Latest news with #MassachusettsSupremeJudicialCourt
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Mass. DCF seeks to block names of lawyers, others in Harmony Montgomery custody hearing
A Massachusetts agency aimed at keeping children safe from abuse and neglect has asked for a 'minor amendment' in the decision by that state's highest court to allow a documentary filmmaker access to audio recordings of a hearing after which Harmony Montgomery ended up in the custody of her father. The requested amendment is to require the redaction of all names, including those of lawyers, social workers and court personnel, 'due to safety concerns,' according to court documents obtained by the Union Leader. Several documents have been impounded. Harmony's father, Adam Montgomery, was convicted last year of beating the little girl to death about 10 months after he gained custody in February 2019. SJC Montgomery request The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted journalist Bill Lichtenstein of LC Media access to the audio of these hearings from February 2019, but the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families has since requested the court amend its order to redact the names. The court's original order only called for redaction of the names of other children, according to the ruling. Lichtenstein is working on a documentary called 'Broken,' a feature-length documentary on the failed child welfare, foster care and family court systems in Massachusetts and nationally. Limited information on what happened in the hearing, held in Essex Juvenile Court, has been released in multiple reports. The hearing focused on Adam Montgomery's fitness as a parent, the ruling read. Montgomery had a violent past and was incarcerated at the time of Harmony's birth. In her request for further redactions, Kristin Braithwaite, assistant general counsel for the Mass. DCF, said interest in the case had presented itself 'in the form of anger and threats,' and the key participants did not willingly accept publicity. 'The juvenile court judge who presided over the hearing in question has attested to receiving multiple threats upon his identity being learned of by the public,' she said. The Committee for Public Counsel Services has filed a similar request, which is impounded. Braithwaite argued the release of the names will not provide information to help prevent a future tragedy. 'Impounding these names will not limit the impact or efficacy of this court's order,' Braithwaite said Lichtenstein's attorney, Jennifer Lamanna, said the request should have been 'briefed and argued as part of earlier filings and oral arguments." 'With regard to the redaction of the names of counsel, attorneys and judges in high profile cases are regularly named in the press and, of course, in non-impounded proceedings, identifiable from the court's public records,' Lamanna said in opposition. The court ruled Lichtenstein 'met the standard for relief from impoundment as to all information contained in the audio,' except the privacy interest of other children. Lamanna called any threat 'speculative and remote,' in her filing. Adam Montgomery was convicted in February 2024 of second-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and other charges related to Harmony's death. He was sentenced to 56 years to life to be served on top of a minimum 32-year sentence for prior firearms convictions. Harmony's remains have yet to be found. jphelps@
Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
As Mass. considers generational ban on nicotine sales, what's been Brookline's experience?
'This way, you're getting everyone on the same level playing field,' he said. Massachusetts, which has long been at the forefront of tobacco restrictions nationally, is debating a statewide generational ban on tobacco sales, which could have potentially dramatic implications for both public health and businesses. Since the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the tobacco sellers' lawsuit in March 2024, who are around 19 or younger today — from buying such products in the state. Related : Advertisement Though experts say it's too early to gauge the public health impact of the policy in Brookline, champions of the bylaw say they believe if such a ban takes effect statewide, it could prevent future generations from suffering tobacco-related cancers and nicotine addiction. And retailers like Audy in municipalities with generational bans say statewide adoption is more equitable. Advertisement 'From a purely public health standpoint, there's no safe use of tobacco and nicotine products,' said Sigalle Reiss, Brookline's public health director, adding: 'We're creating a generation that won't have to say, 'I wish I never started.'' Critics say such bans are bad for businesses and send young people seeking tobacco across state lines or into an underground, unregulated market where no one checks IDs. And while a statewide ban might level the playing field for many businesses, retailers along state borders could lose customers. The statewide bill's sponsor, state Senator Jason Lewis, said store owners always 'tell us that the sky is falling and that they can't survive' when restrictions on nicotine sales are considered, but the businesses have since remained afloat. If the bill passes, the population businesses can legally sell nicotine products to will decline gradually as people age, 'so there will be plenty of time for retailers to be able to adjust to this new law should it pass,' said Lewis, a Winchester Democrat. The number of tobacco sellers in Brookline has decreased to 16 from 18 since the ban passed in 2020, but both retailers who returned tobacco permits — one being A Green Line train passes through Coolidge Corner in Brookline in 2023. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff In Brookline, customers get frustrated with the restrictions 'almost on a daily basis,' Audy said, adding that he nearly called the police on a customer in his 20s who became agitated when denied the chance to buy cigarettes. Advertisement Aaron Mehta, owner of Wine Press in Brookline and Fenway, said he was initially open to Brookline's measure but now has 'mixed feelings' because of logistical challenges. 'Five years from now, you're going to be ID-ing people that are 30, that can buy alcohol, that can't buy cigarettes, and it's going to create a very confusing dynamic' for staff and customers, he said. It's too soon to discern the bylaw's public health impacts despite five years having passed, said Katharine B. Silbaugh, a Boston University law professor who cosponsored the Brookline bylaw. She said she expected to see gradual results, as no products were ripped off the shelves, and everyone who could legally purchase tobacco when it was enacted will remain able to do so throughout their lifetimes. 'It's a feature, not a bug, of the regulatory design,' Silbaugh said. Still, there are signs that Brookline's ban may have made a difference. Three percent of Brookline High School students reported using tobacco products in the past month in 2023, a Phasing out the ability for friends or older siblings to purchase tobacco for teenagers eliminates a main source of these products, said Matt DuBois, senior director of clinical services and social and emotional learning at the Public Schools of Brookline. Proponents of the generational sales bans also point to the success of other recent restrictions cutting youth usage rates. Advertisement When on the change. The statewide ban on stores selling flavored tobacco products To Peter Brennan, executive director of the New England Convenience Store & Energy Marketers Association, which represents tobacco retailers, the flavor ban tells a different story. Brennan 'People are going to come to fill that void, and there's going to be profit to be had,' Brennan said. 'And these products will be more widely available, just not in our stores, where we actually check IDs and make sure that kids aren't buying them.' Three percent of Brookline High School students reported using tobacco products in the past month in 2023, a survey showed, down from 5 percent in 2015 and 10 percent in 2013. Lane Turner/Globe Staff Lewis said these concerns are common arguments in opposition to Massachusetts policies that differ from those of its neighbors. While 'none of these policies are perfect,' he said, data show that other statewide tobacco restrictions have helped reduce tobacco use. About 10 percent of adults Advertisement Ginger O., a 19-year-old Boston resident who spoke on condition of not fully identifying herself to avoid career repercussions, said she vapes nicotine daily. She said she purchases at a local retailer who does not ask her for identification and still sells flavored products despite the ban. If Massachusetts adopts the generational ban, she wouldn't be impacted personally because she was born before the cutoff. While it might be a successful deterrent, she said, those who want to access the products would still find a way. 'I don't think it's a bad idea, I just don't know how well it will work,' she said, adding: 'It's not hard to get certain products or certain prices here, if you really want to.' Meanwhile, Reiss, Brookline's health chief, said enforcement of the generational ban has gone relatively smoothly. When the town sent underage shoppers undercover to 18 stores in 2022, four shops sold tobacco products to the buyers. Brookline fined them each $300. The next two times the town did that, there were zero underage sales, Reiss said. 'In order to have successful policies, we need to engage with the regulated community,' she said. 'There's probably mixed feelings about the policy out there, but making sure that they understand it before we go out and start enforcing ... that's a key strategy for me.' Stella Tannenbaum can be reached at
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
Mass. SJC allows journalist access to Harmony Montgomery audio records
A New England journalist working on a documentary that addresses how Harmony Montgomery's father was granted custody of his daughter before he killed her in 2019 has been allowed access to audio recordings of the custody hearing. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted journalist Bill Lichtenstein, of LC Media, access to the audio of these hearings from February 2019, according to court records. Lichtenstein requested those recordings for use in a documentary about the child welfare and foster care systems, according to a statement from Lichtenstein and his attorney obtained by MassLive. Set to release later this year, the film, 'Broken,' follows a two-year investigative journey led by journalist Brooke Lewitas, who began the investigation while a graduate student at Boston University. 'Releasing these recordings to the journalist for purposes of the documentary he proposes may help to better inform the public both about what happened to this child specifically and whether there are steps the child welfare system generally can take to minimize the possibility of repeating this tragedy,' court documents read. The audio recording of the hearing was held in Essex Juvenile Court, where proceedings are shielded from the public. Lichtenstein sought access to a recording of the hearing because the public interest in the case was so great that it superseded the privacy protections in place in the court. But a lower court judge denied his motion, prompting an appeal from Lichtenstein. The Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court, took up Lichtenstein's appeal sua sponte, or of its own accord. Typically, the case would have been first heard by the state's Appeals Court. Lichtenstein previously attempted to get access to four other protection proceedings between 2014 and 2019 before he narrowed his request to when Adam Montgomery was awarded custody of his then 4-year-old daughter. 'The February 2019 hearings focused on the father's fitness as a parent,' according to the court's order. 'The father has asserted no privacy interest in the February 2019 hearings. The child's counsel took no position on the release; instead, the child's counsel has emphasized that the child's dignity and privacy deserve continued respect.' Under the Supreme Judicial Court's decision, the names of Adam Montgomery's other young children, who have been publicly named elsewhere, are to be redacted. The conditions under which Lichtenstein will be allowed access to the audio include only being allowed to use the recordings for his documentary. 'Second, even after the release of the documentary, the journalist may not release any portion of the redacted recordings other than those portions actually published in the documentary,' the decision reads. Lichtenstein's lawyer, Jennifer Lamanna, applauded the court's 'courageous recognition of the fact that, now, more than ever, the public's right to know must take precedence over the government's desire to operate in secrecy, especially when the safety of our most vulnerable citizens is at stake,' Lichtenstein's statement reads. The Department of Children and Families took custody of Harmony Montgomery in August 2014, a few months after she was born, due to her mother's substance abuse issues, MassLive previously reported. At the time of her birth, Adam Montgomery was incarcerated. A judge placed Harmony Montgomery in the custody of her father in February 2019 after years of supervised visits, but over the objections of an attorney representing the Department of Children and Families. The 5-year-old died 10 months later. Adam Montgomery was convicted last year of killing his daughter. He was sentenced to 45 years to life for her murder last year. Search for Harmony Montgomery presses on a year after father's conviction Mass. SJC hears arguments on release of Harmony Montgomery records Harmony Montgomery's mother leads search for daughter's body, reports say Harmony Montgomery's mother files wrongful death lawsuit against N.H.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cambridge Brothel Case: What's the Point?
Massachusetts is in the midst of prosecuting people who patronized a fancy sex business near Harvard University. It's been big news in certain corners, spawning salacious stories about the doctors, politicians, and tech executives who were on the club's client list. But the most novel thing about this prosecution is what it's missing: a wild yarn about sex slaves. The framing of this story is refreshing, after more than a decade of similar stories getting starkly different treatment. Despite many of the sex workers involved being Asian—a fact that greatly increases the odds of a prostitution bust being called a "human trafficking sting"—news reports have largely refrained from trying to portray the women involved as hapless victims of sexual servitude. Yet the absence of a trafficking narrative lays bare the hollowness of such prosecutions. Why are we doing this? Who's being served? So far, the people who ran the business—including a 42-year-old woman named Han Lee—are the only ones who have been sentenced. Lee pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to induce women into prostitution and money laundering and was sentenced in March to four years in prison. The main charge here is part of the Mann Act, a 1910 law (then referred to as the "White Slave Traffic Act") passed in response to last century's moral panic about immigration, urbanization, and women's independence. "Born into poverty in South Korea, she was a sex worker for years before becoming a madam," reports The Wall Street Journal. She thoroughly screened clients of her business, and "she allowed women to keep more than half the proceeds and decline to perform services if they chose, wrote Scott Lauer, her federal public defender." Lee is obviously harmed by this, and it seems like those she employed may be harmed, too. If the sex workers' identities are known and they are immigrants, they could be deported. Even if they escape authorities, they're out of jobs—and may be forced to turn to more dangerous or exploitative forms of sex work. Lee's prosecution does benefit one group here: federal authorities. She had to forfeit around $5.5 million to the U.S. government. Now, state and local authorities are busy prosecuting former clients of Lee's business. Their prosecution has become big news in part because of their fight to keep their identities private. Lawyers cited the "adverse and embarrassing collateral consequences" that could come from their identities being revealed publicly. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said too bad. The charges they face—"sexual conduct for a fee," a misdemeanor—and the potential legal consequences are relatively minor. It seems clear that the shaming is the point. "I would hope that them getting named makes others think about twice what they're doing," Ivette Monge of the nonprofit Ready Inspire Act told the Journal. The paper details not only the name and occupation of one particular client but how often and how much he paid for sex. Other media outlets have devoted whole articles to outing particular customers, one being a Cambridge city councilor. Americans like to pretend that we're way more enlightened than our Puritan ancestors, but here we are, hundreds of years later, putting people through public ridicule and official sanctions over their consensual sexual choices. Commentary about the case has showcased Americans' absurd attitudes toward sex work. Customers texted with "the brothel purveyors…at least 400 or more times," says a Boston Herald staff editorial. "That's obscene. This isn't a case about a few randy guys. It's prostitution on a giant scale." So…a "few randy guys" paying for sex would be OK? How many is too many, then? Or is the number of texts they sent the problem? What is the editorial's point here? (The extremely poorly written piece also includes baffling, context-free lines like this: "Only in Cambridge can one differentiate between human trafficking and illegal immigration. Too often, the two are conjoined.") At least the clients involved in this care merely face misdemeanor charges. In another Massachusetts case involving prostitution customers, authorities are trying to get sex trafficking convictions for men who contacted an undercover cop posing as an adult sex worker. In that case—Commonwealth v. Garafalo, which came before the state's supreme court in January—prospective customers responded to online ads and agreed to meet at a hotel and pay $100 for sex. The state has since argued that every person who pays for sex is guilty of sex trafficking. But prospective customers in the Cambridge brothel case—which involves higher fees, more upscale settings, and at least some prominent clientele—were not charged with sex trafficking. That's good—the state's attempt in Garafalo to expand the definition of sex trafficking to include all prostitution is despicable on its own. However, the difference in treatment between customers in these two cases highlights yet another harm: the expanded charges and punishments being disproportionately applied against lower-income defendants and/or those deemed less likely to fight back. The Swedish government wants to outlaw OnlyFans? New legislation would apply the country's prohibition on purchasing sexual services to digitally mediated activities that involve no physical contact. The proposal would distinguish making and distributing porn to people generally (OK) from performances tailored to individuals (not OK)—basically banning the system that lets sex workers take more control over their livelihoods and make more money. Facebook gets the TikTok treatment: "Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism on Wednesday," reports Axios. "The former global public policy director at Facebook, now Meta, will allege that Facebook cooperated with China's ruling Communist Party, per her opening testimony." The post Cambridge Brothel Case: What's the Point? appeared first on
Boston Globe
04-04-2025
- Boston Globe
Karen Read takes double-jeopardy appeal to US Supreme Court
Read's lawyer, Martin Weinberg, declined to comment Thursday night due to the trial judge's order restricting lawyers from making statements about the case. The appeal was filed with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, according to Advertisement 'Read contends that the Double Jeopardy Clause's guarantee against successive prosecutions is no less fundamental than ... the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury and no less deserving of protection,' the petition said. Reid, 45, of Mansfield, already has lost appeals with the state trial court, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and lower federal courts. Most recently, a Advertisement The first trial lasted two months. After 30 hours of deliberations and a series of three notes from the jury to Judge Beverly J. Cannone saying they were at a hopeless impasse, the judge In the weeks that followed, jurors came forward, telling Read's defense team they actually had agreed to acquit Read on two charges, murder and leaving the scene of a crash, and only remained split on a manslaughter charge. Read has since sought to have her state murder charge and the leaving-the-scene charge thrown out on double jeopardy grounds, arguing that Cannone improperly declared the mistrial and jurors actually had acquitted Read of the two counts. Thursday's legal filing mirrored those same arguments and pushed for permission to question the jurors about their verdict. 'Such inquiry in no way intrudes on the deliberative process of the jury,' Read's lawyers wrote. 'Such an inquiry instead honors the jury service which the trial court described as 'extraordinary' rather than rendering irrelevant the efforts of at least four jurors to disclose that there was not an impasse on all three counts, as contrasted to only one count.' Tonya Alanez can be reached at
