David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Brian Fountaine of Hanson, who served in Iraq, was one of the disabled vets walking the Freedom Trail.Behind him on the right is Joe Sherwood of Pepperell, the medic who tied a tourniquet to save Fountaine's life.

By Globe Staff

For a group of Bay State veterans, a walk on Boston's Freedom Trail today was tougher -- and, at the same time, more meaningful.

The disabled veterans took the tour of Revolutionary War sites in honor of Veterans Day.

"This is going to be incredibly difficult,'' said Matt Hagan, 32, of Pembroke, before the 11 a.m. start. Hagan was injured several times in his 10-year Army career, including once when his parachute did not open. "I don't feel anything in my right foot," he said.

Last Veterans Day, many in Hagan's group walked several loops of the trail, nearly a marathon. This year, with chilly but dry weather, he hopes to do more loops on the historic trail and go even further to publicize the situation of disabled vets.

Brian Fountaine, 28, faced a more difficult hike. The Plymouth resident and former tank commander walks with prosthetics after a double amputation caused by an IED exploding under his Humvee in Iraq in 2006.

We'd asked Hagan to check in with us along the way. And the vet -- who served the flag in Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq -- obliged with the following iPhone reports.

UPDATE 12:30 p.m. -- Heading into Charlestown: We started with 50 supporters, 16 disabled veterans. Police and fire and family are with us, too. Big surprise for Brian Fountaine was Joe Sherwood, the soldier credited with saving Brian's life and applying his tourniquets.

UPDATE: 1:31 p.m. -- We have made it. Everyone is happy and healthy. Motivated and truly working as a team. Carrying each other's bags and pushing wheelchairs. We are returning joking and laughing. It is a good first loop. 5 miles down. 35 more.

UPDATE: 3:42 p.m. -- Second lap of the Freedom Trail: The groups have split up due to ability groups. Morale is strong. Brian Fountaine is holding strong with his group while I'm leading my way back to Bunker Hill Monument and then back to the Boston Common for the third lap.

UPDATE: 4:18 p.m. -- As it gets darker, Jack Wainwright, one of the veteran training coaches who helps with disabled vets, and I are the last men standing. A couple more layers added and moving on. Brian and his group have had chafing and their prosthetics go their final mile. We are so proud of his group and can't thank them enough. Another loop through Boston. Off we go.

UPDATE 5:09 p.m. -- This morning we were disappointed that seven of our team members were unable to get the day off work. But as Jack and I walked along the dark back alley of Old North Church, we were pleasantly met by six smiling faces. Six people to walk with us. Bringing us a few snacks to keep us going.

UPDATE 6:17 p.m. -- Mile 15 and holding strong. Still walking with eight veteran training members from Boston, Pembroke, Hanson, Kingston, and other local areas. Thanks for all the friendly responses we've gotten along the way.

By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff

It was Veterans Day, so Bill Griffin decided it was high time he returned to the place where he almost died and where he was certainly reborn.

On Thanksgiving morning, 19 years ago, Willmont "Bill" Griffin woke up on a bench in Boston Common. His mouth was dry, his head was pounding, and he was surrounded by a bunch of guys from the shelter at the New England Center for Homeless Veterans a couple of blocks away on Court Street.

Bill Griffin had helped with the evacuation of Saigon when the Vietnam War ended, but he had been on a downward spiral ever since he left the Marines in 1977. He lived on the streets and drank whatever he could stomach.

"They gave me a meal, a shower, some clothes," he said. "They said, 'You can stay here, but there's some stipulations. No drinkin' and no druggin'.' I said, sure, sure, whatever you say."

They made him a security guard at the shelter and one of his first duties was to escort his old buddy Amos Marshall out of the building. It hurt, but he knew Amos wasn't ready.

Bill Griffin went back to school, got an associate's degree, then a bachelor's. He got a job as a construction inspector. He worked on Deer Island, the Ted Williams Tunnel, the Big Dig. Eleven years ago, he re-enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard.

He moved to New Jersey and did a tour in Kuwait with the Air National Guard. And in a couple of weeks, Bill Griffin will ship out for Iraq with his unit, the 108th Air Refueling Wing. He is 54 years old and he is going to war.

But before he goes off to war, Bill Griffin had to come back to Court Street.

"I'd recognize that bald head anywhere," he bellowed.

Amos Marshall, clean and sober these many years, looked up from the desk where he is now a substance abuse counselor at the Court Street veterans center and shook his head.

The two men embraced and laughed.

"Look at us," Amos Marshall said. "Who woulda believed it?"

Tina Griffin looked on and smiled.

Bill Griffin and Amos Marshall went over to the window where they last went fishing together.

"I thought it was a pretty good idea," Bill Griffin said.

"It was," Amos Marshall said, "until we got caught."

Bill Griffin is the poster child for the "Leave No One Behind" ethos at the shelter. They're throwing a gala dinner Thursday night at the Seaport Hotel.

But today, he had dinner with his brothers on Court Street. It was turkey with all the fixings, a lot better than the sandwiches he remembered from back in the day, when his mouth was dry, his head was pounding, and he decided he wanted to live, after all.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com

John Blanding/Globe Staff

The missing woman's black Lexus was winched out of the water.

By Jenna Russell, Milton Valencia, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff, and Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent

The body of a missing Peabody woman has been recovered from the bottom of a Lynn pond, not far from the bar where she was last sighted in December 2008, authorities said this afternoon.

Alice Nunes

The black 2007 Lexus belonging to Alice Nunes was discovered this afternoon at about 3:40 p.m., about 16 feet down and 40 to 50 feet offshore in Flax Pond, off of Carter Road. Nunes's employee ID was on the body inside, leading authorities to preliminarily conclude that the body was hers, said Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.

The body was found in the back seat and the doors of the car were locked, he said.

The disappearance of the 57-year-old grandmother had frustrated police and baffled her family.

John Nunes, Alice Nunes's husband, told the Globe he had been paying for an expert from Florida with sonar to assist in the search. He said police had told him they thought Flax Pond was an unlikely spot, but he insisted that they look there. The find was made by a Salem Police dive team.

Authorities stressed that they had searched every body of water in Lynn and Peabody, including the area where the car and body were found today. But the earlier search of Flax Pond had found no tire tracks indicating a car went in the water and a State Police sonar search of the water came up with nothing.

"This has been a needle-in-a-haystack search for her since Day 1. It's not an exact science and there was a huge amount of body of water to search," said Peabody Police Lieutenant Robert Church.

The disappearance of Alice Nunes had been a tantalizing mystery. Almost four decades after they married, Alice and John Nunes were still inseparable at the time of Alice's disappearance, their family told the Globe. They traveled frequently, to Aruba, Las Vegas, the Bahamas. They ate out on Friday nights, favoring a Portuguese society hall that donated proceeds to charity. On weekends, they roamed the North Shore, sometimes settling in with coffee and newspapers at the lighthouse in Marblehead.

The couple, who had had been teenage sweethearts, were part of a large local clan with Portuguese roots.

Alice Nunes was described as warm, outgoing, and motherly, and she made friends everywhere she went, her husband said, on airplanes, in restaurants, walking the beach in Aruba, her favorite vacation spot. She was like a second mother to her two grandchildren, who shared their grandparents' home, along with their mother. She hosted the family open house on Christmas Eve, and she was always the one who organized parties at work.

Then on Dec. 15, 2008, she did something out of character. After fixing dinner and eating with her family, she left the house without telling her husband.

A witness told police a woman fitting the description of Alice Nunes had two drinks at the bar at the pub on Sluice Pond just outside Wyoma Square in Lynn, roughly between 8:15 and 8:35 p.m. The bar was about 3 miles from the Nunes home. The woman did not speak to anyone and seemed upset, police said the witness told them.

About 10 minutes later, John Nunes said, he received a call and heard his wife's panicked voice.

"There's water coming in the car," Alice Nunes screamed. "Come and get me, John. I'm in Lynn. Hurry!" Then the phone went dead. It was the last time he would hear from her.

Nunes used almost a full tank of gas that night, driving the streets of Lynn for hours looking for his wife.

Peabody and Lynn police traced the perimeter of ponds in the area, looking for tire tracks, broken branches, or other signs that a car had gone in. They found none. They checked her cell phone records and determined that her last phone call bounced off a cell tower in Wyoma Square, putting her within 15 miles.

Police even considered the possibility that she was still alive, checking hotels and broadcasting her description nationwide. But they found nothing.

Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

The aftermath of the fire in which Firefighters Paul J. Cahill and Warren J. Payne lost their lives.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A federal agency has sharply criticized the Boston Fire Department in a report on the 2007 restaurant fire in West Roxbury in which two firefighters died, identifying what it said were a number of factors contributing to the two men's deaths.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health said, among other things, that the department should improve its procedures for protecting firefighters' health and safety and its system for handling incidents.

Firefighters Paul J. Cahill and Warren J. Payne died Aug. 29, 2007, in a fire fueled by built-up grease in the kitchen exhaust system at the Tai Ho Mandarin and Cantonese Restaurant on Centre Street.

Fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the fire commissioner would study the report with his command staff. "There are a lot of recommendations in there and they go into a lot of detail," he said.

-- The department's incident management system was "ineffective."

-- Firefighters had "insufficient tactics and training."

-- There was "ineffective" communication during the incident.

-- Firefighters were wearing "inadequate" equipment.

MacDonald noted that a fire department board of inquiry issued its own report, with a lengthy list of recommendations after studying the incident. He said the department was already moving to address "quite a few, if not all" of the recommendations in that board's report.

Boston Fire Fighters Local 718 President Ed Kelly said the report clearly showed that "the training and oversight provided by management of the Boston Fire Department is in need of major reform."

"The report states that the only way to minimize the potential for another tragedy of this magnitude is for major changes to be made, including the implementation of improved command procedures and better training and equipment for fire fighters," Kelly said in a statement.

Autopsy reports show that when they died, Payne had traces of cocaine in his blood, and Cahill's blood alcohol level was .27, three times the legal limit to drive in Massachusetts, according to two government officials who described the results to the Globe. In addition, Cahill also had traces of marijuana in his blood, according to another high-ranking official briefed on the reports.

The federal agency said it had repeatedly requested a copy of the autopsy reports through the fire department, district attorney's office, and family representatives, but had been denied.

"Therefore, NIOSH is not able to comment on the alleged condition of the victims," the report said.

Seven men have been indicted on second-degree murder charges in the fatal beating of a 30-year-old man outside a downtown bar this summer, Suffolk County prosecutors said today.

A grand jury handed up the charges against Jason Benalfew, 26, of Lynn; Justin Cooke, 25, of Lynn; Jonathan Fernandez, 23, of Lynn; Johan Garcia, 28, of Lynn; Ruskyn Garcia, 25, of Lynn; Anthony Villalobos, 21, of Revere; and Michael Welch, 27, of Lynn.

The group fatally beat Jose Alicea on Stanhope Street in the early morning hours of Aug. 20, prosecutors said.

The group also faces charges in the beating of three others. Five other defendants are charged with kicking and/or beating two of those three victims.

"Hell is other people" -- French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre


1. If you are Scott Brown, Republican candidate for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, hell is someone named Jack E. Robinson.

Scott Brown, a.k.a. the Man from Jordache, is a jocky, reasonably coherent state senator who until just a few days ago was cruising unopposed to the GOP Senate nomination. As the only Republican, Brown was getting some decent media play, and his story fleshes out nicely. He is a triathlete, an officer in the National Guard, a former Jordache jeans model, and husband of an attractive TV reporter, Gail Huff of Channel 5. His daughter is singer Ayla Brown, who wowed local teens with her "American Idol" appearances in 2006.

Brown was going to be this year's Joe Malone, the un-feisty, gracious loser setting himself up for future statewide contests by sliding his head under the guillotine of the Democratic machine. In 1988, the young Malone won the heart of the Massachusetts political establishment by not running too hard against pre-turnaround (read: pre-Vicki) Teddy. Malone refrained from alluding to the senator's embarrassing indelicacies, and two years later became the treasurer of the Commonwealth.

Suddenly, Robinson, a Duxbury attorney, has jumped into the race, and Brown looks none too happy about it. At a League of Women Voters debate on Sunday, Brown did his best to ignore Robinson, preferring to engage the Democrats instead. But Robinson, who has an erratic track record in electoral politics, refused to be ignored. He can be alternately wacky -- he suggested someone audit the Federal Reserve, unclear who -- and razor-sharp. After Brown gassed on about his desire to serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robinson invoked the Senate's arcane "same-state" rule: John Kerry is already on Foreign Relations, which closes it to other Bay Staters.

In the real world, Capuano, a six times re-elected congressman from an urban district, would stand a decent chance in a statewide election against Martha Coakley, a sitting attorney general. Capuano is energetic, if not a little over-caffeinated, and the too-cautious Coakley -- on Halloween, she got spooked by the Boston Herald trick-or-treaters! -- has plenty of vulnerabilities. But Capuano will never, ever, be able to debate her one-on-one. Because all of the Democratic forums, or debates, or whatchamacallems, will feature all four of the declared candidates: Coakley, Capuano, Pagliuca, and Khazei. The visuals don't work for Capuano. He's just another guy in a suit talking up his liberal politics. The woman stands out.

Worse still, there is absolutely no chance that "Pags" or Khazei will drop out. They're having too much fun! They're on TV incessantly, and the political scribblers dutifully transcribe their "position papers," as if anyone cared. It's not like either candidate has a job he is anxious to return to.

3. If you are Charlie Baker, Republican candidate for governor, hell is a man named Tim Cahill, currently the state treasurer.

In a one-on-one race against an ineffectual and unpopular Democratic governor -- that would be Deval Patrick -- Baker could fare pretty well. He's smart, he's tall (believe me, that's important) and he can fund-raise. While it is true that Patrick is often mis-underestimated, I think Charlie could prove to be a worthy and perhaps successful adversary.

If Tim Cahill weren't in the race.

But Tim Cahill is in the race, running as an independent. He will claim to be a fiscally responsible, centrist Democrat running against Patrick and the party's Obama wing. In theory, he could be the H. Ross Perot of the 2010 governor's race, draining anti-Patrick votes and self-styled independent thinkers from the Baker column.

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com

John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

The driver of the Boston Public Works truck was escorted to an ambulance after the accident. The bikes in the foreground belonged to Boston police officers who responded to the scene.

By David Abel, Globe Staff

A woman has been rushed to Tufts Medical Center with life-threatening injuries after she was hit by a city truck on a downtown street, Boston police said this morning.

The victim, who suffered head injuries, was walking across the street when she was hit by the vehicle at Tremont and Winter streets at about 11:20 a.m.

Steven James, 35, of Mattapan, like many others, was waiting for the annual Veterans Day parade, which was supposed to go down the same route.

"She flew in the air, probably six feet," said James, who was holding an American flag. "It was a terrible sight."

A Ford pickup truck with Boston Public Works insignia on it remained at the scene, which is in front of the Park Street station subway kiosk. It had visible front-end damage. The driver was being interviewed by authorities. The victim's name and age were not immediately released.

"It was very traumatizing," said Fitzpatrick. "It sticks with me. I feel very sad. I just feel sorry for the family."

Bobby Moran, 53, a vendor for Mr. Gourmet across the street, said he didn't hear any screeching before the woman was hit. "It just sounded like 'boom,'" he said. "The lady went down and never regained consciousness. She never moved."

Rob McIntyre, 47, a vendor for Daddy's Fried Dough, said, "It sounded like a vehicle hitting another vehicle. I thought it was a fender bender, then I saw a lady on the ground. " He and other witnesses said it took only a few minutes before ambulances came.

Army Sergeant Michael Lydon was walking to Downtown Crossing from a ceremony celebrating veterans at the State House when he heard "screeching tires and then a thump."

He said the woman landed face-down. "It was definitely an uncomfortable sight. Not something you see every day. Not something you'd like to see," he said.

Several hundred veterans, family members, and elected officials crowded this morning into the State House’s Hall of Flags to honor the sacrifices made for the country by Massachusetts service members.

"The reason that we do everything we can in support of those in the armed services…is because we honor the extraordinary sense of sacrifice and service that you give us,” Governor Deval Patrick said in an address, as he pointed to poignant images in the hall of the Battle of Concord Bridge and of soldiers returning to Massachusetts after the Civil War.

At the front of the room was a table with a white tablecloth, a single place setting, a red rose, and two candles, all meant to symbolize prisoners of war and those missing in action. On the right sat Gold Star Families, dressed in yellow. On the left sat Patriot Guard Riders, dressed in leather jackets.

Members of the honor guard gave a rose to family members as the name of their son, daughter, or relative was read aloud.

Also attending were state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, Attorney General Martha Coakley, Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, and Boston City Council President Michael Ross.

Later, at an American Legion post in Quincy, the governor is also expected to sign legislation broadening the menu of benefits and services for the state's veterans. "It is the least we can do to honor their sacrifices," he told reporters at the State House.

The ceremony was just one of many Veterans Day observances planned around the state.

At Boston College, officials dedicated a 70-foot-long granite memorial to honor the 209 alumni who died while serving. And at Harvard University, a plaque was unveiled honoring Harvard alumni who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor.

Parades are also planned in various communities, including Boston and Arlington.

Material from Globe wire services was used in this report.

By Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent

The two MBTA employees credited with saving the life and limbs of a woman who fell into the train pit at North Station last Friday are describing their moments of gut-wrenching doubt when the train stopped – and the relief they felt when they saw the woman was OK.

"When I saw that she had all her limbs, legs, arms, she's not hurt -- I was happy," Charice Lewis, operator of the train, said on CBS-TV's Early Show this morning.

"I expected a bad picture. All I saw was the train go over her body was just like, 'Oh, my God, this is going to be so bad.' And it scared me, and I'm just, like, 'Please, God, just let this woman be OK.' And when she crawled out from under and she gave me a smile, I was, like, 'Oh my God,'" she said.

Both Lewis and inspector Jacqueline Osorio were interviewed by anchor Maggie Rodriguez about their experiences. The train stopped just short of Sophia Hartdegen, 26, of Cambridge who authorities said was intoxicated. Hartdegen said Tuesday she was thankful for the actions of rescuers and "humiliated" by the incident.

Dozens of people are expressing their condolences this morning on a Facebook page set up in memory of 21-year-old Benjamin Sherman, an Army paratrooper from Plymouth whose body was found in Afghanistan Tuesday.

Benjamin Sherman

Sherman, who was assigned to the Fourth Brigade Combat Team of the 82d Airborne Division, and a fellow soldier disappeared Nov. 4 when they went to retrieve supplies dropped into a river in western Afghanistan, the Globe reports today.

Sherman may have tried to help his struggling comrade when both got caught up in the current, the military told his family.

"Thank you for bravely serving your country and giving your life to protect us. Ben is a true hero!" one poster wrote.

"You will never be forgotten," wrote another.

"I know that day he jumped into the river to try to save his comrade was not because he didn’t just see another soldier in the water, he saw his brother. He didn’t jump in because he was trained to, but because that’s what his heart told him to do. There is not a doubt in my mind he would do the same for each and every single individual not only in the United States but anywhere in the world," she said.

By David Abel, Globe Staff

The lime rickeys, malted frappes, and root beer floats remained popular through the decades. The 1970s-era orange-and-yellow décor lined the walls, and the scuffed counters showed the wear of all the elbows and hot plates. And there was the uncommon bond between the wait staff and customers, a motley family who came together across ages and races to talk each other through marriages and births, divorces and deaths, and the mundane triumphs and slights of their lives.

After 37 years, multiple owners, and countless scoops of ice cream served, the last Brigham’s franchise store in Boston is closing this week. The local chain -- once as ubiquitous as Dunkin' Donuts -- had more than 100 restaurants and seemed to serve its signature sundaes on every other city corner.

“This has been our home away from home,” said Rita Merola , 50, a junior member of the wait staff who served the same fare of hot dogs and oversized frappes for 17 years. “It’s terrible that this is happening. It’s hard to believe. It just stinks, really.”

Staffers said the chain’s new owner, Deal Metrics, a private equity firm in Baltimore, has failed to pay months of rent. The landlord, Lincoln Property, did not respond to requests for comment.

The jarring news of the closure came four months after the company cut their health insurance, even though it continued to deduct money for the insurance from their paychecks.

Many on the loyal staff wept, wondering what to do after working there for so many years.

“It’s just extremely unfortunate what has happened,” said Chris Lund , 49, who has spent 32 years waiting tables for Brigham’s, 22 of them at the High Street shop. “Had the new owner who bought Brigham’s taken care of the business, the business would still be here.”

In a telephone interview, Luke Cooper, managing director of Deal Metrics, declined to comment on the outstanding rent, the lack of health insurance, or what led to the restaurant’s closure.

“We’re closing in large part because of macroeconomic and financial factors affecting our sales,” said Cooper, whose company has owned Brigham’s for the past 18 months and still has another 17 locations throughout the metropolitan area. “We’re certainly sad that we won’t be able to serve the people in Boston anymore.”

The news spread quickly among the regulars.

Today, the restaurant’s last day of official business, the tables were packed, the phone rang constantly, and the ice cream was gone well before the lunch rush died. Nearly everyone had a story to share, extra tips for the waitresses, and long hugs to hold onto.

As he finished the $5.99 hot dog special at the counter, Charlie Eddy slipped the main cook $20 and two of the waitresses $100 each, early Christmas presents.

“It’s a sad day,” said Eddy, an investment officer at the nearby Fiduciary Trust Co., who had dined at the restaurant nearly every workday for the past 30 years. “This is a local institution, and it’s terrible to lose it. Where else will I go for breakfast?”

Sitting beside him, Stephen Mahoney , who met Eddy at the restaurant and has dined with him there for two years, recalled how the staff chipped in to buy him a stuffed duck after his son was born.

“It’s the people who make this place worth coming to,” he said. “You can’t replace that.”

When asked what could be done, Merola shrugged. “Nothing,” she said. “It’s done.”

When a customer pushed back, Lund said: “You can pay the back rent, or win the lottery and buy the place.”

Despite the glum air, the waitresses worked as if their jobs depended on it, rapidly ferrying hot bowls of chowder, quesadillas, and tuna sandwiches to their customers, nearly all of whom they knew by name.

Diane Dunleavy , the dean of the wait staff who began working at the restaurant in her junior year of high school, was too busy to dwell on her plight. The 48-year-old waitress, who earned about $150 a day in tips, never imagined leaving and has no idea what she’ll do next.

“I love my job,” she said between runs to the kitchen. “But why I’m still making money for the new owner is beyond me. But that’s the way we are. We take pride in what we do.”

As the lunch hour ended and the staff began giving away what was left of the food, more tears flowed.

Some customers didn’t want to leave, and the staff didn’t want to let them go.

Cathy Frizell is one of the many regulars who has worked at the building across the street as its name changed from NYNEX to New England Telephone and Telegraph to Bell Atlantic and to Verizon.

The one constant in the neighborhood was Brigham’s.

“All I can say is good luck finding another place like this again in Boston,” she said. “We shared so much here. This place will be sorely missed.”

A 28-year-old man pleaded guilty to manslaughter today in the death of a man he stabbed in the neck on July 3, 2001 in Weymouth, prosecutors said.

Nicholas Cirignano was already serving a prison sentence for assault with intent to kill and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after the stabbing left Matthew Nagle, 22, a quadriplegic, unable to breathe without medical assistance, the Norfolk district attorney's office said.

Then, after Nagle died on July 23, 2007, a grand jury indicted Cirignano for second-degree murder in June 2008. Judge Kenneth Fishman later reduced that charge to manslaughter.

Keating said it wasn't common to bring a homicide charge when the victim lived for several years after the attack, but it was also not unprecedented.

"Our thoughts are with the Nagle family, and we are pleased that the long court process has ended in a homicide conviction of the man who stabbed their son," Keating said in a statement. "It was important that this attack be called what it was: A homicide."

Police found Nagle stabbed in the neck at about 10:30 p.m. that night after responding to a large disturbance on Caldwell Street in North Weymouth.

Dina Rudick/Globe Staff

Former US Attorney Donald K. Stern unveiled the results of the report at a news conference, with Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis (left) standing by.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

An independent report released today cleared Boston police officers in the death of a 22-year-old Boston Celtics fan who was arrested during revelry on the night of the 2008 championship game. But the man's parents weren't satisfied with the report and called it a coverup.

David Woodman

Police made a number of "missteps" when they arrested David Woodman, but none of the mistakes contributed to his death, according to the report released by former US Attorney Donald Stern.

"We believe that, by and large, the police officers acted reasonably and in no way anticipated or could have predicted the outcome," the report said.

But during a press conference this afternoon at their lawyer's office on Canal Street, Cathy and Jeff Woodman said they believe there has been a coverup and they are convinced that their son would be alive today if not for his encounter with police.

"I think they're lying," Cathy Woodman said. "In my opinion, those officers, those nine officers, the ones who handled him and the ones who witnessed, are to blame for his death."

The most critical section of the report, however, focused on the lack of supervision at the scene on June 18, 2008, when Woodman clung to a wrought-iron fence on Brookline Avenue and flailed his arms as police tried to arrest him for drinking in public. After officers wrestled him to the ground, there was a gap of time when no one was responsible for Woodman as he lay on his side. The gap, which lasted no more than 5 minutes, meant that none of the nine officers at the scene knew exactly when he stopped breathing.

"It's not clear who was in charge of Mr. Woodman as he lay on the ground," Stern said today at a news conference where he was joined by Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis. "There's a gap of authority."

Attorney Howard Friedman, who represents Woodman's parents, said, "The most important point in Donald Stern's report is there was a failure of supervision at the scene, a lack of guidance from the sergeant.''

He said it was also significant that Stern found the initial investigation was "surprisingly cursory.''

District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced some time ago that the medical examiner concluded that Woodman's heart stopped while he was in police custody because he suffered an arrhythmia, a disruption of the heart's electrical activity. The autopsy report indicated that the arrhythmia was due to a preexisting heart condition and not excessive force. Woodman died after suffering another arrhythmia in the hospital.

At the press conference today, Davis said he would embrace the recommendations in the report, but he noted that none of the nine officers violated department policy during the confrontation with Woodman.