1st Circuit Court

Estate lawyer asks to revoke plea, now wants trial in $30M elder insurance fraud case

A Rhode Island estate planning lawyer is seeking to revoke the plea agreement he made last year near the outset of what was expected to be a lengthy trial in a controversial $30 million fraud case. Supporters said attorney Joseph Caramadre did nothing wrong by using the identities of elderly…

Jan 14, 2013 7:51 PM CST

Abortion Clinics’ Buffer Zones Affirmed by Federal Appeals Court

A federal appeals court has for the fourth time in 12 years affirmed a law creating buffer zones around Massachusetts abortion clinics. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-0 ruling (PDF) Wednesday, said the law protects the rights of prospective patients and clinic employees without infringing…

Jan 11, 2013 6:10 PM CST

University to Pay $50K to Settle Claim Student Meals Without Food-Allergy Options Violated ADA

There’s no word on whether some Lesley University students with food allergies might be headed to law school. But they’ve clearly demonstrated an aptitude for for legal issues by spearheading an unusual civil rights case pursued as an administrative complaint by the U.S. Department of Justice. It resulted in a…

Jan 10, 2013 10:11 PM CST

Taking 14-Year-Old to Canada for Child-Porn Filming Earns Lawyer a Minimum of 25 Years

Urged by a defense lawyer to consider whether a New Hampshire attorney decided only after crossing the border into Canada to make a pornographic film featuring a 14-year-old girl, thus negating a key element of the charged crime, a federal jury in Concord lost little time in reaching a guilty…

Jan 10, 2013 8:43 PM CST

1st Circuit Rules for Barbara Walters in Suit Claiming Book Misrepresented Boarding School Incident

A federal appeals court has ruled that a memoir by Barbara Walters did not defame a woman who attended boarding school with Walters’ daughter. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF) on Tuesday that Walters’ statements in the book Audition: A Memoir were not defamatory as a…

Dec 20, 2012 3:23 PM CST

Ex-Prosecutor Ditches His Monitoring Bracelet and Flees After Adverse Child-Porn Ruling

A former assistant attorney general in Maine cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and disappeared last week after a federal appeals court upheld his conviction on seven of 13 counts for sending and receiving child pornography. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF) in the appeal by…

Nov 20, 2012 3:33 PM CST

Awaiting Child Porn Hearing in State Court, NH Lawyer Is Arrested by FBI Agents, Held Without Bail

Things went from bad to worse for Lisa Biron on Friday morning, as the New Hampshire lawyer was awaiting a probable cause hearing on possession of child pornography charges she faces in state court. FBI agents entered the courtroom in Manchester, told Biron to leave her belongings and took her…

Nov 19, 2012 8:12 PM CST

Lawyer Accused of Misusing IDs of Terminally Ill in $30M Investment Scheme Takes Plea

As testimony was about to resume Monday in a federal trial that had been expected to continue for months, a Rhode Island estate planning lawyer and a former employee accused of misusing the identities of dying individuals in a $30 million investment scheme both took a plea. Attorney Joseph Caramadre,…

Nov 19, 2012 6:30 PM CST

Trial Begins for Estate Planning Lawyer Who Bought Annuities for the Dying; Was His Idea Legal?

Updated: Trial has begun–and, much sooner than expected, ended–for a Rhode Island estate planning attorney who was federally indicted (PDF) last year after being accused of making $15 million or more, with the help of others, by defrauding dying individuals into allowing insurance investments to be made in their names…

Nov 14, 2012 9:34 PM CST

1st Circuit: Statutory ‘No’ Means ‘No,’ Entitling Starbucks Baristas to $14M

Baristas who work at Starbucks in Massachusetts are entitled to collect $14.1 million because their tips were shared with supervisors in violation of state law, a federal appeals court has ruled. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the shift supervisors had managerial responsibility, making them ineligible to…

Nov 13, 2012 2:19 PM CST

Federally Convicted of Helping Client Launder $200K, Prominent Defense Lawyer Gets Over 3 Years

Still proclaiming his innocence, a high-profile criminal defense lawyer convicted earlier this year in a $200,000 money-laundering conspiracy for which prosecutors said he earned $20,000 was sentenced Wednesday to a three and a half-year prison federal term. The prosecution in the Boston case had asked for five years; the defense…

Oct 31, 2012 5:34 PM CDT

Chief US District Judge Says Mass. Crime Lab Problems Impact at Least 100 to 200 Federal Cases

It isn’t just thousands of state court cases that have been thrown into a state of uncertainty by problems at a Massachusetts facility that tests drug samples used to prosecute criminal cases. Federal courts in Massachusetts also relied on the state’s crime laboratory to provide accurate information about evidence used…

Oct 11, 2012 8:22 PM CDT

Counsel Will Waive Hefty Legal Fees If Mass. Doesn’t Appeal Inmate’s Sex-Change Surgery Award

A federal judge in Boston has ruled that the Massachusetts Department of Correction will have to pay legal fees for the plaintiff in a successful civil rights suit in which she won an award of state-paid sex-change surgery. The attorney’s fees in the case are “likely to be large,” pointed…

Sep 17, 2012 8:07 PM CDT

In Landmark Ruling, Federal Judge Says Sex-Change Surgery for Murder Inmate Is Medically Necessary

Ruling Tuesday in a seven-year-old civil rights suit in which a transgender prison inmate has been seeking to have the state of Massachusetts pay for sex-change surgery, a federal judge in Boston agreed with Michelle Kosilek and prison doctors that the operation needs to be performed. “This fact that sex…

Sep 4, 2012 6:27 PM CDT

Marriage Proposal: Court May Weigh Levels of Scrutiny for Same-Sex Couples

Gay marriage may move from the political agenda to the U.S. Supreme Court docket this fall when the justices are expected to consider whether to accept two major cases on how the law treats same-sex couples. But unlike the boisterous debates among candidates, the court’s examination promises to be a…

Sep 1, 2012 8:09 AM CDT