<<i still ain`t buying it>>
you think people cannot get mortgage money because everyone in our gov`t is so honest?
Our laws and law enforcement work so well?
who would dare cheat on a no doc loan?
or any other type of loan?
lol
this paper get sold off so fast who cares what type of documentation was originally used..
no corruption in US institutions?
Making the Number is an American game,
if you want to keep your jopb as a Real estate appraiser
you better keep the brokers happy or you will be jobless.
Hit man victims' kin split on punishment: Martorano sentencing Thursday
By J.M. Lawrence
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
The son of a Tulsa millionaire coldly executed two decades ago by Hub hit man John V. Martorano wants a federal judge to release his father's killer this week as reward for exposing the corrupt FBI protectors of James ``Whitey'' Bulger.
``I can never forgive him for what he has done, but I do recognize it is he, rather than the FBI, that has come forward and told the truth,'' David Wheeler wrote in a statement released yesterday by his lawyers.
Wheeler, whose $860 million lawsuit against the FBI was blocked by Justice Department lawyers and thrown out on appeal, asks U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf ``to release Mr. Martorano from any further punishment for the murder of Roger M. Wheeler.''
Wolf will begin sentencing Martorano, 63, on Thursday. The Boston-born hit man has been behind bars since he was caught in Boca Raton in 1995.
Prosecutors support a 12 -year sentence under a plea agreement in which Martorano confessed to eight more murders than the 12 originally charged, and testified against ex-FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr.
But other victims call the deal ``outrageous'' in their letters to the court and wonder how Martorano could kill 20 people and not get life in prison.
``I am very disappointed in the justice system regarding the plea bargain. There's no guarantee he won't kill again,'' wrote Barbara Sousa, the widow of James Sousa, whose body has not been found since his 1974 execution.
Ralph DeMasi, 67, who survived a blast of Martorano's machine-gun fire in 1973 and is now serving 24 years for the Newburyport robbery of a Brink's truck, said sarcastically:
``Yeah, those dirty cops need to get off of the street so that kindhearted, ex-serial killers can once again be part of our forgiving society,'' wrote DeMasi.
Marion Govoni, another woman widowed by Martorano's gun, said, ``He should get life for cold-blooded murder. I don't care how much info he gave the court.''
A life sentence is not an option under the killer's deal carrying a maximum of 15 years.
Other victims view Martorano as merely ``a vehicle of destruction'' controlled by the Winter Hill Gang and its successor - the Bulger group - led by FBI informants.
Thomas P. Angeli, whose father, Alfred, and uncle Joseph Notorangeli were murdered 30 years ago by Martorano, said, ``I consider this man to be a vehicle and not as responsible as others.''
No charges vs. Hub cops in frame case
By Maggie Mulvihill
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Boston police officers who helped put an innocent man in prison for 6 1/2 years using someone else's fingerprint escaped criminal charges yesterday when a grand jury found insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against them, a source close to the investigation said.
Stephan Cowans was freed from prison in January after information surfaced that another person's fingerprint was used to convict Cowans in the shooting of a Boston cop in 1997.
Two BPD fingerprint technicians - Officer Dennis Leblanc, who testified at Cowans' trial, and Rosemary McLaughlin - were suspended with pay in April while Attorney General Tom Reilly presented evidence to a grand jury. Reilly's probe centered on whether Boston police framed Cowans for the shooting using another person's fingerprint, sources have said.
The Boston Herald reported in May that the fingerprint unit has been a ``dumping ground'' for cops considered unfit for street duty under the last two police commissioners - Paul F. Evans and Francis M. ``Mickey'' Roache.
Officers with histories of theft, incompetence, substance abuse and other problems were routinely sent to the unit, which handles some of the most critical evidence used in criminal prosecutions.
Those transfers were uncovered during a Boston Herald/Fox 25 investigation into the wrongful convictions of 22 Massachusetts men in the last two decades.
Though no criminal charges will be brought against the officers in the Cowans' case, Reilly's investigation has uncovered ``systemic failures of the fingerprinting lab that were uncovered as a result'' of the grand jury investigation, a source close to the probe told the Herald.
Those failures will be addressed at a press conference Reilly and BPD Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole plan to hold today.
A spokesman for Reilly's office declined comment yesterday.
But O'Toole, who referred the Cowans case to Reilly when she was appointed in February, said she has made numerous changes to the unit since she came on board. Forensic consultants were hired to examine the unit's practices and procedures, three officers and two supervisors were added and increased funding for the unit is being sought in the fiscal 2005 state budget.
``Since we first determined that there were problems, we have been working very aggressively to deal with any of the weaknesses that we know exist,'' O'Toole said yesterday, declining to comment on the grand jury investigation.
O'Toole said she has made no decisions yet about the job status of Cowans and McLaughlin.
Cowans was convicted of shooting Sgt. Detective Gregory Gallagher in the buttocks with his own gun during a scuffle in Egleston Square on May 30, 1997. Gallagher identified Cowans as his assailant at trial.
The real shooter has not been found. |
