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One killed in Dorchester double shooting

One man has died and another victim remains in critical condition following a shooting in Dorchester on Saturday night, Boston Police reported Sunday.

At about 9:47 p.m. Saturday night, police responded to a shot spotter activation around 38 Franklin Hill Ave. in Dorchester, BPD stated.

At the scene, officers found two victims with gunshot wounds. Both victims were taken to a local hospital with “life threatening injuries,” police said.

On of the victims, identified as an adult male, was pronounced dead at the hospital, BPD said. The other remains in critical condition as of Sunday morning.

Boston Police said the Homicide Unit is actively investigation the case, and anyone with information is encouraged to call the unit at 617-343-4470.

Tips may also be reported anonymously through the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS, by texting “TIP” to CRIME, or online. The Boston Neighborhood Trauma Team offers free and confidential support 24/7 for those affected via the number 617-431-0125.

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Battenfeld: Probe of fatal bus crash should be swift and transparent

Mayor Michelle Wu’s “independent” investigation into the fatal bus accident in Hyde Park should be swift and totally transparent and include the city’s failed oversight of the bus vendor Transdev in order to ensure Boston kids are safe getting to school.

The investigation should not take until the end of Wu’s reelection campaign and should rise above politics in the interest of the public and parents.

Wu and BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper should already be taking action to shore up their own weak oversight of Transdev. And police need to immediately release the accident report, which has been kept under wraps.

But there are signs the fix is already in – the investigator, a white collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, has donated to several far-left Democrats and works for a politically connected law firm. And Wu has already determined it was the vendor’s fault and not her administration.

“There are protocols and this is a case where it looks like the responsibilities and obligations of the vendor were not held up,” Wu said last week.

Wu’s appointment of the investigator – Mintz Levin lawyer Natashia Tidwell – came just a week after the Herald and several city councilors called for an outside review of the crash.

Why did it take Wu so long to appoint an investigator in the April 28 accident that killed a 5-year-old Hyde Park boy, Lens Arthur Joseph?

It appears that she finally caved to political and public pressure because of the horrific nature of the crash and the fact that it was blowing back against her administration. Tidwell is charged with reviewing existing safety policies, the bus company’s performance, and making recommendations if more safety measures are needed.

“The public deserves a full understanding of how this could have happened and what changes are needed,” Wu said in a statement.

But will the public really get a “full understanding” of the accident if the investigation is focused on only Transdev and she has already absolved the School department of blame?

And why didn’t Wu appoint someone with no ties to Boston politics?

Tidwell has donated to a number of left-of-center Democratic pols, including Attorney General Andrea Campbell in 2022, 2021 and 2020, former Suffolk County DA Rachel Rollins, Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner and Plymouth County DA candidate Rahsaan Hall, records show.

Tidwell has not donated campaign money to Wu.

But Wu’s campaign has received more than $28,000 from Mintz Levin lawyers and employees, according to campaign finance records.

The Wu administration finally released more detailed information about the accident and the bus driver, Jean Charles, in a Friday news dump, and after nearly a month of silence, Transdev released a statement.

Charles had been involved in four incidents in the last two years, and hit a parked car during the day of the fatal accident, but kept driving against protocol.

It was previously reported that Charles’s certificate to drive the bus had expired in 2024, and he did not try to renew it.

Charles resigned his position after Transdev moved to terminate him.

Lens Arthur, 5, was killed by a school bus in Boston after he exited the vehicle to return home on Monday. (Photo courtesy family)
A makeshift memorial in Hyde Park at the scene of a fatal school bus accident. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

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Today in History: May 24, Brooklyn Bridge opens to traffic

Today is Saturday, May 24, the 144th day of 2025. There are 221 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 24,1883, New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, at the time the world’s longest suspension bridge, opened to traffic.

Also on this date:

In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America’s first telegraph line.

In 1935, the first Major League Baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.

In 1937, in a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

In 1941, during World War II, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board. (The Bismarck would be sunk by British battleships three days later.)

In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard the Aurora 7 spacecraft.

In 1974, American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.

In 1994, four Islamic extremists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

In 2022, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, was also killed. It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. elementary school since the 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Today’s Birthdays:

  • Comedian Tommy Chong is 87.
  • Musician Bob Dylan is 84.
  • Actor Gary Burghoff (M*A*S*H) is 82.
  • Singer Patti LaBelle is 81.
  • Actor Priscilla Presley is 80.
  • Actor Jim Broadbent is 76.
  • Cinematographer Roger Deakins is 76.
  • Actor Alfred Molina is 72.
  • Musician Rosanne Cash is 70.
  • Actor Kristin Scott Thomas is 65.
  • Author Michael Chabon is 62.
  • Basketball Hall of Famer Joe Dumars is 62.
  • Actor John C. Reilly is 60.
  • Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady is 46.
  • Dancer-choreographer Mark Ballas is 39.
  • Country singer Billy Gilman is 37.
  • Rapper G-Eazy is 36.
  • Actor Brianne Howey is 36.
  • Actor Daisy Edgar-Jones is 27.

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Suspect in shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers railed against Gaza war in online posts

By MICHAEL BIESECKER and JIM MUSTIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the years before he was accused of killing two Israeli Embassy employees, the suspect in the fatal shootings was an active participant in Chicago’s left-wing protest scene, speaking out against police violence and a proposed Amazon headquarters. Then the war in Gaza ignited his fury into violence.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, was charged Thursday with the murder of foreign officials and other crimes in connection with the deaths of Israeli citizen Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, an American, as they left an event at a Jewish museum. The couple had plans to become engaged.

He told police after his arrest, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to court filings.

Rodriguez lived in a modest 850-square-foot apartment on Chicago’s north side and worked as an administrative assistant at a medical trade group. He had no apparent criminal record.

In his activism, he protested police violence against minorities and the power of corporations. His online posts had recently become fixated on the war in Gaza, calling for retaliation against Israel.

In the window of his apartment hung a photo of Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Muslim boy killed in a 2023 stabbing in Chicago shortly after the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in Israel. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

A neighbor, John Wayne Fray, described Rodriguez as “quiet and friendly.”

“He seemed like a normal, friendly guy,” Fry told reporters Thursday, standing near yellow crime-scene tape left by law enforcement officers who searched the suspect’s apartment. He said Rodriguez and a woman who lived with him appeared to be “very sensitive people, especially about the issue of Palestine.”

An October 2017 article in Liberation, the online newspaper for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, quoted Rodriguez as a member of the group participating in a protest outside the Chicago home of then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel over the police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald and the city’s bid to be the site for a new Amazon headquarters. A photo of a man holding a protest sign published with the article appeared to match photos of Rodriguez posted on social media.

The organization denied Thursday that Rodriguez was an active member, though it acknowledged a “brief association” in the past. The group also scrubbed the 2017 article identifying Rodriguez as a member from its website.

“We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting,” the group said in a statement. “We know of no contact with (Rodriguez) in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.”

As recently as this week, the group’s X feed posted pro-Palestinian statements calling for an end to the war in Gaza and characterizing Israel’s attacks on Palestinians as genocide.

Family members of Rodriguez and his defense attorney, Elizabeth Mullin, did not return messages seeking comment.

The FBI did not respond to questions about whether he was on the bureau’s radar before the shooting.

A GoFundMe page from 2017 sought to raise money to pay Rodriguez’s way to People’s Congress of Resistance, an event in Washington that September to “fight the Trump agenda and the Congress of millionaires!” As part of the appeal, Rodriguez recounted his father’s military service in the Iraq War.

“When my dad came home from Baghdad, he came with souvenirs,” Rodriguez was quoted as saying. “One was a magazine pouch with a warning in Arabic to back away or my dad would shoot and kill you. … He also gave me a patch of Iraq’s national flag, one he ripped off of an Iraqi soldier’s uniform because he could. I don’t want to see another generation of Americans coming home from genocidal imperialist wars with trophies.”

The effort raised $240.

Social media accounts tied to Rodriguez suggest he had become increasingly focused over the last two years on the Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

An account on X that used a variation of a screen name Rodriguez had used on other sites, along with his given name and photo, frequently featured pro-Palestinian posts, including a video from an October 2023 protest in downtown Chicago against U.S. aid to Israel.

Last October, the account also reposted two videos of speeches by Hassan Nasrallah, a Lebanese cleric and a former leader of Islamic militant group Hezbollah. Nasrallah had been killed two weeks earlier in an Israeli airstrike.

Less than an hour after the shooting in Washington on Thursday night, the X account posted, “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home,” along with screen grabs of a nearly 1,000-word essay signed with Rodriguez’s name. It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez, who was in police custody at the time, had used a feature on X to schedule the release of the post in advance or if another person might have had access to the account.

In the piece, Rodriguez railed against the mounting death toll in Gaza, saying Israel “had obliterated the capacity to even continue counting the dead, which has served its genocide well.”

About 11 years ago, he wrote, he “personally became acutely aware of our brutal conduct in Palestine.” He sought to justify what he called “the morality of armed demonstration,” adding “those of us against the genocide take satisfaction in arguing that the perpetrators and abettors have forfeited their humanity.”

“The atrocities committed by Israelis against Palestine defy description and defy quantification,” he wrote. “We who let this happen will never deserve the Palestinians’ forgiveness.”

Rodriguez also invoked the death last year of Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force who he set himself ablaze outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington while declaring that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide.”

Bushnell’s sacrifice, he wrote, was “not made in vain.” Court records say Rodriguez made similar remarks about Bushnell after he was taken into custody, describing the man as “courageous” and a “martyr.”

At the end of the screed, Rodrigez expressed his love for his parents, his younger sister and the “rest of my familia.” He signed off with “Free Palestine” and the emoji for the Palestinian flag.

Rodriguez’s employer, the American Osteopathic Information Association, issued a statement Thursday expressing shock and saying it would cooperate with investigators.

“As a physician organization dedicated to protecting the health and sanctity of human life, we believe in the rights of all persons to live safely without fear of violence,” the group said.

Mustian reported from New York.

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

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A Paris court will deliver the verdict in Kim Kardashian jewelry heist trial

By THOMAS ADAMSON, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — The robbery was over in minutes, the fallout long: Nearly a decade after robbers stormed Kim Kardashian’s luxury residence and tied her up at gunpoint, a Paris court will decide the verdict Friday in one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history.

Nine men and a woman stand accused of carrying out or aiding the crime during the 2016 Fashion Week, when masked men dressed as police entered Kardashian’s Paris residence, bound her with zip-ties and vanished with $6 million in jewels.

Kim Kardashian, left, accompanied by her mother Kris Jenner leaves the justice palace after testifying, regarding a robbery of millions of dollars in jewels from her Paris hotel room in 2016, in Paris, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

After delivering final statements in court, the defendants were dismissed Friday morning, with a verdict expected later in the day.

At the heart of the trial is 70-year-old Aomar Aït Khedache, the alleged ringleader and a veteran of Paris’ criminal underworld. Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence. His DNA, found on the zip-ties used to bind Kardashian, cracked open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices, and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium. The loot was never found.

Khedache claims he was only a foot soldier. He blamed a mysterious “X” or “Ben” — someone prosecutors say never existed. Khedache asked for “a thousand pardons,” communicated via a written note, according to French media. Other defendants also used their final words to express remorse.

The accused became known in France as “les papys braqueurs” — the grandpa robbers. Some arrived in court in orthopedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. Some read the proceedings from a screen, hard of hearing and nearly mute. But prosecutors warned observers not to be seduced by soft appearances.

The trial is being heard by a panel of three judges and six jurors, who will need a majority vote to reach a decision.

The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and gang association. If convicted, some of them could face life in prison.

Kardashian’s testimony earlier this month was the emotional high point. In a packed courtroom, she recounted how she was thrown onto a bed, zip-tied, and had a gun pressed to her on the night of Oct. 2, 2016.

“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she said. “I have babies. I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home.”

She was dragged into a marble bathroom and told to stay silent. When the robbers fled, she freed herself by scraping the tape on her wrists off against the sink, then hid with her friend, shaking and barefoot.

She said Paris had once been her sanctuary — a city she would wander at 3 a.m., window shopping, stopping for hot chocolate. That illusion was shattered.

The robbery echoed far beyond the City of Light. It forced a recalibration of celebrity behavior in the digital age. For years, Kardashian had curated her life like a showroom: geo-tagged, diamond-lit, public by design. But this was the moment the showroom turned into a crime scene. In her words, “People were watching… They knew where I was.”

Afterward, she stopped posting her location in real time. She stripped her social media feed of lavish gifts and vanished from Paris for years. Other stars followed suit. Privacy became luxury.

Defense attorneys have asked the court for leniency, citing the defendants’ age and health. But prosecutors insist that criminal experience, not frailty, defined the gang.

Even for France’s painstakingly thorough legal system, observers commented about how long it took for the case to be tried.

Kardashian, who once said “this experience really changed everything,” hopes the verdict will offer a measure of closure.

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Today in History: May 23, outlaws Bonnie and Clyde killed in police ambush

Today is Friday, May 23, the 143rd day of 2025. There are 222 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death during a police ambush in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Also on this date:

In 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, aligning with the Triple Entente of Russia, France and the United Kingdom.

In 1945, Nazi official Heinrich Himmler killed himself while in British custody in Lüneburg, Germany.

In 1984, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issued a report saying there was “very solid” evidence linking cigarette smoke to lung disease in non-smokers.

In 2013, the Boy Scouts of America announced it would remove membership restrictions based on sexual orientation, while maintaining a ban on openly gay Scout leaders. (The ban on gay Scout leaders and organization employees was lifted two years later.)

In 2015, supporters of marriage equality in Ireland celebrated as referendum results showed a constitutional amendment in favor of recognizing same-sex marriage passing by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

In 2018, NFL owners approved a new policy allowing players to protest during the national anthem by staying in the locker room but forbidding players from sitting or taking a knee if they’re on the field.

In 2021, a cable car taking visitors to a mountaintop view of northern Italy’s Lake Maggiore plummeted to the ground when a cable snapped, killing 14 people.

Today’s Birthdays:

  • Actor Joan Collins is 92.
  • Tennis Hall of Famer John Newcombe is 81.
  • Chess grand master Anatoly Karpov is 74.
  • Comedian-TV host Drew Carey is 67.
  • Comedian-actor Lea DeLaria is 67.
  • Author Mitch Albom is 67.
  • Actor Melissa McBride is 60.
  • Singer-songwriter Maxwell is 52.
  • “Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings is 51.
  • Singer-songwriter Jewel is 51.
  • Filmmaker Ryan Coogler is 39.
  • Singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz (juh-ROHZ’) is 34.

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Karen Read murder retrial: Complete trial 2.0 coverage

Mansfield’s Karen Read is on her second trial for the murder of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, on Jan. 29, 2022. Here’s an index to all of the Herald’s coverage.

It is the second time Read is on trial. She was tried a year ago on the same charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death, but that ended in mistrial on July 1, 2024.

Get up to speed with our guides to what to know and who to know in this trial. Read coverage of the last trial at its own daily coverage index.

The new trial began on April 22 following three weeks of jury selection, which began April 1.

Follow complete daily coverage in the index below.

Witnesses are listed only in order of first appearance. If they are recalled later that is not noted unless continued testimony is the only testimony. The daily notes also make note of other events, like questioning of witnesses outside of the jury’s presence or the jury’s trip to 34 Fairview Road.

Jump to…

Daily testimony

Called on Day 1, April 22:

1. Timothy Nuttall, Canton Fire Department paramedic
2. Kerry Roberts, Canton, Mass.

Called on Day 2, April 23:

3. Peggy O’Keefe, Canton, Mass.
4. Trooper Nicholas Guarino, Massachusetts State Police
5. Daniel Whitley, Canton Fire Department paramedic

Called on Day 3, April 24:

6. Jean DeMulis, general manager, C.F. McCarthy’s
7. Brigid Meehan, owner and manager, Waterfall Bar & Grille
8. Michael Camerano, Canton, Mass.

Called on Day 4, April 25:

Event: Viewing of 34 Fairview Road and Read’s Lexus LX570 SUV
9. Dr. Garrey Faller, former chief pathologist at Good Samaritan Medical Center
10. Jason Becker, Canton Fire paramedic

Called on Day 5, April 28:

11. Ian Whiffin, digital forensics analyst, Cellebrite
Event: ARCCA witnesses questioned out of jury’s presence

Called on Day 6, April 29:

12. Jennifer McCabe, Canton, Mass.

Called on Day 7, April 30:

McCabe continuing testimony

Called on Day 8, May 2:

13. Hannah Knowles, MSP crime lab

Called on Day 9, May 5:

14. Ryan Nagel, Canton, Mass.
15. Heather Maxon, Plainville, Mass.
16. Sara Levinson, Canton, Mass.
17. Katie McLaughlin, Canton Fire paramedic
18. Lt. Paul Gallagher, Canton Police Department, ret.

Called on Day 10, May 6:

19. Robert Gilman, meteorologist
20. Lt. Charles Rae, Canton PD
21. Lt. Kevin O’Hara, Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) commander, MSP

Called on Day 11, May 7:

22. Trooper Connor Keefe, MSP
23. Jessica Hyde, digital forensics expert

Called on Day 12, May 8:

24. Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, MSP

Called on Day 13, May 9:

Bukhenik continuing testimony, full reading of Read and Brian Higgins text messages

Called on Day 14, May 12:

Bukhenik continuing testimony

Unexpected break day, May 13

Called on Day 15, May 14:

25. John O’Keefe’s niece. Minor witnesses are not to be named per court order.
26. Sgt. Zachary Clark, MSP
27. Sgt. Even Brent, MSP
28. Maureen Hartnett, MSP crime lab

Called on Day 16, May 15:

29. Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, forensic pathologist, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Massachusetts

Called on Day 17, May 16:

30. Andre Porto, MSP crime lab
31. Ash Vallier, MSP crime lab

Called on Day 18, May 19:

32. Nick Bradford, DNA analyst at BODE Technology, Virginia
33. Karl Miyasako, DNA analyst at BODE Technology, Virginia
34. Shanon Burgess, digital forensics examiner, Aperture, Dallas office

Called on Day 19, May 20:

35. Christina Hanley, MSP crime lab

Called on Day 20, May 21:

36. Dr. Aizik Wolf, neurosurgeon, director of the Miami Neuroscience Center at Larkin Community Hospital, Miami

This list will update as the trial continues.

Prosecution’s witness list

This is the Commonwealth’s updated witness list filed on March 19. It includes Read’s attorneys at the end with an accompanying note preserved here.

CIVILIAN WITNESSES

1. Albert, Brian

2. Albert, Brian Jr.

3. Albert, Caitlin

4. Albert, Chris

5. Albert, Colin

6. Albert, Julie

7. Albert, Nicole

8. Bernstein, Steven (Keeper of Record)

9. Boudreau, Kaitlin

10. Camerano, Michael

11. Camerano, Katie

12. D’Antuono, Richard

13. DeMulis, Jean (Keeper of Record)

14. Higgins, Brian

15. Jutras, Louis

16. Juvenile K.F.

17. Juvenile P.F.

18. Kearney, Aidan

19. Levinson, Sara

20. Maxon, Heather

21. McCabe, Jennifer

22. McCabe, Matthew

23. Meehan, Brigid (Keeper of Record)

24. Nagel, Julie

25. Nagel, Ryan

26. O’Keefe, Erin

27. O’Keefe, Margaret

28. O’Keefe, Paul

29. Read, Nathan

30. Read, William

31. Roberts, Curt

32. Roberts, Kerry

33. Scanlon, Steven

34. Sullivan, Laura

35. Sullivan, Marietta

36. Trayers, Rebecca

37. Trotta, Michael

38. Voss, Gretchen

39. Wiweke-Bershneider, Natalie

CANTON FIRE DEPARTMENT

40. Becker, Jason

41. Flematti, Anthony

42. Kelly, Matthew

43. McLaughlin, Katie

44. Nuttall, Timothy

45. Walsh, Francis

46. Whitley, Daniel

47. Woodbury, Gregory

LAW ENFORCEMENT WITNESSES

Canton Police Department

48. DiGiampietro, Paul – Sergeant (Ret.)

49. Gallagher, Paul — Lieutenant (Ret.)

50. Goode, Sean — Sergeant

51. Lank, Michael — Lieutenant

52. Mullaney, Stephen

53. Rafferty, Helena — Chief

54. Ray, Charles — Lieutenant

55. Saraf, Steven

56. Wanless, Brian (Ret.)

Needham Police Department

57. Gallerani, Brian – Sergeant

Massachusetts State Police

58. Brent, Evan

59. Bukhenik, Yuriy — Sergeant

60. Clark, Zachary — Sergeant

61. Guarino, Nicholas

62. O’Hara, Kevin

63. Paul, Joseph

64. Proctor, Michael

65. Tully, Brian — Lieutenant

FORENSIC LABORATORY WITNESSES

BODE

66. Bradford, Nicholas

67. Chart, Tess

U.C. Davis – Veterinary Genetic Laboratory

68. Kun, Teri

Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory

69. Hanley, Christina

70. Hartnett, Maureen

71. Hryzan, Sophie

72. Knowles, Hannah

73. Porto, Andre

74. Vaillier, Ashley

EXPERT WITNESSES

75. Burgess, Shanon, Aperture, LLC

76. Crawford, Coleen, Norfolk District Attorney’s Office

77. Crosby, James W, MS. Ph.D, Canine Aggression Consulting, LLC.

78. Gilman, Robert, New England Weather Science

79. Hyde, Jessica, Hexordia LLC.

80. Faller, Garrey, MD., Good Samaritan Hospital

81. Klane, Andrew, Aperture, LLC.

82. Merolli, Mike, Aperture, LLC.

83. Rice, Justin, M.D., South Shore Hospital

84. Scordi-Bello, Irini, M.D., Office of Chief Medical Examiner

85. Stonebridge, Renee, M.D, Office of Chief Medical Examiner

86. Welcher, Judson, Ph.D, Aperture LLC.

87. Whiffin, Ian, Cellebrite

88. Wolf, Aizik L., M.D., Miami Neuroscience Center

COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT*

89. Jackson, Alan

90. Little, Elizabeth

91. Yannetti, David

*The Commonwealth notices that it may be necessary to call defense counsels to authenticate the defendant’s numerous public statements.

Defense’s list

This the defense’s list filed on March 18. It notes that “Ms. Read also reserves the right to call any of the witnesses included on the Commonwealth’s witness list or any witnesses necessary for rebuttal.”

1. Brian Albert

2. Caitlin Albert

3. Christopher Albert

4. Colin Albert

5. Julie Albert

6. Kevin Albert

7. Nicole Albert

8. Michael Wagner

9. Sheryl Waugh

10. Paul Mackowski

11. Leslie Bernstein

12. Rebecca Baizen

13. Officer Nicholas Barros

14. Trooper Evan Brent

15. Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik

16. Laurie Cahill

17. Trooper Zachary Clark

18. Christopher Curran

19. Kerri Curran

20. Nicholas Curran

21. Richard D’Antuono

22. Officer Kelly Dever

23. Stephanie Devlin

24. Trooper David Dicicco

25. Patrick Haggerty

26, Maureen Hartnett

27. Brian Albert, Jr.

28. Brian Higgins

29. Louis Jutrus

30. Trooper Connor Keefe

31. Matthew Kelly

32. Karina Kolokithas

33. Nicholas Kolokithas

34. Teri Kun

35. Sergeant Michael Lank

36. Brian Loughran

37. Heather Maxon

38. Allison McCabe

39. Jennifer McCabe

40. Matthew McCabe

41. Lance Mello

42. Ryan Nagel

43. Steve Nelson

44. Andre Porto

45. Hollie Price

46. Trooper Kathleen Prince

47. Elizabeth Proctor

48. Trooper. Michael Proctor

49. Kerry Roberts

50. Wendell Robery

51. Steven Ridge

52. Heriberto Hernandez

53. Marc Lopilato

54. Alfredo Lopilato

55. Angela Malvone

56. Lt. Brian Tully

57. Courtney Proctor

58. Tristan Morris

59. Jean DeMulis

60. Mary Souza

61. Ashley Bell

62. Mike Rushworth

63. Matthew Amory

64. Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey

65. Thomas Beatty

66. Erin Beatty

67. Meghan Mariani

68. Thomas Martin

69. John O’Keefe, Sr.

70. Lt. John Fanning

71. Matthew Kelsch

72. Thomas Keleher

73. Annie Cheung

74. Helena Rafferty

75. Irini Scordi-Bello

76. Trooper Jeffrey Kostkowski

77. Trooper Joseph Paul

78. Sgt. Paul J DiGiampietro

79. Sgt. Paul Gallagher

80. Chris Van Ee, PhD.

81. Richard Green

82. Daniel Wolfe, Ph.D.

83. Andrew Rentschler, PhD.

84. Maggie Gaffney

85. Derek Ellington

86. Michael Easter

87. Matthew Erickson

88. Matthew DiSogra, MS, PE

89. Elizabeth Laposata, MD, FCAP, FASCP

90. Dr. Marie Russell, MD, CCHP-P

91. Garrett Wing

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US Mint moves forward with plans to kill the penny

By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Mint has made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop producing the coin when those run out, a Treasury Department official confirmed Thursday.

An immediate annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs is expected by stopping penny production, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the news.

In February, President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered his administration to cease production of the 1-cent coin.

Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost — almost 4 cents per penny now, according to the U.S. Mint — and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel, which costs almost 14 cents to mint.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

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Rapper Kid Cudi is set to testify at the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Kid Cudi is set to testify Thursday at the New York sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs after one of the music mogul’s ex-aides finishes telling the jury about the threatening world he recalls encountering when he worked for Combs.

Cudi’s turn on the witness stand will come immediately after George Kaplan, a former personal assistant to Combs, finishes his testimony. A prosecutor said testimony by Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, was not expected to be lengthy.

R&B singer Cassie testified last week that Combs threatened to blow up Cudi’s car and hurt him after he learned she was dating the rapper and actor.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges lodged against him after he was arrested in September at a Manhattan hotel.

The criminal federal probe of Combs began in November 2023, a day after Cassie sued him in Manhattan federal court, alleging years of sexual and physical abuse. The lawsuit was settled by Combs for $20 million the following day.

In four days of testimony last week, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, said Combs subjected her to abuse through most of the nearly 11 years she was with him from 2007 through 2018.

She said she developed a relationship with Cudi in late 2011 that she ended within weeks after Combs learned about it when he looked at her phone during a drug-laced “freak-off” sexual performance, one of hundreds she said she endured over the years.

Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified on Tuesday that she received an email from her daughter shortly before the holidays in 2011 saying Combs was going to release sex tapes of her and arrange for Cassie and Cudi to be physically harmed.

She said Combs then contacted her directly and demanded $20,000 for the money he’d spent on Cassie. Regina Ventura said she drained a home equity account to send the money, but Combs returned it days later.

Cudi is to follow Kaplan to the witness stand after the personal assistant to Combs from 2013 to 2015 finishes telling about what he experienced during 80- to 100-hour work weeks.

He testified Wednesday that he got a taste of what the job would be like in his first week when Combs sent him to a grocery store to get a gallon container of water and berated him when he returned with two half-gallon containers instead.

“He told me I did not bring him what he asked for. He was angry. He was very close to my face,” Kaplan said.

He said his job was threatened monthly by Combs. Cassie was asked, when she testified, if any Combs employee ever quit after witnessing Combs’ abuse. She said Kaplan did.

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Fallen service members remembered with U.S. flag display on the Common

As they do every year ahead of Memorial Day, volunteers placed tens of thousands of U.S. flags around Boston Common’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial on Wednesday in tribute to the many fallen U.S. service members who called the Bay State home.

Beginning from the years ahead of our nation’s founding on to the present, more than 37,000 people from Massachusetts have sacrificed their lives during service and as a result of military conflict, and Home Base and Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund have marked their dedication with a display of American flags on the Common for the last 16 years running.

According to information provided by the groups, each of the planted flags serves to “represent every brave Massachusetts service member who gave his or her life defending our country since the Revolutionary War.”

“The completed garden is a breathtaking tribute to the true meaning of Memorial Day and a powerful message of community support to the families of these fallen heroes that their sacrifices will never be forgotten,” the group writes of their efforts.

A name reading ceremony was scheduled for Thursday morning at the memorial, but has been moved to “an indoor, private location with limited capacity” due to forecasted inclement weather.

The flags are scheduled to stay in place on the Common until the evening of May 27, and despite the nor’easter forecast Thursday, the groups behind the flag display say the public should feel free to stop by through the weekend to take in the scale of their installation and consider precisely what it is meant to represent.

“We highly encourage members of our community to visit the flag display on Boston Common throughout the weekend to show Massachusetts Families of the Fallen that their loved ones’ ultimate sacrifice is honored and will never be forgotten,” the group wrote.

Jodi Kross and her son Thomas, 9, plant some of the 37,000 flags on Boston Common to honor Massachusetts residents killed while serving in the U.S. military. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
Cassandra Sexton, 10, helps plant flags on Boston Common, Wednesday. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

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