Swomley & Associates http://www.jswomley.com Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:45:17 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.jswomley.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://www.jswomley.com Swomley & Associates http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=297&Itemid=81 (http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_15725455)PITTSFIELD -- While receiving praise, attorney Joan M. McMenemy is also taking heat from critics who hope to prevent her from becoming a county judge. McMenemy, a prosecutor in the office of Berkshire District Attorney David F. Capeless, was widely praised during an appearance last week before the Governor's... Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:46:45 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=296&Itemid=81 (http://blogs.masslawyersweekly.com/news/2010/08/03/bernard-baran-can-sue-original-attorneys/)A man who served 21 years in prison before a judge threw out his conviction can sue the attorneys who represented him at his initial trial and appeal, a Superior Court judge has ruled. Bernard Baran was convicted in 1985 of five counts of molesting children at the Early... Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:27:56 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=290&Itemid=69 Man allegedly sought sex favorsA federal judge rejected as too lenient yesterday a proposed plea agreement that would have sent a former Chelsea District Court clerk magistrate to jail for a year for allegedly using his position to seek sexual favors from two women facing prostitution charges. “I reject it,’’... Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=269&Itemid=76 BOSTON, MA -- Louis Piccone wants to show lawyers they can make money by suing the Department of Children and Families. In a sprawling federal lawsuit against seven DCF employees, Piccone is seeking revenge for what he calls a witch hunt that targeted him and his family, ruined his reputation,... Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=263&Itemid=77 LettersKudos to Judge James McElroy for making the right decision in a case of police and prosecutorial misconduct by dismissing all the charges against the Simonetta family (Eagle, Jan. 12). As Judge McElroy stated, the failure to follow appropriate and legal discovery procedures by the police and prosecution was so... Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=77 PITTSFIELD -- District Court Judge James B. McElroy scolded prosecutors and police Monday for what he said was the intentional withholding of evidence in the trial of a family that had resisted turning their grandchild over to state workers in August of 2008. After the admonishment, McElroy dismissed all charges... Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=257&Itemid=77 PITTSFIELD -- The trial of three family members accused of resisting arrest was put on hold Friday after a police officer revealed that he had not submitted documentation relating to the use of force during the August 2008 incident. Berkshire District Court Judge James B. McElroy halted testimony on Friday,... Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=256&Itemid=77 PITTSFIELD -- An attorney accused local police officers of unnecessarily assaulting an elderly couple and their daughter while defending the three against charges that they resisted arrest and that the man assaulted a police officer. The accusations came during opening statements Thursday in the trial of three members of the... Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=255&Itemid=77 PITTSFIELD -- Three members of a local family will go on trial starting today on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assault and battery of a police officer. The Simonetta family's defense attorney, John G. Swomley, contended during a pretrial hearing Tuesday that they were resisting what they perceived... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=63 but the prosecutor who convicted him was promoted to judge.LAST JUNE, District Attorney David Capeless of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, announced that he was dropping all charges against 44-year-old Bernard Baran, a man who has spent half his life behind bars on child molestation charges that the state no longer has... Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:49:48 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=253&Itemid=81 Police finally admit to driving Galluccio homeCambridge cops kept secret for a month the fact that they had driven home a state senator after responding to a report (index2.php?option=com_docman task=doc_view gid=33 Itemid=34) of an intoxicated man just hours before the lawmaker slammed his SUV into a minivan and fled, raising... Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=249&Itemid=50 Three Felonies A Day:How the Feds Target the Innocent.here (http://www.dankennedy.net/2009/09/25/harvey-silverglate-goes-after-the-feds/) to read review. Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:43:06 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=241&Itemid=76 DALTON -- A Dalton husband and wife are suing the town and the state Department of Children and Families, claiming they were victims of a witchhunt that resulted in his arrest and her having to flee the country with their three children. John G. Swomley, the attorney for... Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:53:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=234&Itemid=81 Last week, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a law passed by the Mass. Legislature in 2006 violated the ex-post facto clause. Initial reactions seemed to overstate the breadth of the opinion. Indeed, the opinion was more narrow than most people may think and simply put things back to the... Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:32:58 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=231&Itemid=63 Bernard Baran served 22 years on dubious child molestation charges, yet the prosecutor who convicted him isn't even inconveniencedThis June, District Attorney David Capeless of Berkshire County, Massachusetts announced that he was dropping all charges against 44-year-old Bernard Baran, a man who has spent half his life behind bars on... Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=232&Itemid=62 A recent Supreme Judicial Court decision undermines the theory of joint venture and could make it more difficult to appeal a conviction, some lawyers said. The ruling could play a key role in a Milford case, in which Vinnie Ruscitti of Milford has been charged with murder on the theory... Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=211&Itemid=73 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:14:47 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=210&Itemid=72 The player below will allow you to hear a June 2006 BBC interview with Bernard Baran, John Swomley and Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless. baran_bbc_06F23 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:51:22 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=207&Itemid=63 Bernard Baran lost a great portion of his life for crimes he says he never committed. He was 19, working as an assistant at a day care center, when his life went completely off the rails. Now he is a middle-aged man with a smoker's cough, newly in charge of... Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:27:00 +0100 http://www.jswomley.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=193&Itemid=81 The highest court in Massachusetts decided Thursday that judges must issue rulings within 30 days of a trial when they are deciding whether defendants should be held indefinitely as sexually dangerous offenders.The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a case (http://www.sdp123a.com/index.php?option=com_content task=view id=805 Itemid=1) brought by a man convicted of child... Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0100