Legal News

Teen convicted of Mass. school stabbing gets life

A teenager convicted of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing another student in the bathroom of a suburban Boston high school has been sentenced to life in prison.

John Odgren was sentenced Friday to a mandatory life sentence with no possibility for parole by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Jane Haggerty.

Odgren's lawyer filed a motion asking the judge to declare a state law that forces mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders as unconstitutional. The judge says she will take it up at a later date.

Odgren was convicted Thursday by a jury that rejected the defense's assertion that the then-16-year-old boy was legally insane when he stabbed 15-year-old James Alenson at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School on Jan. 19, 2007.

Prosecutors depicted Odgren as a calculating killer who picked a victim at random.

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Health insurers: Mass. illegally denied rate hike

Leading Massachusetts health insurers and state regulators squared off in court Thursday in their dispute about acceptable health insurance premiums for a pivotal sector of the local economy: small-business owners.

The insurers argued the state's decision last week to reject nearly all of their proposed 2010 premium increases will cause "destabilizing" losses for them. The state said the insurers fundamentally misunderstand both the rate rejection and the way to resolve their dispute.

During a two-hour hearing in Suffolk Superior Court, an attorney for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and five members of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans asked Judge Stephen Neel to issue a temporary injunction overruling the state's decision.

Attorney Dean Richlin also asked that the companies be allowed to collect the new premiums they had proposed be effective April 1 while a trial is held on the matter.

He said that requiring them to collect premiums at April 2009 rates, as he contended the state has ordered them to do, was "grossly unsound" and would create losses of more than $100 million in the next eight months.

"These are losses that will quickly mount up, and for some number of companies, the immediate losses will be destabilizing," Richlin said.

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Mass. court upholds state gun-lock requirement

The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld the constitutionality of a state law that requires gun owners to lock weapons in their homes, a ruling seen as a victory for gun-control advocates.

Gun-control proponents argued that the law saves lives because it requires guns to be kept in a locked container or equipped with a trigger lock when not under the owner's control. Opponents pointed to a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said people have a constitutional right to keep weapons for self-defense.

The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled Wednesday that the Second Amendment does not overrule the state's right to require owners to store guns safely.

The case involves a Billerica, Mass., man who was charged with improperly storing a shotgun, a rifle and ammunition.

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Court: Mass. law on wine shipping unconstitutional

 A Massachusetts law that sharply restricts out-of-state winemakers from shipping their products directly to consumers in the state is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled.

Thursday's decision by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a lower court ruling could open the door for connoisseurs in Massachusetts to purchase more of their favorite wines online or by mail order from domestic producers.

The law, approved by the Legislature in 2006 over the veto of then-Gov. Mitt Romney, created a multi-tiered system in which wineries that produce more than 30,000 gallons a year must decide whether to sell retail in Massachusetts through an in-state wholesaler or apply for a license to ship wines directly to consumers. They cannot, however, do both.

The cap does not affect any of the nearly three dozen wineries based in Massachusetts, all of which are small and produce under the 30,000-gallon limit.

"We hold that (the law) violates the Commerce Clause because the effect of its particular gallonage cap is to change the competitive balance between in-state and out-of-state wineries in a way that benefits Massachusetts's wineries and significantly burdens out-of-state competitors," the appellate court wrote in its decision.

Family Winemakers of California, a Sacramento-based group representing about 650 producers, argued the law was "protectionist" and effectively kept 98 percent of domestic wine out of direct reach of Bay State consumers.

The group's president, Paul Kronenberg, said he was extremely pleased by the ruling.

"We'll have an opportunity to change that law so that all wineries, not only in California but across the nation that produce more than 30,000 gallons will have an opportunity to sell directly to Massachusetts residents," said Kronenberg.

"Obviously this helps wineries but it also improves the choice for Massachusetts consumers," he added.

Attorney General Martha Coakley's office had appealed the earlier ruling by a federal district court judge on behalf of the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission. The attorney general's office said in a brief statement Thursday that it would review the decision with the commission before commenting.

In an earlier brief submitted to the appeals court, a state attorney argued that the production caps "represent a rational and well-reasoned solution to the acknowledged difficulties experienced by small wineries." Massachusetts also contended that its system was more flexible than other states with caps because it provided wineries with a choice of contracting with a wholesaler or shipping directly to consumers.

In a 5-4 ruling in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws in New York and Michigan that banned out-of-state wine shipments. The decision prompted several states, including Massachusetts, to revise their laws.

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Task Force Formed to Probe Massachusetts fires

A task force of state, regional and federal officials is investigating a string of suspicious weekend fires in Massachusetts, including one in which two people died.

At least nine fires were reported early Sunday in houses and cars within a half-mile radius in the college town of Northampton, Mass. Authorities say they suspect arson.

Officials are returning to the sites Monday, including the home in which two men died. Their identities were not immediately released.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. State and local officials are working with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the investigation.

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Feds: Fmr. Mass. speaker's lawyer has conflict

Prosecutors have asked a judge to disqualify the lawyer representing former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi in his federal corruption case, because the lawyer also gave advice to a prosecution witness.

Court documents unsealed this week show that Steven Topazio, DiMasi's former law associate, testified that he consulted DiMasi's lawyer, Thomas Kiley, as soon as questions surfaced about Topazio's relationship with the software company whose multimillion dollar state contracts are at the center of the case against the former speaker.

Prosecutors say Topazio was the conduit for monthly $4,000 payments from the company to DiMasi. Topazio is now a government witness.

The Boston Globe reports that prosecutors argue that Kiley has a conflict of interest by representing "two adversely positioned clients."

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Mass. court: Juveniles can't be held extra 3 years

Massachusetts cannot hold juvenile offenders for three years past their 18th birthday because the law is vague on how a youth's potential danger to the public is decided, the state's highest court ruled Tuesday.

Most juvenile offenders are released when they turn 18, but the extended commitment law allowed the Department of Youth Services to retain custody up to age 21 if a youth posed physical danger.

In unanimously striking down the law, the Supreme Judicial Court said it was unconstitutional because the law "contains no indication of the nature and degree of dangerousness that would justify continued commitment."

The court noted that the Legislature in 1990 had removed language that the danger a youth posed be due to a mental condition.

"The court said we don't lock people up based on an allegation of dangerousness when we don't know what that means," said attorney Barbara Kaban, deputy director of the Children's Law Center of Massachusetts.

She represented the three youths who challenged the law. Kaban said the three had been charged with crimes that included larceny and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

All were turned over to the department's custody when they were 16. Each was initially placed on probation, then sent back to a juvenile detention facility after violating the terms of probation at least once. The department filed applications for extended commitment orders for all three shortly before they turned 18.

Jennifer Kritz, a spokeswoman for the Department of Youth Services, said the department is reviewing the court's ruling and expects to be ordered to release about 12 youths being held under the law.

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Tax Cases Could Bring Massachusetts $1B

Massachusetts courts are poised to rule on three tax disputes at the crux of the Department of Revenue's efforts to reclaim $1 billion from corporations it has accused of skirting tax laws. The outcome will have major ramifications, as a massive budget shortfall is causing Massachusetts to cut staff and services.