The Supreme Judicial Court has decided to weigh in on a case where a man has been accused of tracking two vehicles using a GPS device. The Commonwealth alleged in court documents that the man believed his significant other was having an affair and that is why he used the GPS devices.
After being charged with criminal harassment, the man’s attorney, Sabrina Bonanno (of Sweeney & Associates LLC) successfully argued in District Court that the charges should be dismissed. The Commonwealth appealed the dismissal and the Supreme Judicial Court has decide to weigh in on the issue of whether it is legal to track the whereabouts of another person using a GPS device in Massachusetts.
“My client is accused of doing what any private investigator would have done,” said Bonanno, the Quincy attorney representing the man. “It is not a violation of the law.” Bonanno defends against the suggestion that the actions, though admittedly disconcerting for the affected parties, are criminal under Massachusetts law.
The Supreme Judicial Court is likely to schedule oral argument for the fall of 2018 and will ultimately render a decision that could change how GPS tracking devices are used in Massachusetts by private citizens.
A Dorchester woman, represented by Attorney Richard Sweeney of Sweeney
and Associates in Massachusetts,
was sentenced to home confinement rather than 18-24 months imprisonment, which the sentencing guidelines recommended, after convicted of stealing
more than a quarter-million dollars in government benefits to which she
was not entitled.
The woman was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris
to 18 months of home confinement, 10 hours per week of community service,
and was ordered to pay $331,630 in restitution and a fine of $40,000.
In July 2014, she pleaded guilty to stealing public money in the form
of Social Security and Civil Service Retirement annuity payments paid
out for the benefit of her mother.
Following the death of her mother the woman was not herself entitled to
the money yet continued to receive and spend the benefits for over 30
years. It was alleged she stole over $200,000 in Social Security benefits
and $140,000 in Civil Service Retirement System annuity payments intended
for her mother. Upon discovering the theft, the government reclaimed a
portion of the funds from her bank account and she repaid the balance,
$331,630, at her sentencing today.
This case was brought as part of an ongoing effort by the U.S. Attorney's
Office in partnership with the Social Security Administration to investigate
and prosecute the posthumous fraud of Social Security benefits. In many
of these cases, family members, knowing they are not entitled to government
benefits, continue to withdraw and spend the funds after a relative has
died. This ongoing investigation has landed several defendants in federal
prison for these crimes.
A Weymouth man was sentenced to five years' probation in Norfolk Superior Court for two counts of Possession of Child Porn. The Weymouth native, represented by Attorney Richard Sweeney of Sweeney and Associates, pled guilty and was ordered to register with the Sex Offender Registry Board, wear an ankle monitor and serve five years of supervised probation. The District Attorney's Office had asked for up to five years imprisonment.
A Braintree man, represented by Attorney Richard Sweeney of Sweeney and Associates, was alleged to have purchased drugs from a home in Braintree. A Braintree detective witnessed what he testified to as a hand-to-hand sale of narcotics. The vehicle was stopped and drugs and money were recovered from the vehicle. The man was indicted on the drug charges and arraigned in Superior Court. After a full hearing in Norfolk Superior Court on the defendant's Motion To Suppress the search of the vehicle, the court ruled that the officer lacked probable cause to search the vehicle and the evidence was suppressed. As a direct result the case was dismissed against the Braintree man for lack of evidence.