Boston Globe editorial regarding three of our cases: Did informants plant evidence? Police, DAs should say more

Check out this editorial in the Boston Globe: Did informants plant evidence? Police, DAs should say more. The editorial explains the recent allegations of civil rights violations in the Lowell Police Department. Our firm has filed three lawsuits against the City of Lowell and a Lowell police officer, alleging that the officer worked with police informants to plant evidence and frame innocent people for crimes they did not commit. In all three cases items were found in a car. In two of the cases drugs were inside the cover leading to the gas cap. The editorial notes a contradiction; the Middlesex and Essex DA’s offices determined the police did nothing wrong, yet the DAs dismissed or vacated 19 criminal cases as a result of their investigation into the allegations of police misconduct.

Howard Friedman interviewed for radio story on police and technology

Listen to this radio story: Police Innovation Conference Explores New Frontiers In Policing. Howard is interviewed on the topic of how technology is changing traditional policing.

We filed civil rights suits for two more men, alleging a confidential informant in Lowell framed them by planting evidence

Yesterday we filed two more civil rights cases against the City of Lowell and Lowell police officer Thomas Lafferty. These two cases are related to a similar case we filed earlier this month. All three cases allege that officer Lafferty worked with police informants to plant evidence and frame the men for crimes they did not commit. The cases allege that the City of Lowell had a policy which led police officers in the Special Investigations Section to believe that the ends justify the means, so that their violations of people’s constitutional rights would be tolerated by the Lowell Police Department.

For more information, read this article in the Lowell Sun: 2 more sue city of Lowell over use of informants.

Boston Police 2.0: What does the public lose in information as the department upgrades its digital presence?

Howard Friedman is quoted in this article by Ed Mason on Bostonmagazine.com. The article describes how the Boston Police Department has not published an annual report since 2010, and now favors Twitter, Facebook, and websites to share information with the public. The annual reports were a great tool for accountability because they compiled data and statistics about many aspects of policing, including citizens’ complaints about police misconduct.

Our firm filed a lawsuit against a Lowell police officer and the City of Lowell after the police misused a confidential informant who planted drugs on our client and many others

Today we filed a federal civil lawsuit alleging that the City of Lowell failed to supervise the widespread misuse of confidential informants in the Lowell Police Department. Our client, Jonathan Santiago, was arrested on February 21, 2012, after a confidential informant planted drugs inside the gas cap compartment of Mr. Santiago’s car. The confidential informant had worked closely with Detective Thomas Lafferty, and Lafferty knew that the confidential informant had planted evidence. Our lawsuit alleges that for more than twenty years, the Lowell Police Department allowed police officers in the Special Investigations Section to use informants who were planting evidence on people.

Click here to read our complaint.

Click here to read the article about this case published in the Boston Globe.

Howard Friedman named the Best Lawyers’ 2014 “Lawyer of the Year” in the area of Civil Rights Law in Boston

Today, Best Lawyers announced that Howard Friedman is the Best Lawyers’ 2014 Boston Civil Rights Law “Lawyer of the Year.” Only a single lawyer in each practice area in each community is honored as a “Lawyer of the Year.” Howard was also selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Civil Rights Law. Our firm was rated as a first tier best law firm in Boston for the practice of Civil Rights Law when U.S. News & Best Lawyers released their 2013 “Best Law Firm” rankings, and our firm has been selected as a Tier 1 Best Law Firm by U.S. News and Best Lawyers for 2014.

Congratulations to Attorney David Milton for becoming a partner in the Law Offices of Howard Friedman!

The Law Offices of Howard Friedman is pleased to announce that David Milton recently became a partner in the firm.

David joined the firm as an associate attorney in 2007. Along with Howard Friedman and associate attorney Drew Glassroth, he represents people whose constitutional rights have been violated by police officers and other government officials. Cases David has worked on have resulted in positive changes in police and prison practices in addition to compensation for the firm’s clients.

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Woman dies in Lowell Police custody; Middlesex DA makes recommendations to Department

On January 13, 2013, Alyssa Brame was arrested and booked at the Lowell Police Department. Officers observed that she was highly intoxicated. The officers placed her into a holding cell. Later that night, an officer found her unresponsive. She had died of alcohol poisoning, which is preventable if treated in a timely manner.

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Federal Appeals Court Allows Our Class Action to Go Forward; Lawsuit Challenges Male Prison Guards’ Videotaping Strip Searches of Female Inmates

Yesterday, the federal Court of Appeals in Boston let stand a lower court’s opinion that our case alleging that male correctional officers at the women’s prison in Chicopee routinely videotaped female inmates’ naked bodies while the women were being strip searched could proceed as a class action. Our lawsuit alleges that since the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center (WCC) opened in 2007, the jail has had a policy of permitting male officers to videotape strip searches of female prisoners in non-emergency situations. Our lawsuit alleges that this policy is degrading and unconstitutional.

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Officer we sued for using improper force fired by the Boston Police, but now reinstated by a labor arbitrator

Read this opinion piece in the Boston Globe about David Williams, a Boston police officer who was fired for using unreasonable force on our client Michael O’Brien, and for lying about his use of excessive force. He was recently given his job back, along with back pay, after he appealed the Department’s decision to an independent arbitrator.

After our lawsuit, Boston Police announce guidelines for how to interact with transgender people

Last week, the Boston Police Department announced a new policy that instructs officers how to properly interact with and respect transgender people. This policy is announced just a few months after our client Brenda Wernikoff agreed to accept $30,000 and a judgment against the City of Boston to resolve her claim that she was falsely arrested and subject to discrimination for using the women’s bathroom at a homeless shelter. The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition has been working with the Boston Police to draft this new policy.

To learn more about the new police guidelines, read the articles in the Boston Globe and The Boston Herald.

Click here to learn more about our lawsuit against the Boston police officers who violated Ms. Wernikoff’s rights.

In our case involving a man who died in police custody, New Bedford officers receive 4-day suspensions

Five New Bedford police officers involved in the death of Erik Aguilar each received a 4-day suspension despite an internal police investigation that recommended discipline ranging from six months’ suspension to termination. The internal investigation found that the incident was “an embarrassing disgrace to the New Bedford Police Department and a case of absolute negligence on the part of the ... police officers on scene.” This disciplinary decision was the result of a settlement agreement between the city, the officers and the police union.

Click here to read an article about this on southcoasttoday.com.

Click here to read more about our lawsuit against these New Bedford officers.

Howard Friedman joins the board of the Human Rights Defense Center

Howard recently joined the board of the Human Rights Defense Center, the parent organization of Prison Legal News (PLN). PLN is an independent magazine published by and for prisoners. We represented PLN in 2008, when Massachusetts refused to permit PLN to distribute books to its prisoners. We brought a lawsuit to end the unlawful censorship by the Massachusetts Department of Correction. The case settled, and Massachusetts prisoners are now free to order PLN materials.

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Providence TV station covers our lawsuit against Foxborough

Last week, the NBC station in Providence featured a story on our lawsuit against the Foxborough Police Department for illegally taking people into protective custody just for being intoxicated at stadium events. We estimate that they’ve taken more than 2,500 people over the past three years, far more than is reported in this story.

Link: http://www.turnto10.com/story/22399389/i-team-hundreds-detained-at-gillette-stadium

Class Certified in Our Lawsuit Challenging Male Prison Guards’ Videotaping Strip Searches of Female Inmates

On May 23, 2013, a federal judge ruled that our case alleging that male correctional officers at the women’s prison in Chicopee routinely videotaped female inmates’ naked bodies while the women were being strip searched could proceed as a class action. The lawsuit alleges that since the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center (WCC) opened in 2007, the jail has had a policy of permitting male officers to videotape strip searches of female prisoners in non-emergency situations. Our lawsuit alleges that this policy is degrading and unconstitutional.

The Court’s ruling, by United States District Judge Michael A. Ponsor, certifies a class of approximately 178 women who have been videotaped by a male officer. Any woman who was held at the WCC and videotaped by a male officer during a strip search since September 15, 2008, is a member of the class.

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Our Client Neil Miller Describes His Time in Solitary Confinement

Check out this Boston Globe article about solitary confinement. The article describes the experiences of Neil Miller, a client of this firm who spent ten years in prison before he was exonerated by DNA evidence. Mr. Miller reached a landmark $3.2 million settlement with the City of Boston after this firm and the firm of firm of Cochran, Neufeld and Scheck in New York alleged civil rights violations, police misconduct, and misconduct at the police lab that resulted in Mr. Miller’s wrongful conviction. As the article describes, Mr. Miller is still recovering from the pain of spending a decade in in prison, including time in solitary confinement, for a crime he did not commit.

David Milton speaks at Northern Illinois University College of Law

On April 19, David spoke at a symposium on “Eavesdropping and Wiretapping in Illinois” at Northern Illinois University College of Law. Despite its narrow title, the daylong event featured speakers on a wide variety of topics concerning technology, privacy, and law enforcement. David spoke about developments in the law regarding videotaping police since the First Circuit’s landmark decision in our firm’s case, Glik v. Cunniffe, 655 F.3d 78 (1st Cir. 2011), which recognized that recording on-duty police officers is protected by the First Amendment.

David Milton speaks at Harvard Law School on representing current or former drug abusers in civil rights cases

David spoke today at Harvard Law School on representing current and former substance abusers in civil rights cases. The talk focused on the many obstacles that people involved with drugs face when they seek to vindicate their rights through the civil justice system. The difficulty in securing representation and bringing a successful civil rights lawsuit leaves those involved with drugs especially vulnerable to abuse by the police. David spoke about several police misconduct and prisoners rights cases our firm has brought on behalf of drug abusers whose rights were violated by police, prison medical staff, and other public servants who viewed them as less than human. We occasionally take these very hard cases not because we expect to make a lot of money for the firm, but because we simply cannot not let certain callous and outrageous government abuse go unchallenged.

Judge dismisses our animal rights “terrorism” case; an appeal is likely

Yesterday, a federal judge dismissed Blum v. Holder, our lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). Attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York filed this case in December 2011. We are co-counsel along with Professor Alexander Reinert.

Here is the press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Boston Police Department rewards officers accused of misconduct

Several Boston police officers who were accused of police brutality in high-profile cases have been awarded medals for their actions. This story first broke last month in the Blackstonian, and this month was in the Phoenix. One of the awarded officers is Michael T. McManus, who can be seen throwing punches and knee strikes in the video of the Roxbury Community College beating.

McManus was also involved in the death of David Woodman. David Woodman was a twenty-two-year-old man who was walking home from the Fenway Park area after the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship in 2008. As David passed a group of police officers, including McManus, he was arrested for carrying an open container of beer. Witnesses reported that police officers slammed David to the ground.

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