Lawyer Indicted & Cleared in Case Linked to Serial Murders of 3 Clients Has Died
A criminal defense and personal injury lawyer who said his life became a living hell after his name was linked to the still-unsolved serial killings of nine Massachusetts women has been found dead at his home.
Kenneth Ponte was in his early 60s. Authorities say his death does not appear suspicious, according to the Associated Press.
In a 1990 interview, Ponte told the news agency that being indicted in one of the slayings—even though he was later cleared by a special prosecutor who cited a lack of evidence—had ruined his legal career. Another suspect committed suicide around the time that Ponte was cleared, the AP article notes.
An article about Ponte in South Coast Today notes that Paul Buckley, the independent prosecutor who cleared Ponte, called his grand jury indictment “a fishing expedition.” A retired Massachusetts state police lieutenant, Jose Gonsalves, tells the newspaper that Ponte’s lack of cooperation with the investigation hurt him. “Ultimately, his cooperation could have saved us a lot of effort and benefited him in the long run.”
The remains of the nine victims in the so-called highway killings in the New Bedford area were found in 1988 and 1989. Three of the victims had been his clients, and Ponte acknowledged a relationship with a fourth, Rochelle Clifford Dopierala, the AP reports. He was indicted and cleared in Dopeirala’s slaying; prosecutors had contended he killed her because she was going to reveal his drug use.
Several years ago, investigators used a backhoe to dig up the yard of Ponte’s former home, the article continues. At that point, Ponte, who had stopped practicing in 1997, lost his subsequent job in a real estate management company, says his lawyer, Kevin Reddington of Brockton.
“Wherever he went, whatever he did, he was always the accused,” Reddington says. “I think it had a horrible impact on his life. It just ruined him.”
The South Coast Today article offers more details about the difficult life Ponte led after his name became intertwined with the serial killings. He battled a drug addiction and had a record of several arrests, the article recounts. Court records say Ponte was disbarred in 1997 for taking $12,000 from a client’s insurance settlement for his own personal use.
On a living room wall inside the disorderly home in which he was found dead was a large sign, the newspaper reports. It read: Ponte and McCarthy, Attorneys At Law.
