Driver arraigned in deadly I-93 plunge

August 8, 2007

A New Hampshire man who drove his car off a highway ramp and whose friend died in the 70-foot plunge has pleaded not guilty to a charge of motor vehicle homicide. Prosecutors did not request bail for Albert Auprey, 20, of Manchester, who was arraigned yesterday. A Suffolk Superior Court clerk magistrate ordered him to report to probation weekly while the case is pending. Auprey's friend John Andersen, also 20, was killed March 18 when Auprey lost control of his car and drove it over a Jersey barrier. The car fell off the Interstate 93 exit ramp and landed on the Boston Sand and Gravel property below. Auprey had failed to appear for his scheduled arraignment Monday. (AP)

MEDWAY

A trooper sustained minor injuries yesterday when his cruiser crashed during a high-speed pursuit in Medway, State Police said. The trooper had chased a speeding motorcycle from Interstate 495 South to Route 109 East when the trooper lost control and hit a tree, police said. The trooper was taken to Milford Hospital, said a State Police spokesman, Lieutenant Eric Anderson. The motorcycle then crashed into a 2000 Toyota sedan near Route 126, and its rider -- Peter Tziamouris, 41, of Uncasville, Conn. -- was flown to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester with serious injuries, police said. Neither person was identified, and the driver of the Toyota was not injured, police said.

SPRINGFIELD

Murder charges will be filed against a Palmer man whose girlfriend died, police say, after he tried to drown her in a lake. Hampden District Attorney William Bennett said Alfred Labare will be arraigned on a murder charge Friday. Authorities say Labare tried to drown his girlfriend, Gail Arsenault, last week in Thompson Lake. She died in the hospital over the weekend. (AP)

SEEKONK

For the second time this summer, mosquitoes carrying Eastern equine encephalitis have been detected in Massachusetts, this time in Seekonk. The earlier batch of mosquitoes carrying the viral ailment was found in Raynham, not far from Seekonk. In past summers, Eastern equine encephalitis has been rampant in the marshy terrain of Southeastern Massachusetts.

NEW BEDFORD

A grand jury has indicted a New Bedford couple on charges of abusing a 3-year-old girl so severely that she has been left permanently disfigured. Bryan James, 34, faces three counts of assault and battery on a child and other charges. James is accused of repeatedly biting the face of his girlfriend's daughter and continually striking her ear. The girl is missing her top lip and has a permanent disfigurement called boxer's ear. The girl's mother -- Jessica Silveira, 26 -- is accused of neglecting her daughter's injuries and covering up her boyfriend's crimes. Arraignment in Superior Court will be scheduled this week. Both have been held in jail since pleading not guilty following their arrest July 4. (AP)

NEW IPSWICH, N.H.

A New Ipswich man has been charged with sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl in her home, police said. Authorities said they arrived to find Stuart Joaquin, 49, in the kitchen with the girl's aunt and her husband yesterday. Police said the aunt, who lives next door, went to see what was going on after she spotted a strange vehicle in the driveway. She said she saw the girl being assaulted in her bedroom. Investigators said the oldest boy was left in charge while the father was out taking another boy to camp. The girl was taken to Monadnock Hospital, and police said she was doing fine. Police said the family knew Joaquin. He was ordered held on $25,000 bail. (AP)

NEW HAVEN

A federal judge has rejected former Waterbury mayor Philip Giordano's bid for a reduced sentence, saying he deserves 37 years in prison for abusing two girls while he was mayor. Giordano, 44, was convicted in 2003 of violating the girls' civil rights by paying a crack-addicted prostitute to bring her daughter and a niece to him for sexual encounters in 2000 and 2001, when they were 8 and 10 years old. (AP)