Herald pays judge $3.4m in libel case

Lawyers for the Boston Herald paid a Superior Court judge $3.4 million last week, three days after the state's highest court refused to reconsider its recent unanimous ruling upholding a libel verdict against the newspaper. The sum wired Thursday to Judge Ernest B. Murphy included the $2.01 million awarded as the result of a Suffolk County jury's verdict in 2005, plus about $1.4 million in interest, according to David H. Rich, one of Murphy's lawyers. On June 4, the Supreme Judicial Court denied the Herald's request to reconsider the court's May 7 ruling that the newspaper's 2002 articles about Murphy were "defamatory and false." The stories portrayed Murphy as soft on crime. Rich said yesterday that the payment marks the end of the case and that Murphy "is thrilled that this ordeal can be put behind him." Bruce D. Brown, a lawyer for the Herald and its lead reporter on the stories, Dave Wedge, declined to say whether the Herald intended to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Governor Deval Patrick announced plans yesterday to install photovoltaic panels at 12 state facilities this year, part of a plan to help make Massachusetts a leader in clean energy technology. At a meeting where he urged executives from solar, wind, and bioenergy companies to form their own trade group, Patrick said the $9 million solar initiative represents a nearly 50 percent increase in the amount of solar power installed in Massachusetts. The cost will be covered in part by federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds. The new panels will be located at Worcester and Salem state colleges; Mount Wachusett, North Shore and Springfield Technical community colleges; the Soldiers Home in Chelsea; the MWRA's Deer Island wastewater treatment plant; state prison waste- water plants in Norfolk, Concord, and Bridgewater; and at the Cedar Junction and South Middlesex state prisons. (AP)

CHELSEA

The City Council approved a measure designating Chelsea a "sanctuary city" that welcomes immigrants regardless of their legal status. The designation is largely symbolic because immigration is governed by federal law. Several cities, including Cambridge, have recently adopted local measures to protest national immigration policies. Chelsea's measure, approved by the council, 10 to 1, on June 4, calls immigration raids unwelcome and says the city rejects the words illegal and alien to describe those who entered the country without documentation.

SOMERVILLE

A Somerville man was arrested yesterday hours after he allegedly robbed a bank in the city, police said. Somerville police arrested Brian Marshall, 26, after they responded to a disturbance at his home and recognized him from bank surveillance video, police said. Earlier yesterday, Marshall allegedly had walked into the Citizens Bank on Broadway and passed a note to a teller demanding money. He was charged with one count of unarmed robbery and drug possession, police said.

RANDOLPH

The Rev. Ronald D. Coyne, a popular Catholic priest who was left unassigned for nearly three years by the Archdiocese of Boston, is being appointed pastor of St. Mary Church in Randolph starting June 18, the archdiocese said yesterday. Coyne most recently had been pastor of St. Albert the Great Church, a Weymouth parish that the archdiocese closed in 2004 and then reopened in 2005. Since that time, Coyne has been a member of the emergency response team, filling in for priests on leave, although for a portion of that time he was not called upon to do anything. Some of Coyne's supporters suspected political motives because Coyne had signed a letter calling for Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign and had headed a parish that resisted closing, but the archdiocese denied such motivation.

HOPKINTON

Plans to develop the largest open swath of land in the Western suburbs of Boston will move forward after a proposal to stop the project failed last night at a special Town Meeting. An effort to buy the roughly 700 acres for about $30.4 million fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority. The land, owned by the landmark Weston Nurseries, is located near the garden center on Route 135. Officials said the project from Weston-based developer Boulder Capital will ultimately increase Hopkinton's population of 15,000 by more than a tenth. The development is expected to include commercial buildings and nearly 1,000 residential units.