docchio told the judge the case did not belong in criminal court.
“These are contractual, civil things,” he said.
Have a tip for the NBC10 Investigators? Email us at tips@nbcboston.com.
We took the issue to NBC10 legal analyst, Michael Coyne, who is dean at the Massachusetts School of Law.
“Your series has revealed how widespread this problem is,” Coyne said. “To me, it’s fixable with a different statute. If you have to prove the person’s intent to defraud at the time they took the deposit, that is almost a nonstarter in all these cases.”
Indeed, numbers we obtained from the Massachusetts Trial Court paint a bleak picture. The charge most often associated with home improvement projects gone wrong is “larceny by false pretense.”
Since 2020, figures show there have been 939 cases filed with a larceny by false pretense charge.
Over that same time period, only 166 cases have been disposed with a larceny by false pretense charge. That’s a rate of less than 20% (note: more recent cases are likely still pending in court).
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Coyne said instead of trying to change the existing larceny by false pretense language, there should be a new “home repair fraud” statute implemented.
“Change the statute. Don’t make it a question of intent,” Coyne said. “Do the facts indicate that the consumer’s money was in essence stolen from them? And if it was, then the criminal courts should be of much more assistance in trying to bring recovery in these cases.”
Some of our reporting for this series has already prompted results on Beacon Hill, including proposals for stronger background checks, and raising the cap on a state fund that helps homeowners recoup money if they get ripped off by registered contractors.
Homeowners we spoke with repeatedly said they hope lawmakers take a closer look at whether the current statute adequately protects consumers.
“It’s unfortunate we don’t have stronger laws in Massachusetts that can stop some of this from happening,” said Kate Merritt-O’Toole, a Framingham homeowner who organized a group of victims that lost money to the owner of a paving business.
“Someone has robbed me,” said Rose Khnaizir, a Stoughton homeowner who lost $25,000 on a failed pool project. “And the law is not there to protect me.”
Suspect arrested in fatal shooting outside of Lynn Market Basket held without bail
The 18-year-old man arrested in the Dominican Republic in connection with a fatal shooting at a Market Basket parking lot in Lynn, Massachusetts, last month was held without bail on Wednesday.
The shooting happened on June 15 on Federal Street, Lynn police said, where 17-year-old Kai Burgos was found shot inside of a crashed car.
Burgos was taken to the hospital, where he died.
A month later, Adrian Pena was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in the Dominican Republic, according to the Essex District Attorney’s Office.
Pena, who faces a murder charge, will have a probable cause hearing next month.
