A 25-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into a man’s shooting death in Somerville, Massachusetts, in July.
The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office says Jalissa Harding, of Burlingt…
Massachusetts
Brockton High School evacuated after student’s district-issued laptop catches fire
A high school in Brockton, Massachusetts, was evacuated Friday morning after a student’s district-issued laptop caught fire.
Brockton Public Schools says students and staff temporarily had to leave the building, as Brockton School Police…
Man arrested in Christmas Eve killing at Lawrence nightclub held without bail
A man who was arrested nine months after he allegedly killed another man at a nightclub in Lawrence, Massachusetts, pleaded not guilty during a court hearing Friday in which he was ordered to be held without bail.
Franklin M. Laras, 27, a suspect in the Christmas Eve fatal shooting at the Energy Lounge, was arraigned Friday in Salem Superior Court for the murder of 29-year-old Edward Javier-Perez last December.
The U.S. Marshals had announced a $5,000 reward in March for information leading to Laras’ arrest, noting he was considered armed and dangerous.
Laras was taken into custody last month after being detained in Mexico, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities believe Laras fled shortly after the murder, and he remained on the run until he was apprehended in Mexico City and extradited to the United States.
“Today, we offer our sincere gratitude for the tenacity of all those whose efforts aligned to apprehend this defendant,” said Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker. “The return of Mr. Laras to the Commonwealth demonstrates our commitment to justice and to the family of Edward Javier-Perez.”
Laras is scheduled to return to Superior Court for a hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 13. Attorney information wasn’t immediately available.
More on the Lawrence nightclub shooting
Tufts men’s lacrosse players hospitalized following workout led by graduate of Navy SEAL training program
Five Tufts University men’s lacrosse players remain hospitalized following a recent workout led by a graduate of a Navy SEAL training program, according to a spokesman for the school.
About 50 team members participated in the voluntary, 45-minute workout session on campus Monday, according to Patrick Collins, Tufts executive director of media relations. The session was led by a Tufts alum and recent graduate of the BUD/S Navy SEAL training program.
Collins said 12 members of the lacrosse team have been diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, or rhabdo, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is “a serious medical condition that can lead to permanent disability or death.” It occurs when muscle breaks down, often from overexertion, and releases its contents into the bloodstream. Symptoms can appear similar to heat-related illnesses and dehydration. The only way to determine if you have it is through testing.
Five of the student athletes remain hospitalized, Collins said, adding that both the number of confirmed cases and the number of those hospitalized could change.
“Our thoughts are with the players and their families, and we are hoping for their quick return to good health under the care of local medical experts,” Collins said. “Meanwhile, we are closely monitoring the condition of the rest of the team and have postponed all team practice activities until each team member has been evaluated and medically cleared to return to participation.”
Because of the seriousness of the situation, the university said it is appointing an external, independent investigator to conduct a thorough review, “with a goal of taking any steps needed to support the safety of our student athletes.”
The school said they are unable to release additional details until their investigation is complete.
Tufts University, located in Medford and Somerville, has about 6,700 undergraduate students. The men’s lacrosse team won its fourth NCAA title in May, defeating RIT.
Massachusetts high court agrees to review Karen Read case
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has agreed to review the Karen Read case, according to a new court filing.
“I hereby reserve and report this case, without decision, for determination by the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth,” Supreme Judicial Court Justice Elizabeth Dewar wrote in Thursday’s filing. “The parties shall prepare and file in the full court a comprehensive statement of agreed facts necessary to resolve the issues raised by the petition.”
Read the court filing below:
The court set a Sept. 25 deadline for Read’s defense team to file its brief on the case, and prosecutors have until Oct. 16 to file theirs. Defense lawyers will then have until Oct. 25 to respond to the prosecution’s filing. Oral arguments are expected to take place sometime in November.
Read’s legal team filed an appeal last week of Judge Beverly Cannone’s refusal to dismiss two of the three criminal charges against her. You can read their full argument here.
Read, 44, is accused of ramming into her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him for dead during a January 2022 snowstorm. Her two-month trial ended in July when jurors declared they were hopelessly deadlocked and a judge declared a mistrial on the fifth day of deliberations.
Last month, Cannone rejected a defense motion to dismiss several charges, and prosecutors scheduled a new trial for January 2025. But Read’s attorneys appealed that ruling to the Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that trying her again on two of the charges would amount to unconstitutional double jeopardy.
Prosecutors said Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
After the mistrial, Read’s lawyers presented evidence that four jurors had said they were actually deadlocked only on a third count of manslaughter, and that inside the jury room, they had unanimously agreed that Read was innocent of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident. One juror told them that “no one thought she hit him on purpose,” her lawyers argued.
But the judge said the jurors didn’t tell the court during their deliberations that they had reached a verdict on any of the counts.
“Where there was no verdict announced in open court here, retrial of the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy,” Cannone said in her ruling.
Martin Weinberg, a lawyer for Read, said the appeal “raises substantial and, in some respects, unique issues regarding whether she is entitled to the protections of double jeopardy.”
Weinberg said in a statement that five jurors have disclosed that Read was acquitted on two of the charges against her and that no jurors had said otherwise, and therefore there had been no need to declare a mistrial on those two charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More on the Karen Read case and its fallout
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Man accused of killing woman in Roxbury in brutal 1988 stabbing arrested
A Dorchester man accused of killing a woman in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood over 35 years ago is expected to appear in court Friday.
James Holloman, 65, will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court Friday morning on a first-degree murder…
