Authorities ID man arrested after pepper spray incident shut down Woburn court
Authorities identified the suspect involved in a pepper spray incident in the lobby of the Woburn courthouse on Monday morning.
Nicholas Akerberg was identified by the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office as the person arrested after the incident. He is expected to be arraigned virtually on Tuesday at 2 p.m., a spokesperson said.
Woburn Police Chief Robert Rufo Jr. described him as a 28-year-old from Yarmouth Port, according to WCVB. He wore a gas mask and used pepper spray in the courthouse, according to Rufo.
'He began spraying indoors of the courthouse. He was subsequently subdued, arrested and transported to the hospital. Charges are being determined currently,' Rufo told the TV station.
The incident closed the courthouse shortly before noon, but it is scheduled to reopen at 2 p.m., according to the court's website.
The Woburn District Court's website lists several probable disposition hearings scheduled for Monday morning for Akerberg related to various cases. Rufo told WCVB Akerberg was due in court due to a case that originated in Stoneham over a year ago.
It's not immediately clear if there were any injuries reported due to the incident.
A witness said that a court officer told people to evacuate the court and that 'It was very scary,' according to WCVB.
A second witness told the TV station that 'it was like a stampede of people running out the back door' and that someone was pepper-sprayed in the lobby.
Weston High School mourns siblings killed with family in NY plane crash
Charges dismissed due to ex-New Bedford detective's relationship with informant
Recall warning: Don't feed this popular mix to your pets due to salmonella, listeria fears
Westfield Fire Department trains at old rectory
Man arrested in Georgia brought back to Mass. to face domestic violence charges
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Feds say they will retry Illinois state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after jury deadlocked in April
CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that they will retry Illinois state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after a jury in April deadlocked on all counts, leading to a mistrial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri made the announcement during a status hearing before U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood. He also said prosecutors intend to call several witnesses who did not testify at Jones' first trial, though he did not identify them. Jones' attorney, Victor Henderson, asked for time to inform Jones, who was not present in court. The judge did not immediately set a trial date. Jones, 46, a Chicago Democrat and son of former Senate President Emil Jones Jr., was charged with agreeing to take bribes from an executive of a red-light camera company in exchange for Jones' protection in Springfield against legislation that would hurt the company's bottom line. Wood declared a mistrial April 24 after the jury at least twice reported it could not reach a verdict. Before doing so, the judge polled jurors individually to hear about their progress. Afterward, she reported that nearly all of them suggested that no further progress could be made. 'Considering all of the elements and the concern that there could be a prejudicial impact of continuing forced deliberations at this point ... I think it's appropriate at this point to declare a mistrial,' Wood said at the time. The jury of seven women and five men had deliberated for about 24 hours over four days before announcing they were deadlocked. The mistrial came nearly six years after FBI agents confronted Jones at his Roseland neighborhood home as part of a sweeping investigation into bribery schemes involving red-light cameras, liquor licenses and other graft across the west and southwest suburbs. At the heart of the probe was Omar Maani, co-founder of SafeSpeed LLC who agreed to work undercover for federal investigators after being confronted with evidence he was paying off officials in Oak Lawn in exchange for political support to add SafeSpeed cameras at additional intersections. Maani, who was granted a deferred prosecution agreement by the U.S. attorney's office for his extensive cooperation, was the star witness at Jones' trial, testifying for the first time in public about his prolific turn as an FBI mole. That cooperation also has netted the convictions of former Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta, ex-Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Anthony Ragucci, and Jeffrey Tobolski, the former mayor of McCook and Cook County commissioner. According to the charges, Jones agreed to accept $5,000 in campaign funding from Maani in exchange for Jones agreeing not to file a bill calling for a statewide study of red-light cameras, which SafeSpeed considered potentially damaging to its bottom line. Jones also offered to 'protect' the company from his friend, then-state Rep. David McSweeney, who had filed bills of his own calling for an all-out ban of red-light cameras, according to prosecutors. The charges allege Jones also asked Maani to give his former office intern a part-time job, which led to $1,800 being paid to the intern in exchange for no work. _____
Miami Herald
7 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Miami ex-Proud Boy got a get-out-of-jail-free pass. Now he wants to cash in?
Let's get this straight. The ex-Proud Boy leader from Miami, Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and then pardoned by President Trump. And now he's turning around and suing the government, along with four other J6-ers, for $100 million? That certainly puts Trump in an awkward spot. His administration has to either defend the decision made by the Biden administration to prosecute Tarrio and the others, or hand over a hefty wad of cash to settle the case. The timing is lousy, too, with the lawsuit coming just as the president is trying to make the case in Congress for all of those controversial DOGE spending cuts, like cutting food stamps for the poor. Would the government be taking food off the table for the poor while giving money to those who ransacked our Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election? Even worse, what happens in this lawsuit is part of the continuing push by the Trump administration and the Jan. 6 rioters to rewrite the damning history of that day. Maybe they have forgotten, but we cannot: the appalling sight of lawless mobs smashing their way into the Capitol and battling police, erecting a gallows and chanting, 'Hang Mike Pence.' There were seven deaths, including suicides, and 150 police officers were injured. There was damage to the Capitol, where members of Congress fled in fear for their lives. And yet Trump has called the rioters 'political prisoners' and 'hostages.' The lawsuit was filed Friday in Orlando. Tarrio and four others from the far-right militant group claim in their complaint that they were the victims of 'egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump.' The suit claims the men were arrested with insufficient probable cause, the Associated Press said. Rather than simply walking away with the undeserved get-out-of-jail-free passes they received from Trump, who pardoned nearly all of the 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol, Tarrio and the others are trying to cash in. And they're doing it at our expense as taxpayers. Don't forget that Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes on grounds he helped to orchestrate the riot that sought to stop Congress from certifying former U.S. President Joe Biden's win over Trump in 2020. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest sentence for anyone tried for the events of Jan. 6. The other four in the suit are Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola. They each were sentenced to between 10 and 18 years in prison. Biggs, Rehl and Nordean were all convicted of seditious conspiracy. Pezzola, acquitted on the conspiracy charge, was convicted of stealing a police officer's riot shield and using it to smash a window. Trump pardoned Tarrio and commuted the sentences of the others. This legal action comes on the heels of the settlement in the Ashli Babbitt case. The Trump administration has agreed to pay a $4.975 million settlement to the family of the Jan. 6 rioter, who was killed by a Capitol police officer. She was shot while attempting to enter the Speaker's Lobby through a shattered window. That brings up another question: If other rioters seek legal recourse for their prosecutions, how many more suits will the country face? If the U.S. settles the Proud Boy case, how many more cases will be in the pipeline after this? Potentially hundreds. A settlement would also set a bad example in other ways. If other extremists see a lawsuit payout as proof that they have the backing of the Department of Justice or the president, that could embolden them to commit other acts of political violence. And if that happens, so much for Republicans' claim on the label of the 'law and order' party. The rioters broke our precious tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, a critical component of a democracy. We cannot reward that behavior, especially not with hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Click here to send the letter.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Feds say they will retry state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after jury deadlocked in April
Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that they will seek to retry state Sen. Emil Jones III on bribery charges after a jury in April deadlocked on all counts, leading to a mistrial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri made the announcement during a status hearing before U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood. Jones' attorney, Victor Henderson, asked for time to inform Jones, who was not present in court. The judge did not immediately set a trial date. Jones, 46, a Chicago Democrat and son of former Senate President Emil Jones Jr., was charged with agreeing to take bribes from an executive of a red-light camera company in exchange for Jones' protection in Springfield against legislation that would hurt the company's bottom line. Wood declared a mistrial on April 24 after the jury at least twice reported they could not reach a verdict. Before doing so, she polled them individually to hear about their progress. Afterward, she reported that nearly all of them suggested that no further progress could be made. 'Considering all of the elements and the concern that there could be a prejudicial impact of continuing forced deliberations at this point … I think it's appropriate at this point to declare a mistrial,' Wood said at the time. The jury of seven women and five men had deliberated for about 24 hours over four days before announcing they were deadlocked. The mistrial came nearly six years after FBI agents confronted Jones at his Roseland neighborhood home as part of a sweeping investigation into bribery schemes involving red-light cameras, liquor licenses and other graft across the west and southwest suburbs. At the heart of the probe was Omar Maani, co-founder of SafeSpeed LLC who agreed to work undercover for federal investigators after being confronted with evidence he was paying off officials in Oak Lawn in exchange for political support to add SafeSpeed cameras at additional intersections. Maani, who was granted a deferred prosecution agreement by the U.S. attorney's office for his extensive cooperation, was the star witness at Jones' trial, testifying for the first time in public about his prolific turn as an FBI mole. That cooperation also has netted the convictions of former Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta, ex-Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Anthony Ragucci, and Jeffrey Tobolski, the former mayor of McCook and Cook County commissioner. According to the charges, Jones agreed to accept $5,000 in campaign funding from Maani in exchange for Jones agreeing not to file a bill calling for a statewide study of red-light cameras, which SafeSpeed considered potentially damaging to its bottom line. Jones also offered to 'protect' the company from his friend, then-state Rep. David McSweeney, who had filed bills of his own calling for an all-out ban of red-light cameras, according to prosecutors. The charges allege Jones also asked Maani to give his former office intern a part-time job, which led to $1,800 being paid to the intern in exchange for no work. jmeisner@
