Police investigating man's death in pond
A Hanson man drowned yesterday in Maquan Pond in Hanson, police said. Richard W. Avery, 44, was pulled from the pond, off Route 14, at 4:50 p.m. and was pronounced dead at Brockton Hospital. The death, which Hanson police are investigating, is considered accidental. Avery was visiting a resident of nearby Woodman Terrace, who reported him missing at 4:25. After a brief search by Hanson police and firefighters, along with dive teams from nearby towns, Avery was found 10 feet from a dock in water about 15 feet deep, police said. A teenage boy drowned in the 48-acre pond in June 2000 after falling out of a canoe.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
3 from N.E. among war remains ID'd
The remains of 11 Marines and one Army soldier listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War, including three from New England, have been identified and are returning home, 37 years after they died in a fierce battle near the Laos-Vietnam border, the Department of Defense announced yesterday. Lance Corporal Joseph F. Cook of Foxborough and Private First Class Paul S. Czerwonka of Stoughton, as well as Marine Lance Corporal Thomas W. Fritsch of Cromwell, Conn., were the New Englanders killed. While four of the dead will be buried by the families, seven will be buried as a group in Arlington National Cemetery in October, said Larry Greer, a Pentagon spokesman. (AP)
SPRINGFIELD
Judge cites evidence in Medicaid suit
A federal judge said yesterday that he's heard ''significant evidence" that the state isn't doing all it should to help care for mentally ill children. US District Judge Michael Ponsor said he will probably issue a ruling next month as to whether Massachusetts is violating federal Medicaid requirements by not giving poor families enough services to help tend to their children's emotional problems at home. Lawyers for nine Massachusetts families who are suing the state delivered their closing arguments in a trial that began in April. James Burling, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that instead of giving most children the care that could help treat them in their homes, state providers are quick to hospitalize them. Deirdre Roney, a lawyer for the state, said Massachusetts is meeting federal mandates. But Ponsor said the plaintiffs presented ''significant evidence that there are children who are falling through the cracks." (AP)
BOSTON
Romney taps immigrant office director
Governor Mitt Romney yesterday appointed a leader in the city's Haitian community as the new director of the state Office of Refugees and Immigrants, saying he thinks the state should encourage more legal foreigners to settle here by providing them with the tools to live successfully. Pierre Imbert fled his native Haiti 22 years ago and is the former executive director of the Haitian Multi-Service Center in Dorchester. As head of the state agency, Imbert will oversee 20 employees and a $15 million budget. The office administers the federally funded Massachusetts refugee resettlement program, which includes case management, employment services, transitional cash, medical assistance, English-language instruction, health screening, and foster care for unaccompanied minors. (State House News Service)
Lawrence man sentenced in US drug case
Louis Ramirez, a 26-year-old alleged gang member from Lawrence, has been ordered to spend the next 15 years in federal prison on drug charges. US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced Ramirez, an alleged member of the Almighty Latin King Nation, Thursday after he pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges. Ramirez, also known as King Little Psycho, was also ordered to serve four years of supervised release after he gets out of prison. Ramirez and 19 other alleged gang members were arrested in February 2004 after a two-year investigation into drug dealing by the Latin Kings. Ramirez pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to distribute crack cocaine and cocaine and distributing crack cocaine and cocaine in Lawrence.
Lawyer named to Ethics Commission
Governor Mitt Romney appointed Boston lawyer Matthew N. Kane yesterday to the State Ethics Commission to fill the seat of Christopher Moore, who left earlier this year. Kane, 33, a lawyer with the Boston firm of Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar LLP, will serve a five-year term with the commission. A graduate of Harvard College and Boston University School of Law, Kane will be part of the five-member body in charge of information regarding state conflict-of-interest and financial disclosure laws.
