ESSEX — For Maureen Flatley , there is possibly no task greater than protecting children.
Flatley, who has lived in Essex since 2002, was recently named president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization Stop Child Predators. She comes to the position as the organization celebrates 20 years of child protection advocacy.
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BOSTON — Massachusetts is among a minority of states where you can lose your driver’s license for unpaid parking tickets, tolls and other minor violations.
But advocates want to change that. A proposal on Beacon Hill would effectively end debt-based driving restrictions by prohibiting the state Registry of Motor Vehicles from suspending drivers’ licenses over unpaid fines for non-criminal infractions.
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GLOUCESTER — Merlin Hunt Jr. went out of his way to help others, whether it was part of his Tally’s towing business or just wanting to assist someone in need.
A Marine Corps veteran from Gloucester, he spent six years serving his country during the Vietnam War, likely changing him in ways that most people cannot fathom.
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SALEM, N.H. — Police arrested a Lawrence, Massachusetts, man following a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 93.
Rafy Villa, 25, faces multiple charges after state police said he was speeding in a BMW X2 on Saturday shortly before 11:30 p.m. on I-93 north in Windham. Villa then allegedly sped up when Trooper Alex Guilbeault attempted to conduct a traffic stop.
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PEABODY — A former police officer’s law enforcement certification has been permanently revoked following an investigation by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
The commission, in a decision dated Dec. 18, found that Peabody police officer Gerald Fitzgerald Jr. included false information in a police report that led to a woman being arrested and wrongly charged with serious crimes in November 2023. Fitzgerald resigned from the department about a year later.
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METHUEN — Five years ago, Anthony Nunez-Romano faced five weapons charges in Lawrence District Court, four of which were felonies.
But for the 26-year-old Methuen resident now charged with murdering his mother, all five counts were dismissed in 2020, roughly a year after they were filed, court records reveal.
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SALEM — A Lynn man was arrested on three counts of distributing cocaine following a joint operation by Salem and Lynn police.
The Criminal Investigation Divisions of the Salem and Lynn police departments completed a lengthy joint investigation on Thursday with the arrest of Derrick Poe of 46 Mall St., Apartment 4, in Lynn on three counts of distributing a Class B substance.
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SALEM — A Lynn man was arrested on three counts of distributing cocaine following a joint operation by Salem and Lynn police last Thursday.
On Dec. 18, the Criminal Investigation Divisions (CID) of the Salem and Lynn police departments completed a lengthy joint investigation with the arrest of Derrick Poe of 46 Mall St., Apartment 4, in Lynn, on three counts of distributing a Class B substance.
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SALEM — A Lynn man was arrested on three counts of distributing cocaine following a joint operation by Salem and Lynn police last Thursday.
On Dec. 18, the Criminal Investigation Divisions (CID) of the Salem and Lynn police departments completed a lengthy joint investigation with the arrest of Derrick Poe of 46 Mall St., Apartment 4, in Lynn, on three counts of distributing a Class B substance.
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BOSTON — Massachusetts corrections officials say they’re making progress curbing the amount of illegal drugs being smuggled into the state’s prisons.
A report released Wednesday by the Massachusetts Department of Correction said a multiagency task force created to intercept contraband in state correctional facilities investigated 26 cases that led to arrests and the seizure of millions of dollars worth of synthetic cannabis, heroin and opioids.
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BOSTON — Sen. Ed Markey is renewing criticism of federal authorities for “inhumane” conditions at a Burlington ICE facility where people detained on immigration violations are held before being transferred to other locations.
In a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Boston acting Field Office Director David Wesling, Markey said after a meeting with him and other officials Dec. 11 he “continues to be alarmed by the allegations of overcrowding and inadequate conditions” at the Burlington facility, “as well as by ICE’s arrest dragnet.”
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SALEM. N.H. — Described by the FBI as a “highly dangerous individual capable of extreme violence,” Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente was found dead in a storage facility Thursday night.
Neves-Valente, 48, was a Portuguese national and former Brown University physics Ph.D. student. He was wanted in two states for fatal shootings at Brown University and of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.
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SALEM — A Quincy man was arraigned Thursday in Salem District Court on seven charges related to a shooting that took place on Route 128 North about 11:30 p.m. on Monday, according to the Office of Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker.
Thomas D. Perkins, 26, is charged with two counts of armed assault with intent to murder with a firearm, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license (second offense), possessing ammunition without a firearm ID car (subsequent offense), discharging a firearm near a highway, and defacing property.
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LAWRENCE — The suspect in a stabbing Sunday morning was captured after police officers with specialized SWAT team training were deployed to a Kent Street home, police said.
Police Chief Maurice Aguiler said a man suspected of stabbing another man in the vicinity of South Union and Kent streets was taken into custody by Lawrence Police Department entry team members at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
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SALEM — Now that a wounded North Andover police officer has a 2026 trial date, her defense team is turning its attention to the culture of the North Andover Police Department and what transpired before the shooting nearly five months ago.
A jury trial has been set for Feb. 9 in Essex County Superior Court following a trial assignment conference on Tuesday for Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 29, who was shot by a responding officer and colleague in her North Andover home after being served with an abuse prevention order filed by her then-fiance, North Andover firefighter Justin Aylaian.
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