http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=1010835
Want to know why teenagers are brazenly carrying guns - and using them - on Boston streets?
Ask Roxbury District Court Judge R. Peter Anderson, who just this week released on bail a teenager witnesses identified as the gunman who opened fire outside the crowded Breezeway barroom on Blue Hill Avenue Sunday night.
The bail for that suspect, who was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly shot a 20-year-old man in the back:
A measly $250.
That’s despite the fact that the suspect, Lyndon Scott, 18, was already out on bail in connection with an assault and battery case on which he was busted in Roxbury earlier this year, prosecutors said.
And despite the fact that Scott was stopped by cops as he was allegedly hustling from the scene of the shooting within minutes of the bullets being fired, and questioned by officers who filled out an identification card on him listing his clothing: gray hoodie sweatshirt, brown shorts, white socks, black shoes, according to a Boston police report.
And despite the fact that video surveillance later recovered by cops captured the shooter - wearing a gray hoodie sweatshirt, brown shorts, white socks and black shoes - squeeze off the rounds that hit the victim, according to yet another BPD report
And despite the fact that several eyewitnesses fingered Scott as the triggerman shortly after his arrest, according to both BPD reports.
But Scott is back on the streets. Surely that $250 in cash he put up is bound to ensure he returns to court now on two cases of violence he is charged with in Roxbury.
“It sends a message that violent crime is not taken seriously by the courts,” said police Commissioner Edward Davis, who called the bail “inappropriate.”
Is it any wonder just 28 arrests have been made in connection with the 146 shootings that have terrorized city streets during the first six months of the year?
Consider this. Get your car towed in the city of Boston for, say, parking in a handicapped spot.
The tow charge alone is $110. Then there is the fine of $120 for illegally parking. That means that a driver who made a bad parking choice has to pony up $220 to get his vehicle out of hock.
So, for just an additional $30 over that, you could shoot, say, a tow truck driver and still get home in time for dinner.
Yesterday, Anderson did not respond to calls for comment. A spokeswoman for the courts, Joan Kenney, said Anderson is unable to comment on “pending cases because of the Code of Judicial Conduct.”
Rest assured, good people. Kenney pointed out Anderson also imposed “a nightly curfew, weekly reporting in person to the probation officer, stay-away orders from the alleged victim and family of alleged victim.”
Anderson was appointed to the bench in 1990, when he was 47 and a resident of Newton. At that time, he was the director of the Greater Boston Legal Services Program.
Four years earlier, the Governor’s Council rejected Anderson as a judicial nominee, but confirmed him after then Gov. Michael S. Dukakis resubmitted his name for a judgeship.
n 2002, Anderson also ordered that the state’s probation commissioner, John J. O’Brien, be taken into custody and held in contempt in a prisoner’s dock at Brighton District Court after the two got into a dispute over the way drug cases should be handled during a budget crunch.
O’Brien is now suing Anderson in federal court, saying his civil rights were violated.
Neither man would comment on the case yesterday.
But one thing is for sure. Lyndon Scott has no complaints. He’s Scott free.
Want to know why teenagers are brazenly carrying guns - and using them - on Boston streets?
Ask Roxbury District Court Judge R. Peter Anderson, who just this week released on bail a teenager witnesses identified as the gunman who opened fire outside the crowded Breezeway barroom on Blue Hill Avenue Sunday night.
The bail for that suspect, who was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly shot a 20-year-old man in the back:
A measly $250.
That’s despite the fact that the suspect, Lyndon Scott, 18, was already out on bail in connection with an assault and battery case on which he was busted in Roxbury earlier this year, prosecutors said.
And despite the fact that Scott was stopped by cops as he was allegedly hustling from the scene of the shooting within minutes of the bullets being fired, and questioned by officers who filled out an identification card on him listing his clothing: gray hoodie sweatshirt, brown shorts, white socks, black shoes, according to a Boston police report.
And despite the fact that video surveillance later recovered by cops captured the shooter - wearing a gray hoodie sweatshirt, brown shorts, white socks and black shoes - squeeze off the rounds that hit the victim, according to yet another BPD report
And despite the fact that several eyewitnesses fingered Scott as the triggerman shortly after his arrest, according to both BPD reports.
But Scott is back on the streets. Surely that $250 in cash he put up is bound to ensure he returns to court now on two cases of violence he is charged with in Roxbury.
“It sends a message that violent crime is not taken seriously by the courts,” said police Commissioner Edward Davis, who called the bail “inappropriate.”
Is it any wonder just 28 arrests have been made in connection with the 146 shootings that have terrorized city streets during the first six months of the year?
Consider this. Get your car towed in the city of Boston for, say, parking in a handicapped spot.
The tow charge alone is $110. Then there is the fine of $120 for illegally parking. That means that a driver who made a bad parking choice has to pony up $220 to get his vehicle out of hock.
So, for just an additional $30 over that, you could shoot, say, a tow truck driver and still get home in time for dinner.
Yesterday, Anderson did not respond to calls for comment. A spokeswoman for the courts, Joan Kenney, said Anderson is unable to comment on “pending cases because of the Code of Judicial Conduct.”
Rest assured, good people. Kenney pointed out Anderson also imposed “a nightly curfew, weekly reporting in person to the probation officer, stay-away orders from the alleged victim and family of alleged victim.”
Anderson was appointed to the bench in 1990, when he was 47 and a resident of Newton. At that time, he was the director of the Greater Boston Legal Services Program.
Four years earlier, the Governor’s Council rejected Anderson as a judicial nominee, but confirmed him after then Gov. Michael S. Dukakis resubmitted his name for a judgeship.
n 2002, Anderson also ordered that the state’s probation commissioner, John J. O’Brien, be taken into custody and held in contempt in a prisoner’s dock at Brighton District Court after the two got into a dispute over the way drug cases should be handled during a budget crunch.
O’Brien is now suing Anderson in federal court, saying his civil rights were violated.
Neither man would comment on the case yesterday.
But one thing is for sure. Lyndon Scott has no complaints. He’s Scott free.
![[laugh]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/012.gif "Laugh [laugh]")
