Prosecutor: Arlington father threatened to kill 6-month-old son in rampage

Police issued these photographs Wednesday when they were looking for Lucas Whalen, Michael Whalen, and Danielle Boyle.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- The 6-month-old boy whose disappearance triggered a statewide Amber Alert Wednesday had been removed from his parents' home earlier this week because the couple had been evicted and there were allegations of drug use in front of the child, a prosecutor said today in court.

The boy's father, Michael Whalen, allegedly threatened to “shoot anyone who tries to take the baby from me, including myself and the baby," said assistant Middlesex district attorney Samir Zaganjori.

"There are five people on my hit list," Whalen added, according to Zaganjori. "The last bullet is for me."

The child, Lucas Whalen, was found unharmed Wednesday when a cabdriver took him and his mother, Danielle Boyle, to the Arlington police station because she did not have taxi fare. A police SWAT team arrested the 42-year-old Michael Whalen early this morning after his rental car was spotted in the parking lot of a Burlington hotel.

Whalen wore a grim expression this morning in Cambridge District Court as Judge Ronne Sragow detailed his 20-plus year criminal history that included 72 convictions and 48 skipped court appearances. Whalen was ordered held on $25,000 bond on charges of parental kidnapping, receiving stolen property, and threatening to commit a crime.

Boyle, 24, has not been charged with a crime, but Arlington police said they are still trying to determine what role she played in the incident. She rushed past reporters in court today and said, "I just wish everybody would leave me alone."

Defense attorney Benjamin Selman said today that many of Whalen’s 72 convictions were minor traffic citations. The judge said he was convicted of drug offenses and assault and battery on a law enforcement officer.

Selman argued unsuccessfully for lower bail, saying that parental kidnapping was not that serious of a charge and only carried a maximum of one year in the house of correction. The defense attorney also said that no law enforcement officer reporting seeing Lucas with Whalen.

"Nobody has even alleged that he ever had possession of the child," Selman said.

The prosecutor said that relatives had gotten a court order to take temporary custody of Lucas on April 29. The Amber Alert, which was the first in Massachusetts in 2008, was sounded when Lucas was not handed over to a temporary guardian Tuesday.

Arlington police utilized the statewide Amber Alert system Wednesday because they believed the boy could have been in danger, based on statements and alleged threats made by the baby's father, according to State Police. Whalen was charged with receiving stolen property because he was driving a rental car that was overdue, police said.

Police interviewed the mother for more than an hour, while an ambulance took the baby to Winchester Hospital for a checkup. "The baby . . . appeared to be in good health," Arlington police Lieutenant Kenneth Hughes said in a written statement.

The Amber Alert system, enacted in 2003, enables local and State Police to activate urgent statewide bulletins through the media and on digital highway signs.

Law enforcement has to believe a child is in serious danger of bodily harm in order for an alert to be issued, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman.

Over the past five years, law enforcement officials have issued 14 Amber Alerts in the state, including the one Wednesday. In the 13 previous alerts, all of the 18 children involved were found.

A year ago February police found two 18-month-old boys in Melrose about two hours after an Amber Alert had been issued.

The nationwide system was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped by a stranger 12 years ago while she rode her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then was found murdered four days later.

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