No more testimony at Amorello hearing

The State Ethics Commission hearing into conflict-of-interest charges against former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello is closed, according to Thomas Kiley, Amorello's lawyer. On Tuesday, Amorello testified that he had nothing to do with the change in the authority's policy on the buyback of unused sick leave in 2006, a change that had the potential of boosting Amorello's severance package by about $73,000. The commission left open until yesterday whether additional testimony would be taken in the case. But now there is no more testimony scheduled. Kiley and Stephen P. Fauteux, who presented the case against Amorello on behalf of the Ethics Commission, are expected to make closing statements in the case at a later date.

State Police said yesterday that Michael Bresnahan, 36, one of the state's Most Wanted fugitives, was seen Saturday buying camping gear at a store in Springfield, Ore. Bresnahan is being sought on charges that he terrorized and sexually assaulted a 61-year-old Winchendon woman last year. Police said that they had an image of Bresnahan from a store security camera and that he was later seen hitchhiking on a local highway. Bresnahan is accused of breaking into the Winchendon woman's house last August and using a knife to hold her hostage for more than two hours while assaulting her. (AP)

A group of North Attleborough residents is urging the town's Board of Selectmen to sell a valuable painting that was discovered hanging in a local school. Melanie Samuel says residents plan to present a petition signed by more than 200 registered voters at a selectmen's meeting today. Samuel says the painting by Russian artist Alexandre Iacovleff, entitled "Afghans," should be sold and the money used to support arts programs in the schools. It is estimated the painting could fetch more than $1 million at auction. The School Committee voted to sell the work after a local man brought its value to the attention of town officials in February 2007, but the Board of Selectmen voted to keep the painting. The work is currently under the care of Sotheby's auctioneers. (AP)

A former Boston man has been sentenced to 25 to 30 years in state prison for an armored car robbery in Quincy nearly four years ago in which a security guard was shot. Dennis Quirk pleaded guilty last week in Dedham Superior Court to masked armed robbery and attempted murder for his role in the Oct. 21, 2004, robbery attempt outside a Hancock Street bank. Security guard Robert Quintal was unloading cash from the Loomis, Fargo. and Co. armored car when he was shot in the leg. Quirk was convicted last year of federal charges in connection with another armored car robbery in Boston's North End in June 2005. He was sentenced in March to 25 years in that case. (AP)

A preliminary federal report on a fatal cargo plane crash on Cape Cod in June points to pilot error as the cause of the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board report says that a pin that locks the flight controls in place while the plane is on the ground was not removed before takeoff. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Murray says that while she cannot comment on an ongoing investigation, it is the pilot's responsibility to remove the pin. Pilot Mark Conway of Marston Mills in Barnstable, died in the June 18 crash. (AP)

Authorities are investigating the death of a man who was found yesterday in the men's bathroom of a Dunkin' Donuts on Washington Street, police and fire officials said. At 7:10 a.m., police forced open the business's locked bathroom and discovered a body inside, a Gloucester Fire Department spokesman said. Police said the man may have died from an accidental drug overdose. No foul play is suspected, and officials are awaiting an autopsy to determine a cause of death, said Stephen O'Connell, spokesman for the Essex district attorney's office.