Daniel Conley

Federal and local police arrested an East Boston man yesterday who they say was the head of a drug ring that brought as much as $100,000 worth of cocaine a week into Boston, Revere, and Chelsea. For at least two years, Ferney Pereanez, 24, was the kingpin of a drug operation based in East Boston, which smuggled about 2 kilos of cocaine weekly from Colombia into the Boston area, prosecutors said yesterday. Pereanez, who was born in the United States but whose family is from Colombia, knew how to avoid capture, according to authorities. He never handled the drugs personally, they said. He hired illegal immigrants as runners, knowing that if they were caught, he could bail them out quickly, ensuring they would be deported immediately and be out of reach of investigators, prosecutors said. In December, Pereanez became suspicious there was an investigation into his business and fled for Columbia, prosecutors said yesterday. ``He probably thought he was untouchable,'' Suffolk District Attorn

Four years after the Suffolk district attorney's office introduced a special court session to deal exclusively with gun offenders, convictions are up and the backlog of cases is down, prosecutors said yesterday. Last year, more than 400 cases went before the ``gun court,'' 89 percent of which resulted in convictions, according to a progress report on the initiative issued by the district attorney's office. ``We're doing better even than we had hoped and expected,'' District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a telephone interview. ``You're taking defendants off the street, and then you see the dip in the violence out there.'' Since the session was launched in February 2006, 1,255 cases have come before the court, and 85 percent have resulted in convictions, according to the report. Conley said he believes the success of the gun court helped contribute to last year's drop in violence in Boston, when the city experienced the lowest number of homicides and shootings since 2003. In recent m

After several years of testifying that she was with two men accused of murder in the slaying of a Roxbury man, LaToya Thomas Dickson took the witness stand in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday and, hours after being granted immunity from prosecution for perjury, repeated her new story that she was never there. Dickson, 21, had testified five times in recent years that she was with the men believed to have gunned down 18-year-old honors student Cedirick Steele. But on Thursday she recanted that statement in court. After that change in her story, prosecutors granted Dickson immunity, hoping to get her to go back to her original testimony. Prosecutors believe that she was with Antwan Carter and Daniel Pinckney Jr. when, prosecutors charge, they shot and killed Steele. ``There was the possibility that if she didn't return to the witness stand, that all her [previous] testimony would be thrown out,'' said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, in explaining why

An internal Boston Fire Department inquiry into a fatal firetruck crash last year blamed brake failure that was caused in part by inadequate maintenance, according to a report released yesterday. The report also cited poor driver training and improper truck brake adjustments performed by firefighters who were not licensed mechanics. The conclusions mirror those of three other reviews of the crash on Jan. 9, 2009, when Ladder 26 lost its brakes, careered down a steep hill, and slammed into a Mission Hill apartment building, killing Lieutenant Kevin M. Kelley, who was in the passenger seat. Investigations by Boston police and District Attorney Daniel F. Conley cited poor driver training and improper brake adjustments by firefighters as contributing factors. A review by an outside consultant found the department had a ``loosey goosey'' approach to firetruck maintenance and no preventive maintenance program. The department has since addressed many of those findings, including hiring licens

He is the subject of a movie scheduled to premiere on cable television Saturday, but the Bavarian-born con man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller will not be able to watch it - at least not outside of prison. Rockefeller, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, lost his bid to set aside his convictions when a Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled that he had had a fair trial on charges of assault and battery and of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in the Back Bay. Judge Frank Gaziano, who presided over the high-profile trial last year, rejected assertions that Assistant Suffolk District Attorney David A. Deakin overstepped his bounds when he urged jurors in a closing argument to reject defense claims that Rockefeller was insane when he abducted the girl. Deakin had argued, ``Don't let this insanity defense be the culminating manipulation in a lifetime of lies designed to get what he wanted.'' Rockefeller's lawyers had also sought a new trial because

It was an overcast Saturday in the summer of 1976 and the Red Sox and Yankees were halfway through a doubleheader. Sam Albano, a New York television producer, was strolling down Lansdowne Street behind Fenway Park when he ran into a friend from home, Bob Oliva, and Oliva's guest that day, a teenager named Jimmy Carlino. It crossed his mind that it was odd to find Oliva with a 14-year-old, but Albano quickly dismissed the thought. And over the next 30 years, the two men became even closer friends, sharing a passion for sports as Oliva built a reputation as a standout coach for the powerhouse basketball team at Christ the King Regional High School in Queens. Now, however, Albano is cooperating with Boston prosecutors presenting evidence to a Suffolk grand jury that Oliva repeatedly molested his teenage companion all those years ago, while staying at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. And in the aftermath of those allegations, Oliva has resigned from the job he held at Christ the King for 27 year

A 29-year-old man being held at the Nashua Street Jail in Boston was found dead Wednesday morning by his cellmate, who called for help after he tried to wake him and failed to get a response, law enforcement officials confirmed yesterday. Boston police and Suffolk County prosecutors are investigating the death of Wigberto Sanchez, who was in jail pending charges of being an accessory in the fatal shooting of a Fall River man last July. The cause of Sanchez's death is still not known, said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. An autopsy, which would have determined if he had been beaten or strangled, did not reveal anything suspicious, Wark said. There also were no signs of trauma on his body, according to Wark. ``Nothing at the scene or on Mr. Sanchez's body suggests foul play,'' he said. A toxicology test will be conducted on Sanchez. But Sanchez's family said that they believe someone was trying to hurt Sanchez and that jail officials failed to protect

Joel Silver can still remember his private sessions with child psychiatrist William H. Ayres at a renowned Boston guidance center decades ago. Ayres, then a freshly minted therapist affiliated with Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, would puff on a Sherlock Holmes-style pipe and ask what seemed like the strangest questions. At their very first meeting, Silver recalled, Ayres asked him to describe an explicit sex act, a request the 17-year-old Silver refused but one that would set the tone for future sessions. ``I thought he was going to ask me why I didn't like school. That's why I was there. But everything was sexual.'' Today, nearly 50 years later, Ayres is awaiting trial in the San Francisco Bay area on charges he sexually molested six boys, ranging in age from 9 to 13, while giving them physical exams in his West Coast psychiatric office. And Massachusetts authorities are taking a fresh look at Ayres's child psychiatry practice in Boston in the early 1960s. Boston poli

A state trooper from Stoneham was charged yesterday with accepting a $50 bribe to falsify vehicle inspection records for two men connected to a Revere body shop, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office. Trooper Robert A. Forrest Jr., 61, and Bernaldo Hernandez and Kenneth Lafauci were each indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges of bribery, making a false statement in an application for a title certificate, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to make a false statement in an application for a title certificate. ``From the evidence we've seen, Mr. Forrest sold his badge and sold it cheap,'' Conley said in a statement. ``There's a reason these cars need to be inspected, and that's to protect the public at large. Not doing so puts unsuspecting drivers and pedestrians at risk.'' Separately, State Police issued a statement saying Forrest was suspended without pay last summer as a result of the investigation led by members of the State Police comma

Thirty-eight years after authorities found Ellen Rutchick partially clothed and strangled with an electrical cord in her Back Bay apartment, police said yesterday that they have cracked the case, one of an increasing number of old crimes solved with new forensic methods. Using DNA matching technology, cold case squad investigators identified Michael Sumpter as the suspect in the 1972 slaying of the 23-year-old secretary. Police also named him as a suspect in the 1985 rape of a 21-year-old woman who also lived in the Back Bay. No charges will be filed. Sumpter died in prison in 2001, while jailed on a separate rape conviction, prosecutors and police said. ``This development demonstrates that although sometimes justice may be delayed, with dogged detective work, dedicated prosecutors, and highly-skilled crime lab technicians, justice does not have to be denied,'' Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said in a statement. In 2002, police identified Sumpter in the 1985 case as part of

A mother whose two sons suffered chest wounds after being stabbed with a kitchen knife outside her Winthrop home a year ago said she fears that the three other teenagers charged may enter into plea bargains with no jail time. Christine Gammons said a prosecutor for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel L. Conley told her that one youth is seeking six months probation and two others would receive 18-month suspended sentences in the attack, which occurred on Feb. 9, 2009, outside a three-family home on Trident Avenue, near Winthrop Beach. Gammons's sons, who were then 13 and 16, were found bleeding from chest wounds, including one just inches from the younger boy's heart. Both boys required emergency surgery at a Boston hospital, according to police reports and court records. ``They tried to murder my boys and nearly succeeded,'' Gammons said in an interview. ``I think they're still trying to plead it out. I am really hoping they don't . . . I want them to get the maximum sentence allowed und

A Suffolk County jury convicted a 22-year-old man yesterday of murdering a Revere police officer during an ugly exchange of epithets and gunfire between a group of alleged gang members and hard-drinking police officers gathered behind the local high school in the wee hours of a September morning more than two years ago. Robert Iacoviello Jr., a reputed gang member and a lifelong Revere resident, was convicted of second- degree murder in the killing of Officer Daniel Talbot, 30, a member of the Police Department's gang unit. Iacoviello - a diminutive, dark-haired man who wore a dark suit - stood motionless as the jury forewoman read the verdict before a courtroom packed with Revere and State Police officers, reporters, and family members of both victim and defendant. Behind Iacoviello, in the front row, relatives and friends of Talbot, including his mother, Patty, and his fiancee, Constance Bethell, jumped in their seats and gasped as they heard the verdict read. ``Yes!'' whispered one

A Suffolk County jury convicted a 22-year-old man yesterday of murdering a Revere police officer during an ugly exchange of epithets and gunfire between a group of alleged gang members and hard-drinking police officers gathered behind the local high school in the wee hours of a September morning more than two years ago. Robert Iacoviello Jr., a reputed gang member and a lifelong Revere resident, was convicted of second- degree murder in the killing of Officer Daniel Talbot, 30, a member of the Police Department's gang unit. Iacoviello - a diminutive, dark-haired man who wore a dark suit - stood motionless as the jury forewoman read the verdict before a courtroom packed with Revere and State Police officers, reporters, and family members of both victim and defendant. Behind Iacoviello, in the front row, relatives and friends of Talbot, including his mother, Patty, and his fiancee, Constance Bethell, jumped in their seats and gasped as they heard the verdict read. ``Yes!'' whispered one

Almost 40 years ago, Edward Corliss held up a store clerk at gunpoint in Salisbury, tried to steal the $15 in his cash register, and then shot him to death before fleeing in a car. Last month, a day after Christmas, Boston police and prosecutors say, he committed the same crime in a Jamaica Plain store. Corliss, 63, of Roslindale, was charged yesterday with the Dec. 26 fatal shooting of Surendra Dangol, a 39-year-old Nepalese store clerk who had started working at a Tedeschi Food Shop in Jamaica Plain just days before. Police believe Corliss fled in a white Plymouth Acclaim driven by someone else. In 1973, Corliss was convicted of killing George Oakes, 61, and sentenced to life in prison. But in May 2006, the state Parole Board voted 5 to 1 to release him as long as he obeyed several conditions, including going into a long-term residential treatment program for substance abuse and undergoing drug and alcohol testing. The board majority ruled that Corliss understood the depths of his su

James Haley spent 34 years in prison before a judge overturned his 1972 murder conviction and set him free, ruling that he didn't get a fair trial because critical evidence had been withheld from his lawyer. But last week Haley, 63, of Cambridge, lost his bid to be compensated for the years he spent behind bars. On New Year's Eve, a federal judge dismissed a wrongful imprisonment suit that Haley filed last year against two Boston police detectives, who have died, and the City of Boston. US District Judge Richard G. Stearns rejected Haley's claims that the detectives, John B. Harrington and Joseph Kelley, deliberately withheld inconsistent statements made by key witnesses. He found that prosecutors - not police - were responsible for disclosing evidence to the defense and that in 1972 the law wasn't clear on whether the state was obligated to share the statements with Haley's lawyer. ``We're gratified that the reputations of these two officers have been vindicated,'' said William F. Sin

CHELSEA - Residents of Grove Street awoke yesterday morning to the buzz of a police investigation near the rear bumper of a blue minivan, where the body of an unidentified man was found stuffed in a brown plastic trash barrel. The man apparently died of stab wounds. A trail of blood stretched half a block, from a house at 96 Grove St., where the homicide is believed to have occurred, to 114 Grove St., where the body was discovered. Authorities have not identified the victim, other than saying he was possibly in his 50s. ``I'm just absolutely in shock,'' said Serah Ngwa, who owns the minivan. ``I don't know if I can drive it again any time soon. There should be respect for the dead. The way this man was killed and then put into the trash, that is not the way to treat a human being.'' The barrel was about 2 inches from the van, and the victim's legs protruded out the open top. Just before noon, authorities lifted the man into a gray bag, placed him on a stretcher, and wheeled him to the

After initially denying the 9-year-old daughter of a slain convenience store clerk a visa to attend his funeral, the US Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, issued the girl a visa yesterday, according to a family friend. ``The embassy called the girl's mother and told her that they would issue the visa,'' said Uttam Shrestha, a family friend. The wife, daughter, and brother of the victim, Surendra Dangol, were scheduled to board a plane at 11:25 p.m. in Nepal yesterday and arrive in Boston at 10:25 tonight, Shrestha said. US Representative Michael E. Capuano said yesterday that he had contacted the US consulate in Kathmandu on Wednesday and ``enlightened them as to what was going on and asked them to review the matter'' after his office received numerous calls from the Nepali community concerning the denial of the visa. Capuano said he learned yesterday morning that a visa had been issued. Capuano represents the Eighth District, which includes Somerville, the home to many Nepali immigrants. He

As officials announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of a store clerk in Jamaica Plain, the victim's relatives said they had learned the clerk's 9-year-old daughter in Nepal will not be allowed into the country for the funeral because US Embassy officials have denied her a visa. Surendra Dangol's wife, Kalpana, had reserved three plane tickets to Boston to attend her husband's funeral, one for her, one for Dangol's brother, and another for her daughter, Sunila. But on Tuesday, she was told that she could only have two visas because US officials were concerned that if they provided more than that, the family would try to stay in the country, her uncle Bimal Shrestha said in a telephone interview. Shrestha said the family is outraged by the embassy's refusal. ``This is the last time [for Sunila] to see her dead father's body and face,'' he said. ``I don't' know why they're not doing the right thing.'' Darby Holladay, a State Departmen

As officials announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of a store clerk in Jamaica Plain, the victim's relatives said they had learned the clerk's 9-year-old daughter in Nepal will not be allowed into the country for the funeral because US Embassy officials have denied her a visa. Surendra Dangol's wife, Kalpana, had reserved three plane tickets to Boston to attend her husband's funeral, one for her, one for Dangol's brother, and another for her daughter, Sunila. But on Tuesday, she was told that she could only have two visas because US officials were concerned that if they provided more than that, the family would try to stay in the country, her uncle Bimal Shrestha said in a telephone interview. Shrestha said the family is outraged by the embassy's refusal. ``This is the last time [for Sunila] to see her dead father's body and face,'' he said. ``I don't' know why they're not doing the right thing.'' Darby Holladay, a State Departmen

Dangol held his hands in the air several times during the robbery at the Jamaica Plain store, but never made any sudden moves, surveillance footage from the store revealed yesterday. ``He didn't act rashly or try to be a hero, and for that good judgment he was shot to death in cold blood,'' Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said yesterday morning during a press conference in which the video was made public. While the camera captured the homicide at the Tedeschi Food Shops on Centre Street, police released only the footage leading up to the shooting. ``This is a shocking crime, not just because a man was killed, but because he was gunned down for a small stack of bills that he gave up willingly,'' Conley said. Police Superintendent in Chief Daniel Linskey said Dangol ``did everything right in this case.'' Authorities are studying the video, their primary piece of evidence, and hope to gain more information that could lead them to the arrest of the robber and at least one accomp