Archive for the ‘Baran’ Category

The Empire Strikes Back!

Saturday, September 10th, 2022

photo credit:josh landes/wamc
A victory for corruption; a defeat for justice.

Following dominant victory over Harrington in Berkshire DA race, Shugrue thanks controversial legal mentor

“During those first weeks in March, I had the steadfast support of my good friend and mentor, who I think has been in my life for a good part of my legal career, one of the most respected judges in Massachusetts, Judge Daniel Ford,” he said. “Judge Daniel Ford can’t be here tonight because unfortunately he was not feeling well.”

Despite Shugrue’s compliments, Ford is infamous for his role in the prosecution of Bernard Baran in the 1980s. In 1984, Baran – an openly gay man from Lanesborough working at the Early Childhood Development Center in Pittsfield – was arrested on charges of child molestation. As First Assistant District Attorney, Ford secured Baran’s conviction on five counts of rape and five counts of indecent assault and battery. Decades later, an investigation into the trial found enough prosecutorial misconduct to overturn the conviction. The charges were dismissed in 2009, but only after Baran reported experiencing multiple sexual assaults while in prison.

Another of Ford’s convictions – that of Barry Jacobson, a Jewish Manhattan real estate broker accused of arson in the early 1980s – was overturned just this year due to faulty evidence and antisemitism among jurors. A 2014 Washington Post article went as far to ask in its headline “Why is Daniel Ford still a Massachusetts judge?” Ford retired in 2019.

Read the article by Josh Landes of WAMC.

 

Lessons learned from the Baran Case

Saturday, September 4th, 2021

EAGLE FILE PHOTO

“Material gathered by two of Baran’s staunchest supporters, Robert Chatelle and James D’Entremont, provides strong evidence that Baran was railroaded. An insurance company, investigating the day care center’s claim for coverage when it was sued for negligent supervision by several of the victims’ families, elicited statements from the children and others that they were told that their families would forfeit large sums of money if they denied being molested by Baran.”

Read the full article by Dusty Bahlman in the Berkshire Eagle.

Come Hear Super Lawyer John Swomley

Monday, April 8th, 2019

Please join us for an evening of learning and discussion about one of the most controversial issues in America today!

Sex Panic and the Law:

Reflections of an attorney on the front lines

with Attorney John Swomley,

of Swomley & Tennen, LLP

Monday, April 22 @ 6:30 pm

Cambridge Friends Center

5 Longfellow Park, Cambridge, MA

(off Brattle Street coming out of Harvard Square, Cambridge)

John G. Swomley is well-respected as one of the best trial attorneys in Massachusetts. In 2000, he was awarded the Paul Liacos Mental Health Advocacy Award by the Committee for Public Counsel Services for zealous advocacy on behalf of indigent defendants.

Since 2005, Attorney Swomley has repeatedly been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” as published in Boston Magazine. He is a member of the murder panel, a group of lawyers qualified by the Committee for Public Counsel Services to represent indigent defendants in murder prosecutions throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

What are the laws that govern sexual offenses in Massachusetts? What are the social roots of those laws and what are their impact on those harmed by sexual offenses and those accused of such offenses. Do our present sexual offense laws serve the goals of healing and justice.

Sponsored by the:Sex Offender Policy Reform Initiative of the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, National Center for Reason and Justice, and Boston Release Network.

For more information call (617) 623-5288 or go to www.sopri-ma.org

NCRJ Co-Sponsoring Pittsfield Event About Bernard Baran

Sunday, December 9th, 2018

photo: jim d’entremont

On December 12th, the National Center for Reason and Justice and the Pittsfield Massachusetts Human Rights Commission, are sponsoring a presentation at the Pittsfield Atheneum at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Bob Chatelle (Executive Director of the NCRJ), his partner Jim D’Entremont, and attorney John Swomley will discuss the case of Bernard Baran.

We hope to see some of you there.

Eric Tennen Discusses the Baran Case

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

beeRecent

photo: jim d’entremont

This Sunday at 2:00 p.m. EDT Eric Tennen, one of Bernard Baran’s attorneys, will be discussing the case on Worcester radio stations WCRN.

You can listen to the program by following this link.

Are we too hard on sex offenders? Lenore Skenazy on Emily Horowitz

Friday, June 5th, 2015

“She’ll be reading from her book this Sunday night, June 7, at the Bluestockings bookstore, 172 Allen St., on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

“If you’re wondering what it looks like when an academic talks the talk, walks the walk, and changes the lives of future cops and former convicts, don’t miss it.

“I know I won’t.”

Read the full article by Lenore Skenazy in the Downtown Express.

The Remembrance Project: Bernard Baran

Wednesday, December 24th, 2014

photo: jim d’entremont

Without the tireless efforts of the National Center for Reason and Justice, Bernard Baran would have died unknown and without exoneration in prison. We rely on your help to continue our work. Please consider making a donation

From WBUR in Boston:

http://www.wbur.org/2014/12/23/the-remembrance-project-bernard-baran.,

Coakley And The Massachusetts Governorship

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014

Coakley’s career as a prosecutor, and the careers of other prosecutors who seek to leverage their convictions to achieve higher office, deserve close scrutiny. If prosecutors seek to leverage their criminal justice convictions into higher elective office, examination of those convictions would seem to be fair game.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/harveysilverglate/2014/10/22/when-prosecutors-seek-higher-office-questions-often-remain-coakley-and-the-massachusetts-governorship/

When miscarriages of justice occur, prosecutors must answer for actions

Sunday, October 19th, 2014

GLOBE FILE 2006/BOSTON GLOBE

“Looking back at the case would serve a bigger purpose than score-settling. Wrongful convictions like that of Baran endanger trust in the whole judicial system. The Supreme Judicial Court, in its role as the general safeguard of the integrity of the courts, should launch a special inquiry into how justice failed during the hysteria of the 1980s. It must also look at why the Berkshire County district attorney was able to conceal the tapes for so long after the trial, even claiming the tapes were lost. (The tapes only surfaced after Downing died.) That’s also a question that the next state attorney general may want to ask, while also moving to finally expunge Baran’s criminal record.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/10/18/bernard-baran-case-raises-larger-question-should-prosecutors-answer-for-their-actions/NQ9mgWUI64JnW5iidlygiK/story.html

Exonerated man’s friends to recall life cut short

Sunday, October 12th, 2014

BERKSHIRE EAGLE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

“No matter what they did to him, no matter what lies they told, he always came out on top,” Squires said Friday. “He never became a victim of his circumstances.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/10/freedom-short-lived-for-man-whose-molestation-case-was-dropped-after-years-prison/Hz2XBAzXLkp3dsF66SddRL/story.html