New Bedford man arrested for A&B with a dangerous weapon after downtown fight
On Wednesday, April 16, officers responded to a call for a stabbing victim in the area of the Elm Street and Purchase Street intersection, according to a press release.
Upon arrival, the officers were able to determine that an adult man had sustained a severe laceration to his arm and two other minor wounds to his body. The suspect had since fled the scene.
A description was provided to the assisting units, who then began a search of the area.
Shortly thereafter, Officer Jenny Roman located the suspect at the SRTA bus terminal, and the 46-year-old man was taken into custody without incident.
He was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury. The man is currently on probation out of New Bedford District Court.
He has an extensive criminal history with 43 adult arraignments and previous convictions for a variety of offenses including distribution of class B substance, assault and battery, malicious destruction of property, intimidation, and strangulation, according to the press release.
The victim is expected to recover.
The arresting officer was Officer Jenna Touchette
If you have any information you would like to give the police, you can do so anonymously by calling 508-99-CRIME or visiting the police website and leaving a tip.
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedord man with extensive record arrested for AB
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Miami Herald
9 hours ago
- Miami Herald
‘Psychological warfare': Internal data shows true nature of Alligator Alcatraz
A month into his detention at Alligator Alcatraz, Daniel Ortiz Piñeda faced a stark choice: continue his legal fight for asylum or give it up to hopefully put an end to his extended stay at the makeshift immigration detention camp in the Everglades. The Colombian national, with no criminal record, had the right to remain in the country while appealing the 2023 denial of his asylum request. But last week, the 33-year-old asked his attorney to drop his appeal, preferring repatriation to the possibility of indefinite detention. 'He feels like there's nothing here for him now,' Piñeda's mother said in an interview. Stories like Piñeda's have played out repeatedly at the Everglades detention camp. While it was promoted as a place where migrants with heinous criminal histories would be detained and quickly deported, records exclusively obtained by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times show it was largely used during its first month in operation as a holding pen and transfer hub for immigrants who were still fighting their cases in immigration courts. Hundreds, the records note, did not have criminal convictions or pending charges. At the end of July, when the number of detainees at the site was around its peak, only one in five of the roughly 1,400 detainees at the site had been ordered removed from the country by a judge, a Herald/Times review of the records found. That means hundreds of men were being detained there without final adjudication orders, despite Gov. Ron DeSantis' claims to the contrary. The records also show that nearly two out of every five immigrants listed in early July as being detained at the South Florida facility or headed there were still recorded as detainees at the facility at the end of the month. During that stretch, immigration attorneys claimed their clients had little to no access to the courts and were largely forced to communicate about cases over recorded lines. Lawyers also alleged their clients were pressured to abandon their immigration cases — without legal consultation — and agree to be deported. It wasn't until Saturday that lawyers for the federal government said a Miami immigration court had been designated as the responsible venue for handling Alligator Alcatraz cases. The number of people at Alligator Alcatraz fluctuates daily and has dropped drastically since the beginning of the month, as a federal judge weighs whether to shut down the site. But for detainees held throughout July in chain-link cages and tents the uncertainty created mental pressure that their attorneys and families say was worse than the prospect of being deported, even to a country where they fear persecution. 'Putting people in tents in the middle of the Everglades is a great tool to make them give up their cases,' said Mark Prada, an immigration attorney. The Department of Homeland Security, which is in charge of immigrant detainees, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees Alligator Alcatraz operations, did not respond to requests for comment. When the state seized an airstrip in the Big Cypress National Preserve and began constructing a camp to hold thousands of migrants, DeSantis said the site would serve as a 'one-stop' shop for the Trump administration's needs for detention and deportation. Detainees with final orders of removal would be held in tents and quickly deported from an on-site runway, he said. To expedite deportations, DeSantis said qualified National Guard members would work as immigration judges on the site — an idea that President Donald Trump gave a thumbs up to during a July 1 visit. But the plans have yet to be implemented and immigration attorneys have complained for weeks that their Alligator Alcatraz clients have had hearings for their cases routinely canceled in federal Florida immigration courts by judges who said they did not have jurisdiction over the detainees in the Everglades. For hundreds of detainees, that meant weeks of uncertainty living inside tents, where the lights were turned on throughout the day and the only connection to the outside world was often a recorded landline. Attorneys have complained about staff at the facility pressuring their clients to sign voluntary removal orders without consulting an attorney and, in one case, deceiving a detainee with an intellectual disability by telling him he would need to 'sign some paper in exchange for a blanket' — and then deporting him after he had signed it, court filings show. Mark Hamburger, an attorney who has had several clients at the detention camp, said the conditions created a kind of 'psychological warfare' for detainees. 'They're being put to the test,' he said. 'How long can you stand this? A lot of people are folding.' That group of original detainees included Piñeda, who was taken into custody after showing up for a scheduled immigration meeting in Miami Lakes on July 7, according to his family members. 'To have somebody detained like this, pending an appeal, when they have not committed any crimes is unheard of,' said his attorney, Osley Sallent. Piñeda told his family members that when he entered Alligator Alcatraz, the guards told him and other new arrivals, 'As soon as you come in here, you don't have any rights.' It would be days before he could shower, and he said that he hadn't received adequate medical care for an ongoing ear infection and stomach ailment. He was moved to the Glades County Detention Center west of Lake Okeechobee in early August shortly after dropping his asylum appeal. Like Piñeda, the vast majority of detainees in the facility at the end of July had no final order of removal from a judge, according to the new data. That means that the immigration cases for most men at the facility were still ongoing. While the data shows that more than 100 of those detainees had been issued expedited orders of removal – which allows the government to deport them without going through the immigration courts – immigration lawyers said that these can still be appealed in some circumstances, such as when an immigrant is seeking asylum. 'Finality is a big deal,' Prada said. 'If it is not final, there is still a process to be done.' The Herald compared the two datasets, one of roughly 750 detainees from early July and the other of roughly 1,400 people from the end of the month. Reporters also searched for all of the detainees in the first list on ICE's detainee locator system. More than 40% of the 750 detainees in the initial list were sent not out of the country but to other ICE facilities, the Herald found. Another 40% were still at the detention center. Alligator Alcatraz detainees often did not appear in ICE's locator system, the Herald found and the fate of the rest — around 150 detainees — is unclear. Some of them were likely still at Alligator Alcatraz but others may have been deported. The numbers in both data sets are snapshots in time, and fluctuate as detainees enter and leave the facility. On Tuesday, there were just shy of 400 detainees at the Everglades detention camp — far below the roughly 1,500 people the makeshift camp is able to hold. In late July, DeSantis said the federal government had deported about 100 people who were held at the detention camp and that 'hundreds' of others had been transferred to deportation hubs in other parts of the country. The state and federal governments have yet to say if any deportation flights have taken off directly from the site and to foreign soil. Attorneys have welcomed the transfers – which make it easier for them to access their clients and advocate on their behalf. At least two detainees were released on bond last week after they were moved elsewhere, according to their attorneys. One detainee trying to leave the country voluntarily had to be transferred to another facility to be deported. Fernando Eduardo Artese, 63, was one of the first detainees to arrive at Alligator Alcatraz. From the start, he wanted to leave the United States voluntarily, but the process to self-deport was not easy in the weeks he spent at the state-run site, his family said .It was only after he was transferred to the federal Krome immigration detention center in Miami that he was able to begin the process of voluntarily leaving the country. Once at Krome, Artese was deported in less than a week, his daughter, Carla Artese, told the Herald/Times. The Argentinian-Italian was sent to Italy. It's not clear whether the difference between Alligator Alcatraz's promoted and practical uses was intentional or accidental. The facility was built with near biblical speed, completed in only eight days, and from its earliest days, detainees complained of toilets that don't flush, bugs and leaky tents. Attorneys quickly flagged that they had no way to speak confidentially with their clients. A federal judge questioned the facility's operation at a hearing in July for a lawsuit related to detainees' legal access. 'A lot of it looked to me like … a new facility not having their act together or getting up and running in the right way,' U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II said last month in a court hearing. But critics of the facility say that the harsh conditions endured by detainees — and the rhetoric politicians have used to describe the site — are not by accident. DeSantis says reporting about terrible conditions has been inaccurate, but he's in no rush to dispel the narrative. 'Maybe it will have the intent or the effect of deterring people from going there,' the governor said. John Sandweg, the former acting director of ICE during the Obama administration, said the construction and location of the facility makes little sense. It's not near an immigration court or ICE's existing transportation infrastructure. But with backlogs in immigration courts presenting major roadblocks to the Trump administration's stated goal of deporting one million immigrants per year, Sandweg said he believes the purpose of the facility is to encourage undocumented immigrants – whether in custody or not – to bypass the immigration courts and voluntarily leave the country to avoid the possibility of being sent there. 'I think that the real goal of Alligator Alcatraz is to instill fear,' he said. Miami Herald reporter Siena Duncan contributed reporting.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
New Bedford Police open downtown satellite station with community beat cop. What to know.
NEW BEDFORD – Seven-year veteran New Bedford Police Officer Tyler Viera has a new assignment. He's the new the west end community police officer and he'll be walking a beat downtown from his new office – a satellite police station set up in the SRTA bus terminal. Viera, who was selected from among five candidates for the post, is scheduled to begin on Aug. 17. His beat will stretch to Buttonwood Park, and he'll be exclusively on foot patrol. And he's raring to go. 'I'll be around' 'I'm looking forward to this. My goal is to get out here and speak to the community. There are not a lot of people who like to speak to us. But we can just build that relationship and make positive changes and bring trust back. That's important. That's one of the goals. I'm going to focus on that.' He added, 'If anyone wants to speak with me, I'll be around.' New Bedford Police Chief Jason Thody, who is finishing up his first month at the helm of the NBPD, said Viera was a great choice for the position. 'A community police officer is almost like a quarterback. This officer will be exchanging ideas with businesses, and with the folks who come in and out of the bus station here to try to increase quality of life, to try to get anybody who might need assistance the assistance that they may need,' Thody said. Station also provides downtown police visibility The satellite station also provides greater downtown police visibility. 'It's about getting up close and personal where there are issues and working together with folks to solve those issues.' Thody said the process had already begun before he started but he immediately identified it as a priority to implement as soon as possible. In an April meeting with city councilors, downtown business owners and residents were asked what their greatest concerns were. Most said they were concerned with safety and the need for a greater police presence downtown. Viera will work in station, as well as other personnel Thody said Viera will work out of the sub-station, but it can also be used by any department personnel, including area patrol cars. He said Capt. Nathaniel Rodriguez, commander of station 2 district, will work with Viera to determine the best hours of operation. Viera's schedule will vary, but people in need are encouraged to knock on the door when he or another officer is within. Thody added that it is a satellite station, not a full-blown police station open 24/7. SRTA has a memorandum of understanding with the city to provide the space to New Bedford Police. Kristen Sniezek, SRTA deputy administrator, said the space once housed a hot dog stand, and then was used for storage. Arrangement provides mutual benefit 'I think this is mutually beneficial for them and for us to be able to have a presence in an area that could use some attention,' Thody said. Erik Rousseau, SRTA administrator, said, 'It's an exciting opportunity to have a partnership with New Bedford PD, utilize this resource that we had available, and be able to further ingrain both entities in the community and be able to support what's going on downtown.' Department will expand use of power bikes Thody said the department will also be expanding its use of police electric power bikes to promote greater engagement with the community and visibility. The bikes get officers out of their cruisers while still enabling them to respond quickly when needed, he said. Officer Tony Pereira, north end community police officer, uses one of the bikes and says it can reach 40 mph. They're also easy to park and maneuver in and out of traffic, Thody said. 'These bikes are a Swiss Army Knife for community policing,' he said, adding Pereira provided 'a good showcase' of the bike's effectiveness in that role. Working to get 10 more officers bike-certified The department has three of the bikes now. Thody said they will be working to get 10 more officers bike-certified and will seek donations to buy more of the power bikes. 'Then people will start seeing our officers on bikes more often, out where they can engage with the community.' Department filled with 'very caring people' Asked his impression of the department after his first month on the job, the former Hartford, Conn. police chief said, 'What I've found so far is a police department filled with very caring people, most of whom grew up in the city and care deeply about the city.' This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford Police open satellite station in downtown SRTA terminal Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
4 days ago
- New York Post
Hochul pardons ex-con migrants — including one who killed man
ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul has been quietly pardoning migrants with decades-old criminal histories — including at least one who killed another man. The Dem governor recently granted the extreme act of clemency to 13 migrants, including Somchith Vatthanavong, a 52-year-old Laotian man who entered the US illegally and was convicted of manslaughter in 1990, the New York Times first reported. Vatthanavong, who fled to the US after the Vietnam War, claimed to the outlet that he was defending himself during an altercation outside a pool hall when he fatally shot a man. Gov. Kathy Hochul last month quietly pardoned a migrant convicted of manslaughter. Andrew Schwartz/ 'They've paid their debt, and I'll be damned if I let them be deported to a country where they don't know a soul,' Hochul told the Times in defending her decision. 'And to those who would demonize them to score political points, I ask: Where is your compassion?' A convict who is pardoned is freed from prison even if he has time left to serve. In these New York cases, since Vatthanayong and the other recipients were already released, it means they avoid other consequences for their crimes, such as being flagged for deportation. The pardon does not seal or expunge their records. Hochul's pardon rhetoric is a stark pivot from her repeated pledges to work with ICE and other federal authorities to deport criminal migrants. 'There is no sanctuary in New York for people who commit crimes. New York is committed to cracking down on gang members and violent criminals, and State officials cooperate with ICE and CBP in many circumstance,' Hochul's office wrote in a memo before her testimony to the House Oversight Committee defending New York's sanctuary policy earlier this year. Hochul said the migrants she pardoned include several lawful permanent US residents from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and South Africa. It is not clear who besides Vatthanayong may have entered the US illegally. Hochul is now defending pardoning migrants with criminal records, even though she previously said she would work with the feds to deport criminals. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post The governor only revealed the pardons after the Times story ran Friday. 'After careful deliberation, I'm granting clemency to thirteen individuals who have demonstrated remorse for their actions and exemplify a commitment to bettering their communities,' Hochul wrote in the statement on the state's web site. After Vatthanavong's conviction, he had been eventually ordered to be deported by a federal immigration judge, though he was never removed because Laos hasn't cooperated with US deportation proceedings for years. Hochul's office did not say if she intends to continue pardoning migrants in similar situations to Vatthanavong's. It said she's received 84 eligible pardon applications and 186 applications for commutations since the beginning of this year.
