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A former director at a Massachusetts migrant shelter is speaking out against what he says were incidents of widespread violence, child sexual assault and rape at shelters in the state, including an incident where a father impregnated his 14-year-old daughter.
Massachusetts, a sanctuary state, has been one of a number of states that have been overwhelmed by the migrant surge coming from the southern border.
The state has spent nearly $1.1 billion of taxpayers’ money this fiscal year to house and feed the border crossers who have often been placed in hotels converted into shelters.
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Meshach Little of Northill Wilkston Security Firm walks the perimeter of the main living area at the state’s new emergency overflow shelter for migrants at the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
One such migrant shelter in Marlborough, Massachusetts, was managed by Jon Fetherston from November 2023 to July 2024, who painted a chaotic picture of his time there with violence, wasteful spending and rape.
“There was a lot of violence,” Fetherston told The Daily Wire of the crowded 550-person shelter at Holiday Inn at 265 Lakeside Ave. “Unfortunately there was a gentleman in the hotel that impregnated his own daughter and got very violent when the state removed her from the shelter.”
A Maine Wire report from June appears to corroborate the claim, reporting that illegal immigrant Ronald Joseph allegedly raped his 14-year-old daughter numerous times on the journey to the U.S. — both before and after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Dept. of Children and Families (DcF) interviewed the young girl before making the decision to remove her from her father’s custody on an emergency basis,” the document obtained by The Maine Wire states.
Illegal migrants line the floors of a terminal at Boston Logan Airport as Massachusetts’ shelters are overrun. (WBZ)
Joseph was then given a taxpayer-funded Lyft ride to another shelter in Worcester, Massachusetts, after he started yelling and making threatening gestures at the shelter staff, The Maine Wire reports, citing Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) records.
“They had me send them to Worcester County,” Fetherston told the Daily Wire. “And I, for the life of me, don’t understand why he wasn’t locked up. A man who admits he committed rape, you’re just going to put in another shelter so he can rape again another day? It makes no sense.”
That shelter is also paid for by taxpayers and residents receive the full slate of benefits while staying there, according to The Maine Wire, which reports that the official report did not recommend that any criminal charges should be brought against Joseph.
In another disturbing incident, Fetherston says that a 16-year-old female student says she was raped multiple times by a 29-year-old man.
“She told the police officer that she was raped multiple times. It was probably the most disturbing conversation I’ve ever heard in my adult life,” Fetherston told the Daily Wire.
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Cory Bernard Alvarez is accused of aggravated rape of a 15-year-old child in a Rockland migrant shelter. (ICE)
The man, identified as Gladimy Rodene by The Maine Wire, was arrested, removed from the shelter and was reportedly issued an abuse prevention order, which forbade him from approaching the Marlborough Holiday Inn or the local High School where his victim is a student.
Rodene reportedly sexually assaulted another girl, according to the Daily Wire, citing a report from a security guard recounting a statement from the original victim.
A spokesperson for ICE told The Daily Wire that they do not have a detainer on either of the individuals.
In another violent incident at a Massachusetts shelter, a pregnant woman was allegedly raped and assaulted at a different hotel shelter in July by 34-year-old Haitian national Marc Kervens Beauvais, per the Boston Globe.
In August, ICE says it arrested 26-year-old Haitian national Cory Bernard Alvarez, accused of aggravated rape of a 15-year-old child in a Rockland migrant shelter.
Fetherston also spoke about migrants fighting over microwave access and in one incident, a migrant drove a car into Fetherston’s office, knocking him off his chair, in what he claims was retaliation for refusing to hand out diapers to migrants on government benefits.
“If you were receiving benefits and you were receiving those, then we were going to start scaling back on providing diapers, formula and wipes,” Fetherston said. “That did not go over well with the migrants. They thought that they were being attacked. A gentleman then drove his car into my office.”
Fetherston told the Daily Wire that his daily tasks included assisting migrants with enrolling in social services like food stamps and government health insurance. The migrants were given three meals a day from catering companies, and he purchased essential items such as toiletries, diapers, strollers and baby wipes for them.
He also coordinated state-paid, same-day dry cleaning for the migrants and arranged Uber rides to work when needed. He added he was given an Amazon budget and other accounts to buy necessities for the migrants with no spending cap.
“They maybe have two days’ worth of clothing on them and they have no toiletries, they don’t have any IDs, they don’t have anything,” Fetherston told The Daily Wire. “The state contract was that you provide everything that they would need. So a lot of the days you spent ordering.”
The news comes as Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has said that her state police will “absolutely not” be cooperating with the expected mass deportation effort by the incoming Trump administration, warning that she will use “every tool in the toolbox” to “protect” residents in the blue state.
President-elect Trump has pledged to launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” to deport millions of illegal immigrants. One report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) estimated 50,000 migrants have arrived in the state since 2021.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has said that her state police will “absolutely not” be cooperating with the expected mass deportation effort by the incoming Trump administration, warning that she will use “every tool in the toolbox” to “protect” residents in the blue state. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
“I do think it is important that we all recognize that there is going to be a lot of pressure on states and state officials. I can assure you we’re going to work hard to deliver,” Healey said following President-elect Trump’s resounding election win last month.
Last year, Healey declared a state of emergency in the state due to the surge and called for federal action. She also acknowledged that the state’s policies may be a draw for migrants.
“Many of these families are migrants to Massachusetts, drawn here because we are and proudly have been a beacon to those in need,” she wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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Sports
When reminiscing about sports moments and personalities of days gone by, the familiar anecdotes are often a joy to hear again and again.
Even better, though, is when there are fresh new stories to be told by those who were there.
The new YouTube channel Front Row to Boston Sports offers both familiar tales and ones you may not have heard before, as told by four of the most connected journalists and best storytellers in the modern annals of sports in this region.
Legendary former sports anchors Mike Lynch (Channel 5) and Bob Lobel (Channel 4), along with Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy and former Globe columnist Bob Ryan, have teamed up to share the funniest, most heartfelt, and illuminating tales from their storied careers, from press row and the locker room.
The project is the brainchild of Peter Brown, a former news director at Channel 4, where he spent 22 years before moving on to an accomplished career in public affairs and communications.
“You come from a news background, you’re always thinking about what’s the best way to tell a story,” he said. “What better story is there to tell than those about Boston sports? Everyone who is from here or has lived here is in some degree a fan. I thought a look back at some great moments and some behind-the-scenes details that only the most plugged-in reporters would know would be a fun thing to do.”
So Brown reached out to Alan Miller, a former sports producer at Channel 4 who worked with Brown during the local news heyday in the 1980-90s. Miller, who later worked at the Globe and in the Channel 7 newsroom before retiring in May 2024, has long been one of the most well-liked figures in the Boston sports media landscape, someone who knows everyone and whose word is as good as a signature on the dotted line.
Miller thought it was a super idea, and reached out to his close friend Lobel, along with Lynch, Shaughnessy, and Ryan. They all said yes immediately.
“We basically said, just tell us your best stories,” said Miller. “We wanted the stories that maybe you couldn’t tell on TV or in the newspaper, but the ones you might have told your buddies at the bar. The ones about what people are really like and what gets said behind the scenes. The ones about relationships. These were the four perfect guys to tell those.”
Currently, there are eight clips posted on the channel, ranging in length from just longer than three minutes (Ryan talking about his top five all-time Celtics) to 13 minutes (Shaughnessy sharing an assortment of Terry Francona stories). One of Lobel’s clips includes an emotional discussion of Ted Williams, while Lynch is especially insightful talking about Bill Belichick’s candor off camera during their old Bellistrator segments.
Brown and Miller plan to sprinkle out a few new clips each week. Since the project has been in the works for approximately a year, they were able to build up a catalogue of 30 clips before launch.
Miller said there’s another reason that everyone involved wanted to be part of the project — the fear that institutional knowledge about Boston sports isn’t what it used to be because of the changing media landscape.
“When I was at Channel 7, John Havlicek died, and I think there were about three people in the newsroom who knew how John Havlicek was,” he said. “It’s not their fault, a lot of them are 20-something kids and half of them are from out of town.
“But there can be a real lack of knowledge about the past. And Boston sports, as you know, has an amazing past. You’d like the legacy and the memories to stay alive.”
It’s no surprise that Patriots television ratings have risen this season corresponding with the team’s return to prominence.
But even if the rise in ratings is logical, some of the heights that they are reaching — or returning to, a half-dozen years after Tom Brady’s final season in New England — are remarkable.
Take last Sunday’s 35-31 loss to the Bills, which aired at 1 p.m. on CBS as a regional broadcast. The game had a 31.4 household rating and 78 share in Boston.
That household rating — the percentage of households in a defined area tuned in to a program at a given time — is the highest for any Patriots game on any network since the regular season finale against the Dolphins in 2021. That also happens to be the last season the Patriots made the playoffs.
The 78 share — the percentage of households with television in use — is reminiscent of the viewership the Patriots enjoyed during the dynasty. As noted here previously, the Patriots averaged a 35.3 household rating and 66 share in 2018, their most recent Super Bowl-winning season.
Nine of the Patriots’ 14 games have aired on CBS this season. Those broadcasts have averaged a 25.7 household rating and 73 share, up 35 percent from last year (19.0/59) through the same span.
Overall last Sunday, the 1 p.m. slot — which also included the Chargers-Chiefs matchup — was a massive success for CBS, averaging 18.9 million viewers across the games. That made it the most-watched regional window on any network in 37 years.
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A woman was rushed to the hospital after being seriously hurt in a fire Saturday in Rocky Hill.
This all unfolded during the late morning hours at a home on Main Street.
Fire officials say they had to rescue the woman from the home and her injuries are considered life threatening.
Hoarding conditions did a play a factor in the fire, according to the fire department.
No other injuries were reported. Further details pertaining to the fire weren’t immediately available.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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