Tag Archives: U.S. District Court
Judge separates Carlos Rafael trial from sheriff’s deputy Antonio Freitas – Carlos is up first
A federal district court judge on Monday did as some predicted and
the criminal cases against New Bedford seafood mogul Carlos Rafael and sheriff’s deputy Antonio Freitas. Attorney Dan Cronin, representing Freitas, said Monday afternoon that Judge William Young in U.S. District Court in Boston also moved the start date of the trials to Feb. 6 because of scheduling conflicts. He decided Rafael would go first. Cronin had moved on behalf of Freitas that the cases be separated, but his motion was opposed on a technicality. Prosecutors agreed, however, with Rafael’s attorneys that trying both cases simultaneously would violate Rafael’s rights because of some of the things that Freitas has said in interviews that will actually be used against him and Rafael during the trial. Read the rest of the story here 08:42
Partial transcript of Carlos Rafael’s meeting with undercover IRS agents
Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston Thursday show seafood mogul Carlos Rafael implicating his whole family in his alleged scheme to smuggle cash to the Azores and turn large catches of protected fish into large amounts of cash by selling them under the table. Rafael is also quoted as boasting that he pressured Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson, into giving Deputy Sheriff Antonio Freitas a raise and promotion, and in turn using Freitas to get large amounts of cash around immigration and customs at Logan Airport. The document is an official response to requests by Rafael and Freitas to be tried separately to preserve their individual rights. Read Carlos Rafael’s motion to sever his trial from the trial of Antonio Freitas. Read the government’s response, which contains Carlos Rafael’s alleged statements to undercover agents about the Antonio Freitas and the Bristol County Sheriff’s Department. The items are contained in a partial transcript of a meeting Rafael had with two men he thought were Russian businessmen but who were actually IRS agents operating under cover to learn how Rafael did business. Read the story here 08:55
Fairhaven man sentenced for making hoax distress calls to U.S. Coast Guard
A Fairhaven man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with sending three false distress messages to the U.S. Coast Guard over the radio. Roger Martin, 47, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to one year of probation and ordered to pay $7,182 in restitution to the U.S. Coast Guard. In August 2016, Martin pleaded guilty to three counts of sending false distress messages to the U.S. Coast Guard and one count of identity fraud. Martin, in three separate calls, claimed that he was on a boat in the Cape Cod Canal that was sinking. During the calls he impersonated a resident of Fairhaven, providing a name, street address and, on one occasion, date of birth. Martin had obtained the date of birth through the improper use of a law enforcement database through his former employment as a Bristol Country Sheriff’s dispatcher. In response to the calls, the U.S. Coast Guard and local law enforcement expended resources ascertaining that there was no true emergency and attempting to track down the hoax caller. Link 12:57
Retired Key West fisherman gets year for defrauding BP oil spill program
A retired Key West commercial fisherman who swindled $30,000 from the BP relief program set up after the 2010 oil spill will spend one year and one day in prison for fraud. Raul Rioseco, 73, was sentenced Tuesday at in Key West by Judge Jose Martinez, after taking a plea deal last month in which he admitted to one count of mail fraud. Rioseco, who has been retired since about 2004, was also ordered by the court to make reimbursement of $144,606. But federal prosecutors say he and his daughter combined raided nearly $500,000 from BP for purported income losses in Key West, which didn’t get a drop of oil from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. His daughter, Caridad Rioseco Alejandrez, awaits sentencing July 11 before Martinez in Key West, after prosecutors say she filed some 600 claims after the BP oil spill. Read the rest here 10:34
Prosecutors get extension of deadline to indict New Bedford fishing magnate Carlos Rafael
Prosecutors have received an extension of the deadline to indict local fishing magnate Carlos Rafael, a U.S. District Court spokesperson confirmed Friday. The length of the deadline’s extension was not disclosed. Rafael, 63, was arrested Feb. 26 on charges of conspiracy and submitting falsified records to the government, after federal authorities raided the building on New Bedford’s waterfront. He was released March 2 on a $1 million bond, with conditions including a monitoring bracelet and nightly curfew at his Dartmouth home. Read the story here 07:29
Stonington Maine man pleads guilty to setting fire to lobster boat
A local man has pleaded guilty in federal court to setting fire to another man’s lobster boat, according to a federal prosecutor. Jeremy Eaton, 39, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for setting the fire, which destroyed the fishing boat Heritage on the night of April 16, 2014, according to documents on file in the publicly accessible online document database for U.S. District Court in Bangor. In a prepared statement released late Friday, the U.S attorney’s office for Maine said that on the night of the fire, Eaton walked to the harbor in Stonington, removed gasoline cans from a skiff tied to a dock and then used a small boat to ferry himself and the gas cans to a fiberglass lobster boat moored in the harbor. Read the rest here 08:15
Fishermen await decision about at-sea monitoring lawsuit
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — East Coast fishermen are awaiting a judge’s decision about their contention that the federal government’s plan to hand them the cost of at-sea monitoring is illegal. The fishermen’s challenge was the subject of a hearing at U.S. District Court in Concord on Thursday. The judge didn’t issue an order from the bench, so a decision is expected in the future. Link 17:39
Lawyer requests former co-op manager serve 45 days for lobster scheme
The recommendation for a sentence for 53-year-old Robert Thompson of St. George was filed Friday by attorney Walter McKee. The U.S. attorney’s office has until Tuesday to file its recommended sentence. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of 41 to 51 months. Thompson could also be fined up to $250,000. Read the rest here 11:53
The Green Goon Squad Strikes AGAIN! – NOAA sued again, this time by environmentalists
NEW BEDFORD — For the second time this week, NOAA has been sued — this time twice — by two environmental groups “Managers should be acting conservatively to steward the remaining fish and the places they have retreated to, not making them more available to the fishing fleet. “Opening up protected areas will not magically create new fish.” Seafood consultant James Kendall of New Bedford, a former member of the council, said Friday, “I think they’re full of it.” (oh yes they are, Jim, lawsuits based on random notions!) continued
Eco-Lawsuit Advances against Cape Wind Risk to Right Whale and other Threatened and Endangered Species Litigated
NOTE. Links will be added as they become available. http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x493268917/Suit-claims-Cape-Wind-violates-endangered-species-law
Hyannis, Mass. (October 10, 2012) – Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and other conservation groups today filed a brief in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia detailing Cape Wind’s numerous violations of federal protections for threatened and endangered species – including the imperiled North Atlantic right whale, one of the rarest mammals in the world. This suit charges the project violates three key federal laws – the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Other plaintiffs include the Cetacean Society International, Lower Laguna Madre Foundation, Californians for Renewable Energy, and Three Bays Preservation. This is one of five federal lawsuits facing Cape Wind, a massive industrial project proposed to cover 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound with an array of 130 massive turbines – each stretching taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Today’s brief explains how the mega-project poses serious risks to the right whale, four species of federally-protected sea turtles and several species of migratory birds. It also criticizes the lack of oversight and analysis of the impact of Cape Wind on this critical habitat.
