J.M. Lawrence

I’ve covered news in state and federal courts for more than 20 years— serial killers, mob bosses, terrorists. I have never seen a judge psychologically abuse a defendant the way Judge McCarthy-Neyman treated you last year in what should have been a routine hearing. The transcript doesn’t quite capture the judge’s inexplicable animus toward an already mentally fragile pre-trial defendant; only the audio preserves it. One wonders if the SJC heard the tape, or just reviewed the transcript. Perhaps the Judicial Conduct Commission will listen to the recording.

I thought healing from a gunshot wound would be the hard part, but then McCarthy-Neyman said hold my beer. Nothing says fair and impartial like leaving a court room more traumatized than the actual gunshot

Retired Judge Lu defends another judge’s 2021 sentence of accused Cambridge gunman.Says mistakes possible in mental health care upon man’s release. “Judges can't solve all the problems of society," Lu said. “Locking everybody up forever is not the answer." cbsnews.com/boston/news/re…

Cambridge shooter Tyler Brown had been released from psychiatric care at McLean Hospital before he randomly fired at cars yesterday along Memorial Drive near Boston, according to court documents. Brown, 46, was suspected of doing drugs again and was suicidal, his parole officer had told Boston Police Monday morning before Brown started shooting. Brown was living in a rooming house and had finished a controversial 5-year sentence for shooting at police back in 2020. He was released on parole last year. "I'm not going back to prison," Brown allegedly told the parole officer during the Monday phone call that spurred a law enforcement BOLO. Police quickly traced Brown's phone location to Cambridge just after 1 p.m. Shots were reported around 1:30 p.m. Brown critically wounded two men, shot at multiple vehicles and is charged with two counts of attempted murder among other charges including possession of a large capacity firearm. Video taken by a witness captured an image of a wounded Brown, 46, laying on his back amid a gun fight with police. He continues firing from the ground, throws his gun to the side and motions to his chest with both hands as if inviting more bullets. He survived and was taken into custody.

@Raptor14F @TedDanielnews It was 2020. It was actually DA Rollins who wanted the tougher sentence of 10-12 years.

@TedDanielnews Rollins should be thrown in jail corrupt and still in the game. Protect yourselves at all costs it’s a jungle out there

BREAKING: Boston 25 Sources identify the man who fired at law enforcement on Memorial Drive as 46 year old Tyler Brown. A Tyler Brown with the same birthdate previously shot at Boston Police Officer in May 2020. Then Suffolk DA Rachael Rollins put out a news release in 2021, criticizing the Judge who sentenced Brown in that case for only giving him five to six years in state prison and three years of probation. Rollins said: “I strongly believe that the sentence we proposed – 10 to 12 years followed by five years of probation – was appropriate for the level of brazen violence committed. Of equal concern is the imposition of concurrent sentences for a prior and separate violent assault on a ​different member of our community.”

Shocking new video shows a gunman opening fire indiscriminately on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Police say there is no current threat to the public but the incident has shut down the usually busy road for hours on Monday afternoon.

Man allegedly fired shots at motorists in Cambridge this afternoon. Reports say he was shot by police in gun fight. (note this video captured audio of gunfight but does not contain image of moment suspect was shot.)

@Theholisticpsyc Reminds me of a profound poem Memory, by Louise Gluck: Long ago, I was wounded. I lived to revenge myself against my father, not for what he was-- for what I was: from the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved.

Some people have had burnout since they were children. They don't want to work and want to crawl under the blanket because they've never actually been taken are of or had someone help. It's not that people are lazy, it's that they're at a breaking point.

Protest tonight outside Boston Symphony Hall in support of conductor Andris Nelson. Musicians strongly oppose the BSO board’s abrupt decision to drop Nelson. Many wearing red roses on stage in solidarity. Board says his vision did not align with theirs for the future.

The prosecutor has no right to request that the press muzzle itself. During jury selection, both sides will ferret out the extent of a potential juror’s exposure to pre-trial publicity. That’s their problem, not yours. You can be sensitive to a crime victim AND fulfill your commitment to report the news both at the same time.

@ohiogal18 The prosecutor is concerned the defense will be concerned about jury tainting so she asked us not to share anymore.

I have been asked to no longer report daily on Larry Millete’s pre-trial motions specifics. Yes, this is a public hearing. I will not stop taking my extremely detailed notes. Stay tuned. #justicedelayed #mayamillete #truecrime #freedomofthepress

@milletetrial Do not stop reporting. This is a public trial. Only a judge can close a courtroom. Seek assistance from fire.org/defending-your…

Feds tell court that former Stoughton cop Matthew Farwell wrote a stunning note to a friend on the day news broke that a new medical report found Farwell's mistress had died in 2021 by strangulation, not suicide. "In that note, he tells his friend that he wishes 'this had all gone a different way.' Farwell asks his friend not to forget his wife and to step in and raise his children. He indicates that 'this is the hardest thing [he has] ever done,' and that he would see his friend 'on the other side,' " federal prosecutors said in a court filing. The full June 24, 2024, note has not been made public. Federal prosecutors quoted the note while firing back at Farwell's defense attempt to win his release on bail. He awaits trial on charges of murdering Sandra Birchmore, 24, whom the govt. says was a victim of grooming and statutory rape at age 15. She became a member of the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy at age 12. Prosecutors also say Farwell's phone reveals his ongoing interest in porn involving young teen girls and domination. The govt. argues he is a "danger to the community" and should not be released. In a prior court filing, the govt. revealed DNA evidence ties Farwell to the strap found around Birchmore's neck. The Norfolk County District Attorney's office investigated her death but filed no charges. A detention hearing is scheduled for Tues. morning, 4/28, in federal court in Boston. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

@OnlyInBOS Spotted along the Marathon course today.

At Mile 2, runners are still greeted by Spencer. Now forever remembered with a statue along the Boston Marathon route. 💙💛

Heartbreak Hill. Here they come. 130th Boston Marathon.

Come on. Toughen up. It’s a runners’ weekend!

The attorney who won $1.4 billion defamation verdict against far-right media personality Alex Jones has taken up a new cause: suing Karen Read and Turtleboy Aiden Kearney for defamation. Attorney Chris Mattei is part of the legal team representing Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert, Colin Albert and Brian Higgins in lawsuit filed today in Barnstable Superior. They were witnesses against Read who was acquitted in 2025 of killing her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe. Their lawsuit seeks treble damages under consumer protection laws for unfair business practices. Suit contends Read and Kearney conspired to inflict emotional distress through false allegations that the plaintiffs were responsible for the death of Read's boyfriend. "As a result of Defendants’ campaign, the Plaintiffs have been forced to endure malicious and cruel abuse at the hands of ruthless and unscrupulous people," the complaint says. Attorney Mattei won the largest defamation award in U.S. history on behalf of Sandy Hook families whose children were killed in the 2012 mass murder that radio host Jones said was "completely fake" and a "hoax." Jones filed bankruptcy. koskoff.com/attorney/chris…

Happy “Flying Pizza” Day if you’re observing it… 19 years ago today. April 16, 2007, Marathon Day, a fan at Fenway Park chucked a slice of 🍕 at another fan. It was a custom job.

Today's anniversary of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings brings up one of the biggest woulda, coulda, shoulda's in the region's history. Thanks to deep reporting by @SusanZalkind @MicheleMcPhee and others, we now know it's highly likely that on 9/11/2011, bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev cut the throats of 3 men in Waltham and covered them in marijuana. Tamerlan shoulda been locked up on that Marathon Day instead of killing and maiming innocents. And he mighta actually also have been an FBI informant, though the bureau adamantly denies this. The investigation into the Waltham murders was slow walked and botched in part due to systemic failures embedded in the Commonwealth's lack of a centralized statewide major crimes unit, Zalkind said in her book, "The Murders Before the Marathon." Instead of a central unit, the 11 satellite units of state troopers assigned to county DA's offices create environments conducive to conflicts and coverups. Hello, Karen Read case. Hello Matt Farwell case. Add to this lookback another wild bit of history: the 2013 still hard-to-fathom FBI agent's shooting of Tamerlan's boxing pal Ibragim Todashev DURING an interrogation in which Todashev was implicating Tamerlan in those Waltham murders. It took decades before some truths about James "Whitey" Bulger were unearthed. Maybe the full truth about Tamerlan will surface one day.

After hearing 4 hours of testimony about love gone wrong, way wrong, like to the bottom of the sea wrong, Boston Judge Paul Treseler has taken under advisement motions for restraining orders filed by media personality Turtleboy and his ex-girlfriend Meredith O'Neil against each other. "This fire needs to go out," Judge Treseler said as he left the bench. The judge, who was a Suffolk prosecutor, drug crimes fighter and former parole board head, sounded unfamiliar with the online world of profane livestreams, X posts and shows like the one played in court today where Turtleboy Aiden Kearney discussed his sex life with O'Neil, including an attempt at "reverse cowgirl." "Are these published out to the internet to whoever is turned on by that kind of thing?" the judge asked. Later, the judge asked incredulously, “And 200,000 people would log on to see whatever he was saying?" (Turtleboy later clarified not quite that many.) O'Neil claims Turtleboy's campaign against her last fall after their breakup "ruined" her life. She was fired in Feb. from her post as vice president at a multinational bank because of "reputational harm" to the company posed by Turtleboy and his followers tagging on X, she testified. Turtleboy argues her own online behavior attacking him led to her firing. After they broke up last summer over allegations of cheating, he says his ex retaliated by leaking confidential evidence from Norfolk County's pending witness intimidation case against him. She had helped him with his court case and had access to an entire extraction of his phone, including nude pictures of himself and past girlfriends. In South Boston, he testified today that O'Neil tried to extort him by threatening to release more from the phone. O'Neil said she was "trying to defend myself against the lies he was spreading." Judge Treseler quickly caught on to the ways of content creators. When Turtleboy's lawyer objected to the inference that Turtleboy endorsed another creator's claims about O'Neil just because he broadcast parts of the other creator’s show, the judge remarked, "I don’t think he did it because he’s in love." The mud was flying all afternoon. Turtleboy claimed he once found O'Neil in his bed with her face covered in her own blood after harming herself over their breakup. "It was like something out of a horror movie," he testified. She testified he was so drunk one night he refused to leave her home and lay face down on the floor having a "toddler tantrum,” kicking and waking the neighbors. He said it was a panic attack because she threatened to falsely report him for abuse and get him jailed on a bail revocation like another ex girlfriend did. He met O’Neil then when he was in jail and she reached out to him in 2024. At one point today, Judge Treseler said what everyone in the courtroom was probably thinking, “I need an aspirin.”

Family of mentally ill Dorchester man shot by BPD officer calls for release of video of March 11 shooting. Suffolk DA has so far refused to make public the video that prosecutors contend shows Officer Nicholas O'Malley committed manslaughter when he shot Stephenson King, 39. "We want everybody to understand that transparency is good for everybody. If the officer did nothing wrong, then we should be able to see it on the video. If the officer did something wrong, we should be able to see it on the video," civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a news conference today. King's family says he was suffering a mental breakdown and had left a hospital on the day he was confronted by police after stealing a vehicle. Supporters of Officer O'Malley have raised more than $500K to help him battle charges. He hired high profile criminal defense attorney David Yannetti, who won murder acquittal for Karen Read last year as part of her legal team. King's family says they never dreamed when they called an ambulance earlier that day for their son, he would never come home.