Trials

A former high-ranking member of a Roman Catholic religious order has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for raping a boy at a Massachusetts summer camp in the 1980s. The Rev. Richard McCormick, of New York, was also sentenced last week in Lawrence Superior Court to 10 years of probation. The 73-year-old […]

The Union Leader reports that a former Lawrence, Mass., police officer recently found not guilty of sexual assault charges in Florida is now expected to face trial in a second case from the 1990s involving a Salem NH girl. Carlos Gonzalez III, 48, was released on $100,000 personal recognizance bail in Rockingham County Superior Court […]

The Worcester Telegram reports that opening arguments were held this week in U.S. District Court in a civil jury case in which a doctor allegedly sexually abused an 11-year-old boy nearly 40 years ago when the doctor was a student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The defendant is Dr. Richard B. Edison, now […]

A Queens, NY judge has rejected Bob Oliva’s motion to dismiss the $20 million lawsuit filed by a man who was sexually abused by the former Christ the King Regional High School basketball coach. The decision by Queens Supreme Court Judge Roger N. Rosengarten means the case will go to trial later this year unless […]

The Boston Globe reported today that a plea deal to resolve sexual abuse charges stemming from the alleged molestations of three former students of Brookline’s Maimonides School collapsed at the last minute when Rabbi Stanley Z. Levitt decided that he would not plead guilty to the charges and would instead take his case to a […]

Accused child molester Ernest Lorch, the founder of the prestigious Riverside Church (NY) basketball program, is not competent to be extradited to Massachusetts to stand trial for sexual abuse, a Westchester judge ruled in White Plains, as reported by the Daily News. State Supreme Court Judge Albert Lorenzo made the ruling after prosecutor Carrie Russell […]

The state Appeals Court has overturned the conviction of a Lowell woman found guilty along with her husband in 1997 of drugging and raping their four sons because she may have been incompetent to stand trial. The court in its decision last week said a Superior Court judge erred in 2002 when he denied Nancy […]

A Boston doctor avoided going to trial by admitting to a judge yesterday that he traveled to Alaska in 2009 with the intention of having sex with a 6-year-old boy. The Associated Press reports that John Mark Felton, a 47-year-old research physician, was to be tried Monday in US District Court in Anchorage. He decided […]

The Berkshire Eagle reports that Gary Mercure, the Catholic priest, could spend the rest of his life in prison for raping two altar boys in the Berkshires. It took less than two hours for a Berkshire Superior Court jury to convict the 62-year-old on three counts of forcible child rape and one count of indecent […]

A sexual assault case against a Connecticut man involving a 14-year-old girl took an unexpected turn at Hartford Superior Court when a Massachusetts woman appeared with a new allegation of abuse that allegedly occurred in Somerville 21 years ago, as reported by the Somerville Patch website. Nelson M. Kawakami, 57, of 401 Prospect Ave., West […]

Plea negotiations have broken down for former Holyoke teacher Lisa M. Lavoie, who is accused of running off with a 15-year-old student, scuttling a change of plea hearing scheduled for this week, according to the Springfield Republican. Lavoie, 25, of Ludlow, was scheduled to plead guilty in Hampden Superior Court before Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty […]

A Sudbury nursing home resident who said she was sexually assaulted by an employee of the home more than a year ago will be allowed to testify at his trial, a judge has ruled, as reported by the Metrowest Daily News. Ruby McDonough will be allowed to testify against Kofi Agana in his Framingham District […]

The trial of a former Catholic priest on child sexual abuse charges has been postponed again — the third time the trial has been adjourned since July, according to the Glens Falls Post Star, an upstate NY newspaper. Gary Mercure was to stand trial Nov. 1, but the case has been postponed because of “unavailability […]