Prosecutor

In the state's first decision involving juries and social media, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has called on judges to better police jurors' use of the Internet to make sure they do not discuss cases online, and thus risk a mistrial. The court said judges need to do more to explain to jurors that refraining from conversations about a case also means not posting anything about it on Facebook or Twitter, common practice in today's technology-driven world. "Jurors must separate and insulate their jury service from their digital lives," the court said in a ruling involving a Plymouth Superior Court...

Turkey's state-run news agency says a prosecutor has proposed charging an internationally known Turkish pianist and composer with insulting Islamic religious values in comments he made on Twitter. Anadolu Agency said Friday that an Istanbul court will decide whether to accept the proposed indictment against Fazil Say, who has played piano with the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, and Tokyo Symphony. The prosecutor accuses 42-year-old Say of inciting hatred and public enmity, and insulting "religious values.

DEDHAM -- A prosecutor, wearing a leather mask while reenacting an allegedly fatal bondage session, told jurors yesterday that a dominatrix on trial for manslaughter "did nothing" to help her client when he suffered a heart attack. During closing arguments, prosecutor Robert Nelson said Quincy dominatrix Barbara Asher was indifferent to the suffering and death of Michael Lord of North Hampton, N.H., who disappeared in July 2000. Lord's body has not been found. Halfway through his animated closing, in which he pointed and hollered at Asher, Nelson donned a leather mask and spoke...

PARIS - A French prosecutor on Monday opened a preliminary investigation into allegations of rape in a Washington hotel by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief and one-time French presidential hopeful. The move by the prosecutor in Lille in northern France followed a request by investigating judges earlier this month to broaden a suspected prostitution inquiry to examine the assertions of rape in December 2010. The prosecutor's office said in a statement that it is looking into the allegation that Strauss-Kahn may have been involved in a...

Relatives and friends of the grandmother and stepmother charged with running a 9-year-old girl to death as a punishment have been defending and attacking the women on Facebook and in at least one case nearly divulging what could be considered evidence. A judge has warned prosecutors and defense lawyers not to discuss the murder case, and so far they have obeyed. But experts say the hundreds of messages posted online since Savannah Hardin died in February show the legal system has yet to catch up with the social media explosion.

A Martha's Vineyard man already facing child rape charges has been indicted for allegedly trying to hire someone to kill a prosecutor and his alleged victim. David L. Thrift Jr. of Vineyard Haven is charged with two counts of solicitation to commit a felony for allegedly asking a fellow inmate to kill a prosecutor from the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office and the girl he allegedly raped. The Essex District Attorney's office is handling the case because his alleged attempt to have a prosecutor killed could present a conflict of interest.

WOBURN - Robert Gulla wanted Allison Myrick all to himself, and in a fit of jealous rage two years ago he attacked her with a kitchen knife in his basement, inflicting a slow and excruciating death on his former girl-friend, prosecutors said yesterday. "This was a death perpetuated with extreme atrocity and cruelty," said Lisa McGovern, assistant Middlesex prosecutor, during her opening statements Thursday in the first-degree murder trial. "She was alive when she was stabbed in the head, in the abdomen, in the neck," McGovern told Middlesex Superior Court jurors.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone will receive Jane Doe Inc.'s public service award for his efforts to help victims of domestic violence. Leone created a domestic violence pro bono attorney program through his office and instituted training and education for youth and professionals on the prevention of domestic violence and bullying. Leone will receive Jane Doe's Delahunt Award for Extraordinary Public Service on Thursday at a breakfast at the Algonquin Club in Boston.

MILAN - A prosecutor asked a Milan court yesterday to sentence 26 Americans to jail terms ranging from 10 to 13 years for the abduction of an Egyptian terrorism suspect. It is the first trial anywhere scrutinizing the CIA’s extraordinary renditions. As he completed his closing arguments, prosecutor Armando Spataro argued that a guilty verdict and a strong sentence for the defendants, most of them CIA agents, would help restore confidence in Western democracies eroded by tactics employed in the fight against terrorism.

A former Bristol County prosecutor was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in a courthouse conference room in 2008. The jurors in Fall River Superior Court returned the verdict Friday in their second day of deliberations. Peter Joseph Costanza was acquitted of charges of indecent assault and battery and public corruption. He was accused of forcibly kissing and groping a 17-year-old girl and telling her he could help keep her boyfriend out of jail. Costanza was prosecuting the teen's boyfriend in Attleboro District Court.

A French prosecutor on Monday opened a preliminary investigation into allegations of rape in a Washington hotel by former IMF chief and one-time French presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The move by the prosecutor in Lille in northern France followed a request by investigating judges earlier this month to broaden a suspected prostitution probe to examine the claims of rape in December 2010. The prosecutor's office said in a statement that they are looking into the allegation that Strauss-Kahn may have been involved in a rape during a sex party in the hotel while he was...

Prosecutors said Monday an Indonesian militant known as the "Demolition Man" should spend the rest of his life in prison for helping to build the car bomb used in the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks. Umar Patek, a leading member of the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, is the last key suspect to be tried in the blasts that killed 202 people, thrusting Indonesia onto the frontlines in the war on terror. Many of the victims were foreign tourists, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.

A former Bristol County prosecutor was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in a courthouse conference room in 2008. The jurors in Fall River Superior Court returned the verdict Friday in their second day of deliberations. Peter Joseph Costanza was acquitted of charges of indecent assault and battery and public corruption. He was accused of forcibly kissing and groping a 17-year-old girl and telling her he could help keep her boyfriend out of jail. Costanza was prosecuting the teen's boyfriend in Attleboro District Court.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone will receive Jane Doe Inc.'s public service award for his efforts to help victims of domestic violence. Leone created a domestic violence pro bono attorney program through his office and instituted training and education for youth and professionals on the prevention of domestic violence and bullying. Leone will receive Jane Doe's Delahunt Award for Extraordinary Public Service on Thursday at a breakfast at the Algonquin Club in Boston.

PHILADELPHIA - After eight weeks of wrenching testimony, Philadelphia prosecutors rested their case Thursday in the trial of a Roman Catholic church official accused of helping bury complaints that priests were raping and molesting children. Monsignor William Lynn is the first US church official charged for his handling of the abuse complaints. Prosecutors say the former secretary for clergy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia helped known predators stay in ministry, and they charged him with child endangerment and conspiracy.

Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin from very close range, according to documents a Florida prosecutor released Thursday that indicate a hand-to-hand struggle occurred before the teenager was killed. A lab report found holes and gunshot residue on the two sweatshirts Martin was wearing that were consistent with a "contact shot," meaning the muzzle of the gun was pressed against Martin's chest. An autopsy report said that the wound in Martin's chest indicated that he was shot from an "intermediate range," which experts...

An assistant district attorney was seriously hurt during the tornadoes that struck western Massachusetts when she was hit by flying debris as she walked to her car in Springfield. Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni says he had met with the prosecutor in his office late Wednesday afternoon. Minutes later, she was struck by debris as she left the office and walked across a parking lot. Mastroianni did not identify the prosecutor. He said she is hospitalized with a head injury, but is expected to survive.

A member of the Kennedy family has been hired as a prosecutor in the Middlesex District Attorney's Office. Joseph P. Kennedy III is the son of former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy and the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy. He previously worked as a prosecutor in the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office. Kennedy has also served in the Peace Corp, co-founded Picture This: Justice and Power, a workshop for at-risk teens in Boston, and is on the board of the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps, a child welfare agency.

A fourth man accused of paying a Nebraska mother to let him have sex with her 14-year-old daughter has been charged with sexual assault. Prosecutors say 22-year-old Logan Roepke (REP-key), of McCook, had sex with the teen twice last year. The mother is also accused of pimping out her 7-year-old daughter. The Nebraska State Patrol says the 35-year-old mother allowed at least seven men to have sex with her teenage daughter at least 20 times. Investigators say at least three men had sex with the 7-year-old.

WOBURN - Robert Gulla wanted Allison Myrick all to himself, and in a fit of jealous rage two years ago he attacked her with a kitchen knife in his basement, inflicting a slow and excruciating death on his former girl-friend, prosecutors said yesterday. "This was a death perpetuated with extreme atrocity and cruelty," said Lisa McGovern, assistant Middlesex prosecutor, during her opening statements Thursday in the first-degree murder trial. "She was alive when she was stabbed in the head, in the abdomen, in the neck," McGovern told Middlesex Superior Court jurors.