Shocking!!
Joan Vennochi
An imbalance of justice
Chuck Turner speaks outside the courthouse following his sentencing. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)
By Joan Vennochi Globe Columnist / January 27, 2011
AS FORMER Boston city councilor Chuck Turner heads off to prison for accepting a $1,000 bribe, consider the long-running case of another ex-politician, James Marzilli Jr.
Back in June 2008, the then-Democratic senator from Arlington was charged with harassing or attempting to grope women in downtown Lowell. Two-and-a-half years later, Marzilli’s case has not come to trial. A status review is scheduled for Feb. 22.
Marzilli’s lawyer, Terrence W. Kennedy, insists, “There was nothing dilatory about the way the case was handled. There were significant legal issues that had to be resolved.’’
Among those legal issues: Kennedy challenged the constitutionality of a charge of annoying a person of the opposite sex, saying there are no equal laws that would criminalize annoying and accosting a person of the same sex. He also suggested that because Marzilli allegedly never actually touched anyone, he committed no crime.
But when Superior Court Judge Paul A. Chernoff raised this specific legal question — “Does an indictment alleging an attempt to commit the crime of indecent assault and battery charge a felony offense that is cognizable under the laws of the Commonwealth?’’ — the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court came back with a unanimous answer: Yes, it does.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/e.../articles/2011/01/27/an_imbalance_of_justice/
Joan Vennochi
An imbalance of justiceChuck Turner speaks outside the courthouse following his sentencing. (Jim Davis/Globe Staff)
By Joan Vennochi Globe Columnist / January 27, 2011
AS FORMER Boston city councilor Chuck Turner heads off to prison for accepting a $1,000 bribe, consider the long-running case of another ex-politician, James Marzilli Jr.
Back in June 2008, the then-Democratic senator from Arlington was charged with harassing or attempting to grope women in downtown Lowell. Two-and-a-half years later, Marzilli’s case has not come to trial. A status review is scheduled for Feb. 22.
Marzilli’s lawyer, Terrence W. Kennedy, insists, “There was nothing dilatory about the way the case was handled. There were significant legal issues that had to be resolved.’’
Among those legal issues: Kennedy challenged the constitutionality of a charge of annoying a person of the opposite sex, saying there are no equal laws that would criminalize annoying and accosting a person of the same sex. He also suggested that because Marzilli allegedly never actually touched anyone, he committed no crime.
But when Superior Court Judge Paul A. Chernoff raised this specific legal question — “Does an indictment alleging an attempt to commit the crime of indecent assault and battery charge a felony offense that is cognizable under the laws of the Commonwealth?’’ — the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court came back with a unanimous answer: Yes, it does.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/e.../articles/2011/01/27/an_imbalance_of_justice/