Tag Archives: District of Massachusetts
Offshore Wind Litigation: Court Declines to Halt Vineyard Wind Construction
A federal court has denied a request by members of the fishing industry to pause offshore construction of the Vineyard Wind Project (Project), the first modern utility-scale offshore wind project in the United States to receive all permits and approvals necessary to begin construction. On May 25, 2023, Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts denied a motion for stay, or in the alternative, for preliminary injunction,,, In Seafreeze Shoreside, Inc. et al. v. US Department of the Interior et al., the plaintiffs alleged that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and various other federal permitting agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), and a variety of other statutes and regulations by issuing the Project’s lease and its final approvals. >click to read< 16:57
Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Murder Aboard Commercial Scallop Boat
Franklin Freddy Meave Vazquez, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of murder in the second degree, one count of attempted murder, and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs scheduled sentencing for June 28, 2022. Meave Vazquez was indicted in November 2018. On Sept. 23, 2018, the scalloping vessel, F/V Captain Billy Haver, was sailing approximately 55 miles off the coast of Nantucket with seven crew members aboard, including Meave Vazquez and the three victims. Inside the shucking house, Meave Vazquez used a hammer to strike Victim A hard in the head into unconsciousness. Meave Vazquez then walked out onto the deck,,, >click to read< 22:17
Owner of Commercial Fishing Business and Local Sherrif’s Deputy Indicted in Scheme to Falsify Fishing Records
BOSTON – The owner of one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the United States and a Bristol County Sheriff’s Deputy were charged in connection with a long-running scheme involving submitting falsified records to the federal government to evade federal fishing quotas and then smuggling the profits to Portugal. The federal indictment charging the two men was unsealed today after the arrest of the Sheriff’s Deputy. Carlos Rafael, 64, of Dartmouth, the owner of Carlos Seafood, Inc., was indicted on one count of conspiring to falsify reports submitted to the federal government, 25 counts of submitting falsified records and one count of bulk cash smuggling. Rafael was previously arrested on a criminal complaint filed in February 2016. Antonio Freitas, 46, of Taunton, a Sheriff’s Deputy with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, was indicted on one count of bulk cash smuggling and one count of structuring the export of U.S. currency. Freitas was arrested this morning and will appear today in U.S. District Court in Worcester. The charges arose out of an undercover investigation in which federal agents posed as organized crime figures interested in buying Carlos Seaford. Read the rest here 18:09
