Woman, 66, is the 10th person to die after Massachusetts assisted-living facility fire
Brenda Cropper, 66, died at a hospital Friday, according to Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III. She had been in critical condition all week, he said. Due to a miscommunication, her death for a time this week had been announced prematurely, officials have said.
The fire, which erupted Sunday evening, left some residents hanging out windows of the three-story facility screaming for help.
The cause remains under investigation, but the district attorney's office says it does not appear suspicious. Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon says the blaze started in a room on the second floor.
At least 30 people were hurt as thick smoke and flames trapped residents inside. Records and accounts from staff raise concerns about conditions at Gabriel House before the blaze.
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CBS News
2 minutes ago
- CBS News
Norfolk County sheriff talks rehabilitation in Massachusetts prisons, weighs in on Karen Read case impact
Massachusetts' Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick McDermott is lobbying for federal funding that will help convicts reacclimate into society, saying ultra-harsh conditions in prison are a thing of the past. McDermott said the main role of the sheriff is not just overseeing punishment for crimes but "the care and custody of those individuals in the criminal justice system ... and most of those individuals are dealing with mental health issues as well as substance use disorder." That's why McDermott, in his role as head of the Massachusetts Sheriff's Association, traveled to Washington last March to meet with the President and top Trump administration law enforcement officials to lobby for continued federal funding for programs aimed at helping prepare convicts for their eventual reentry into society. In an interview on WBZ's Sunday edition of "Keller At Large," McDermott said he didn't know yet if budget cuts just passed by Congress will affect those local programs. "We're a little bit nervous because there's a significant amount of money that goes into our medically assisted treatment program that all of the Massachusetts sheriffs were on the cutting edge of years ago," he said. "It's an expensive program, however it is a successful program, and there's been research that shows that medically assisted treatment programs work." While McDermott says he came away from his meetings in March feeling that the importance of this approach was acknowledged, he did note a difference in philosophy with the feds exposed by recent talk of re-opening the long-shuttered Alcatraz federal prison in San Francisco, a cultural symbol of ultra-harsh incarceration policy. "I think that that idea has come and gone. I think that Hollywood, as well as sometimes reality is sensationalized, 'lock them up, throw away the key, don't feed them.' That hasn't worked," McDermott said. He said Massachusetts sheriffs are focused on rehabilitation and reentry. "Yes, we recognize that people are in the criminal justice system for having violated crimes, and there are victims, obviously in these crimes as well. We don't want to be forgetful of that," he said. "But ... these individuals that are coming into our care and custody are coming back to live in Quincy and in Newton and at Wellesley, they're coming back into these communities, so we need to give back a better product than we received, and that's why reentry begins on day one." McDermott also discussed embattled Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey, and the impact of social media on the justice system in the wake of the Karen Read case. McDermott, a former aide to Morrissey at the State House, said he has full confidence in the district attorney. "Mike Morrissey is a man of high integrity," McDermott said. "And I think that when the dust settles on the Karen Read case as well as many other cases that Mike has had to prosecute over the course of his tenure, he will continue to do so, he's going to have to answer to that and answer the people and he's one person that I know can do that." Watch the entire interview in the video player above and join us every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. for more conversations with top local policymakers.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How Massachusetts is training campus police to handle hate crimes in 2025
Last year, a student at Berklee College of Music told a Jewish classmate that 'Jews belong in the oven.' And at Smith College, a spray-painted Israeli flag with a swastika replacing the Star of David was found on campus. The incidents were both part of an increase in antisemitic incidents across Massachusetts, a rise that included college campuses. As campuses work to better address antisemitism and other hate crimes, college administrators and police chiefs from across Massachusetts got a crash course in understanding trauma and how to confront hate through a program designed in part by Massachusetts State Police. The program spanned two days at the state police headquarters in Framingham last week, and comes as college campuses across the state prepare to welcome students back amid crackdowns on higher education from the Trump administration and lingering tension over the war in Gaza. For Massachusetts Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, or MACLEA, President Kerry Ramsdell, the chief of the Endicott College police department, the training couldn't have come at a better time. 'We've seen a lot here in Massachusetts on our campuses, and thankfully, we've done a lot of training and investigating and collaboration already, but it's just sort of continuing to learn and broaden that as we come back,' she said in an interview following the first of 10 modules the program will cover. State police designed the program with experts from the Rutgers University Miller Center on Policing and Community Resilience and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. On the first day of the program, numerous officials from the agencies responsible for setting it up spoke to participants, including state police Col. Geoff Noble and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan. 'We are here to provide any resources that we can, that we have,' Noble told the crowd. 'There are challenging days ahead,' Ryan said, adding that antisemitic incidents surpassed race-based hate crimes in Massachusetts last year. 'But you have the privilege of working in some place where people are there to learn, where they bring really great minds together.' 'You, as part of that institution, can address these problems,' Ryan added. The state's Executive Office of Public Safety and Security documented 466 hate crimes in Massachusetts last year, down from 561 the year before. But incidents of religious bias went up, with 153 documented in 2024. Of the 153 incidents involving religious bias, 85% reflected anti-Jewish bias, according to the state's data. The Anti-Defamation League gave multiple Massachusetts colleges a failing grade for their handling of antisemitic incidents in 2023. In 2024, the organization bumped up the institutions' grades, but indicated more work needed to be done. On Thursday, much of the first module, led by Robert Czepiel Jr., a former prosecutor in New Jersey, and Brian Christensen, a former hate crimes investigator there, focused on defining trauma and hate crimes for the roughly 100 participants. Christensen and Czepiel emphasized that not all hate incidents rise to the level of a crime, particularly given freedom of speech. 'When you're dealing with hate crimes, you gotta go that extra step,' Christensen said. 'To prove a hate crime is very difficult. You would have to prove that person did it because of one of the protected characteristics.' As an investigator, Christensen preached being proactive, trying to step in before incidents of hate rise to the level of a crime. He also stressed the importance of creating relationships in the community, which Ramsdell, the Endicott chief, said was one of the key lessons her department learned amid student protests in the spring of 2024 over the war between Israel and Hamas. There is a lot of work any department can do before reacting to an incident, she explained. 'Building those trust factors and building those relationships on our campuses and outside ... to help support that if we did react or have something, it would all be about that sort of collaboration is a lesson learned,' Ramsdell said. While Ramsdell acknowledged it can be difficult to get students to the table, she said engaging directly with them is a major part of the job. Campus law enforcement officers are trained to go meet and interact with students from the first year they're on campus, rather than waiting for them to come to the department, she explained. 'That's the unique part of our campus law enforcement culture, is that we sort of do that, but I think it's still evolving. It's not perfect and I don't think anyone has the perfect answer to it,' she said. Tufts University Police Capt. Mark Roche, the organization's vice president, said simply, the standard is to be a human first. 'Establish those relationships before the crisis, so that you're not working to establish those relationships and try to build that trust while there's an ongoing crisis,' he said. 'We're all just lifelong learners.' More Higher Ed Did the Defense Dept. cancel a grant to Harvard, then pay it anyway? Harvard extends hiring freeze, says Trump actions could cost school $1B a year Trump admin halted Harvard grant, but Defense Dept. still paid it, court docs say Student loans just got riskier and more expensive. Here's how A reckoning: Trump's attacks are inspiring self-reflection in higher ed Read the original article on MassLive.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Father of vindicated Karen Read warns concerned Americans 'the next Karen Read could be you' in new interview
Karen Read's father, Bill Read, opened up about his family's experience throughout her three-and-a-half-year legal saga in a candid new podcast interview. His 45-year-old daughter faced murder and other charges in the Jan. 29, 2022, death of her then-boyfriend, John O'Keefe, a Boston cop whom prosecutors alleged she mowed down with a Lexus SUV and left to die in a blizzard. The defense argued that she had never struck him, police had conducted a faulty investigation, and someone else had killed him. After a mistrial, jurors the second time around found her not guilty of all homicide-related charges and found her guilty of driving under the influence of liquor. Speaking with Billy Bush on his live show, "Hot Mics with Billy Bush," the elder Read said he believes his daughter had been the target of a corrupt investigation from the start and that she wouldn't have put up such a fight if she had had something to hide. "I can tell you, as a parent, no parent, no loved one, no significant other in this life should go through what my wife and I and our daughter have gone through these three and a half years, so I say to everyone out there, take back your government," Read said. "If you don't like what your leaders are doing in the criminal justice system, get them out. Take back your government, because the next Karen Read could be you." The younger Read and O'Keefe spent the night of Jan. 28, 2022, drinking in Canton, Massachusetts. They went to two bars before driving to an after party at the home of another Boston cop named Brian Albert. Prosecutors and the defense disagree about what had happened after they had gotten there just after midnight. At around 6 a.m., Read and two friends returned to the address to find O'Keefe dead on the front lawn under a dusting of snow. Police initially charged her with drunken driving manslaughter and fleeing the scene, but prosecutors later secured an indictment for the more serious charge of second-degree murder. Jurors ultimately cleared her of all of those allegations but agreed that she had drunk alcohol before getting behind the wheel. "We're very close. She is very candid. She's very truthful, and had she hurt John O'Keefe, she told me, she said, Dad, 'If I thought I hurt him, I'd own up to it. . . . But I did not strike him,'" the elder Read told Bush. "And I believed her." If you don't like what your leaders are doing in the criminal justice system, get them out. Take back your government, because the next Karen Read could be you. Plus, he said, the state's case was unconvincing and weak. "When you just look at the evidence, the wounds to the body, the lack of damage to the car, and then couple that with the physics, the science, the medical testimony..." he said. He took particular issue with the autopsy photos, and he said that's what had prompted her to reach out to attorney Alan Jackson, the Los Angeles lawyer who added a jolt to her legal team at trial. "Karen Read is the engine, the transmission in this bus. She's the fifth attorney," her father said. Imagine waking up every day in your 70s for 3 1/2 years knowing the people elected to serve you and assigned to protect you are trying to put your daughter in prison for life for something she did not do. That was Bill Read's reality. Read, who went up to every sidebar with her lawyers at trial, already had a prominent Boston-area attorney, David Yannetti, when she brought in Jackson and Elizabeth "Liza" Little. For her second trial, she also added New York's Robert Alessi. Bush also asked Read about his own relationship with O'Keefe. Could he have seen him as a son-in-law if things got that far? "I can't say that," he said, adding, "I liked the man." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB They really bonded over sports, he said. "I saw John O'Keefe as really an athlete," he said. "You could see his style throwing the football with him. You could see he had it in his blood." He also said that his daughter can't have kids of her own but crafted a bond with O'Keefe's niece and nephew, whom he had adopted after their parents died. SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER "Karen was never going to be able to biologically have children, and I'm not sure that she would be necessarily one that would willingly embrace children. But those two children, she saw as an opportunity to provide a female presence in their life," he said. O'Keefe's niece testified against his daughter at trial and is a plaintiff in the family's wrongful death lawsuit against her. But jurors still found too many holes in the state's case. "Imagine waking up every day in your 70s for 3 ½ years knowing the people elected to serve you and assigned to protect you are trying to put your daughter in prison for life for something she did not do," Bush told Fox News Digital. "That was Bill Read's reality." Read received a year of probation for the drunken driving conviction. She is still facing a wrongful death lawsuit from O'Keefe's family, which her civil defense team asked the court to dismiss earlier this month. The case prompted the residents of Canton, Massachusetts, to demand an independent audit into their local police department, which found no evidence of a "conspiracy to frame" Read but faulted local police for a series of mistakes, including failure to photograph the victim's body before it was moved, failing to lock down the crime scene and conducting witness interviews outside of headquarters. State police also launched an internal probe into the lead homicide detective, Michael Proctor, who was fired for sharing confidential information with civilians outside of law enforcement and drinking on the job. He is appealing his dismissal. There was also a federal grand jury empaneled in the case, and one of the jurors pleaded guilty to leaking secret information earlier this week.
