Massachusetts
This Iconic Massachusetts Landmark Named Best Outdoor Music Venue in the U.S.
![This Iconic Massachusetts Landmark Named Best Outdoor Music Venue in the U.S. This Iconic Massachusetts Landmark Named Best Outdoor Music Venue in the U.S.](https://townsquare.media/site/920/files/2023/08/attachment-283151254_5079957502087032_540124515918806090_n.jpg?w=1200&h=0&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89)
Massachusetts is a small state that packs a lot of punch. From the stunning mountains of the Berkshires to the iconic sandy beaches of Cape Cod and even the skyline of downtown Boston provide beautiful backgrounds for residents and visitors alike.
Massachusetts is also quite popular for travelers and tourists. In 2019 almost 29 million domestic travelers visited Massachusetts, let alone the millions of international visitors the state sees annually.
Those three most commonly visited areas in Massachusetts are Cape Cod and the Islands, Boston, and the Berkshires, While the former the latter might night be quite as well known as their eastern Massachusetts counterparts, tourism in the Berkshires is thriving.
The Berkshires are known as a cultural mecca surrounded by breathtaking nature and it boasts a smaller price tag than some other popular vacation spots. In fact, over 2.6 million tourists flock to the Berkshires annually.
This Massachusetts Landmark Named the Best Outdoor Music Venue in The U.S.
One of the best and most popular destinations in all of western Massachusetts is Tanglewood. This iconic outdoor music venue located in Lenox, Massachusetts, in the heart of the Berkshires, was recently named one of the Best Outdoor Music Venues in the country, by YellowBrick. Being topped only by Red Rocks and the Hollywood Bowl, the music lifestyle website recognized the unique magic that Tanglewood possesses and a stage that has been graced by Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Joplin, James Taylor, Tony Bennet, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, The Who, and countless others.
Tanglewood is a summer music venue located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. The venue is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and offers a variety of concerts throughout the summer, including classical music, jazz, and pop concerts. Tanglewood is known for its stunning natural beauty, including its expansive lawns and gardens. The venue can seat up to 5,000 people, and concertgoers are welcome to bring picnic baskets and enjoy the music under the stars.
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Massachusetts
Protesters gather in Florence to support woman accused of murder in Massachusetts
![Protesters gather in Florence to support woman accused of murder in Massachusetts Protesters gather in Florence to support woman accused of murder in Massachusetts](https://wpde.com/resources/media2/16x9/1132/986/42x0/90/6c445067-f53f-4f22-a8bf-9343d2a0b0af-Screenshot20240902161020.png)
FLORENCE, S.C. (WPDE) — Over a dozen people protested Monday in a grassy median on Highway 327 right at I-95 in Florence.
The group captured much attention as they held signs and chanted, “Free Karen Read.”
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend with her SUV outside a Massachusetts home in January of 2022, leaving him to die in a snowstorm following a night of drinking, according to media outlets.
Her boyfriend, John O’Keef, was a Boston police officer.
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Read’s defense said O’Keefe was dragged outside after he was beaten up in the basement and bitten by a dog at a fellow Boston police officer’s home.
Read’s first trial ended earlier this summer with a hung jury. She’s expected to retry early next year.
Those demonstrating are from parts of the Pee Dee and Horry County.
A few of them said they lived in Massachusetts, but have no connection to Read.
The group said they’ve followed her case and believe in her innocence.
We’re backing Karen. We also have cards that we are going to hand out. As people ask questions, we want to give them the cards. The information themselves. There’s also a QR code on there if they want to donate to Karen and help her out. They can do that as well. So, free Karen Read,” said Annette Stephenson.
Lauren Wilson and her fiancé traveled from Georgia to Florence to join the protest.
“You can see this is a mess. And she deserves justice. And so does the officer who died,” said Wilson.
The group said they’ll protest again if necessary to show their support for Read.
Massachusetts
Two deaths in one Massachusetts town cast doubt on the relationship between police and prosecutors
Weeks after a mistrial was declared in the high-profile murder case of Karen Read, more allegations of police misconduct surfaced in the same Massachusetts county where a former police detective was charged in the 2021 death of a pregnant woman, placing a renewed spotlight on the relationship between police and prosecutors.
Criminal justice experts say the two cases appear to involve investigative missteps that highlight the need to scrap the Massachusetts model of investigating high-profile crimes.
“Understatement of the century but Massachusetts has a serious problem with murder investigations involving police suspects, witnesses, and leads,” criminal justice journalist Susan Zalkind posted on X on Wednesday. “Poor Sandra Birchmore. Beyond depraved.”
Federal prosecutors allege former detective Matthew Farwell groomed Birchmore, 23, and began sexually abusing her as a teen, when he worked with the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, a youth program she was in. He was arrested Wednesday, with prosecutors alleging he killed Birchmore, who had told him she was pregnant with his child, and attempted to stage the scene as a suicide so that the sexual abuse allegations would stay hidden.
Farwell has pleaded not guilty.
Birchmore was killed in Canton, the same Norfolk County town where Boston police officer John O’Keefe, 46, was found dead on Jan. 29, 2022. His girlfriend, Read, was tried in his death. A jury failed to reach a verdict after her legal team argued that Read had been framed by other law enforcement officers attempting to cover up O’Keefe’s death. She will be retried next year on the charges.
Federal investigators have been involved in both cases, but officials have not announced any links between the two. However, at the heart of both: allegations of botched investigations and law enforcement misconduct.
‘Incompetence or corruption?’
“Given these two cases, I would say it’s not just in Norfolk County, but certainly throughout Massachusetts. The question that arises is, is it incompetence or corruption, or both?” said Tom Nolan, a former Boston police lieutenant and criminal justice professor.
In Massachusetts, detectives with the state police are assigned to district attorneys’ offices, which can lead to the bungling of cases, Nolan said.
An alternative, he said, is the model used in other states, including Florida and Georgia, where there is an independent investigative agency to oversee the cases, rather than relying on an agency that enforces laws on highways.
“We saw on full display for several weeks during the Karen Read trial, the bumbling incompetence of the Massachusetts State Police, who were assigned to the Norfolk DA’s Office. Her defense counsel just basically eviscerated the State Police troopers who were testifying as witnesses and experts, — ‘expert witnesses.’ Their credibility was completely undermined,” Nolan said.
State police did not respond to requests for comment.
Hours after a mistrial was declared in Read’s trial, the top official at Massachusetts State Police said the lead detective in the case had been relieved of duty after allegations of “serious misconduct” were raised in court.
After the agency launched an internal affairs investigation into the allegations, the detective was suspended without pay last month.
Understatement of the century but Massachusetts has a serious problem with murder investigations involving police suspects, witnesses, and leads.
See also: Karen Read, The Waltham Murders, and Gail Miles. Poor Sandra Birchmore. Beyond depraved. https://t.co/4QsKk2cjtb
— Susan Zalkind (@susanzalkind) August 28, 2024
Zalkind, who wrote “Waltham Murders: One Woman’s Pursuit to Expose the Truth Behind a Murder and a National Tragedy,” which focuses on a Massachusetts triple-slaying and the Boston Marathon bombing, told NBC News that without an independent investigative agency and proper checks and balances, prosecutors and police can get too cozy and politics can come into play.
“When you imbue that culture to the good old boys’ club, to homicide cases, there are serious issues,” she said. “Our homicide investigations are politicized. The DAs in the state, all except for one are Democrats. Our AGs are Democrats. … Our government is Democrat. So there is a lack of incentive to do a vigorous follow-up.”
No matter what the legal outcomes in the Read and Birchmore cases, public trust has been compromised, said Zalkind.
A staged suicide
In announcing the charge Wednesday more than three years after Birchmore’s death, acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy called the arrest of Farwell, a police officer who swore to protect the public, “disheartening.”
Farwell is charged federally with one count of killing a witness or victim.
“Giving voice to the voiceless, ensuring that no one is above the law, protecting the vulnerable people of Massachusetts, that’s the highest calling of people in law enforcement,” Levy said. “Mr. Farwell violated those principles, and now he faces very grave consequences.”
Farwell’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
State police initially handled the investigation into Birchmore’s death. Nolan said it’s “strikingly unusual” that the case was taken over by federal authorities because homicides are usually prosecuted as state crimes.
Federal authorities did not elaborate on why they took the case, except to say investigators had received new evidence that made the indictment and arrest possible.
David Traub, a spokesperson for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, said the office has long been working with other law enforcement to secure an arrest.
“This office has been collaborating with both the Massachusetts attorney general and the FBI for months on investigations into the Birchmore matter. Two of our detectives were present at the command post … while federal authorities were attempting to take Matthew Farwell into custody,” Traub said.
“Much of the information that they [federal authorities] built on originated with our investigation, including the collection of thousands of text messages, and then going through those text messages to see what criminal conduct might be substantiated from their contents,” he said.
Prosecutors allege that Farwell killed Birchmore on Feb. 1, 2021, in her apartment, when he could no longer control her and as word began to get out that he had been having sex with her for years. Authorities initially ruled Birchmore’s death a suicide.
Prosecutors contend that after Farwell strangled Birchmore, he repositioned her body and staged her apartment to look as if she had died by suicide.
The medical examiner determined Birchmore’s death was a result of “asphyxia by hanging” and she was eight to 10 weeks pregnant when she died, according to an affidavit in support of the motion to detain Farwell.
The Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which made that finding, did not respond to a request for comment Friday. A spokesperson for the agency told WFXT-TV of Boston that the office was aware of Farwell’s indictment and had cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
An expert retained by federal prosecutors, Dr. William Smock, concluded the death was a homicide, arguing that some of Birchmore’s injuries are more common in cases of strangulation than hangings, like abrasions on Birchmore’s nose, the affidavit said.
Farwell’s arrest came nearly two years after Stoughton’s police chief announced that Farwell and two other former officers at the agency had inappropriate relationships with Birchmore. That conclusion came from a lengthy internal affairs investigation prompted by Birchmore’s death, said Chief Donna McNamara, who called the former officers’ behavior “deeply disturbing.”
The chief said all three men resigned before they could be interviewed. The department recommended that their certifications as police officers be permanently revoked so they cannot serve in law enforcement anywhere in the country, McNamara said.
Lawyers for the other former officer did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the status of their decertifications.
Questions in Read investigation
After a nine-week murder trial that captured national attention, a judge declared a mistrial for Read on July 1.
Prosecutors have said the relationship between Read and O’Keefe was deteriorating when she plowed into him with her SUV. She was charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.
She has maintained her innocence and is set to face another trial early next year. An attorney for Read did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s spokesperson said prosecutors are preparing for Read’s upcoming trial, and that the only appropriate forum for determining her innocence or guilt is a courtroom.
No federal charges have been filed in the case.
During the original trial, Read’s lawyers said she watched her boyfriend enter the Canton, Massachusetts, home of a now-retired Boston police sergeant for a party after a night out with other current and former law enforcement officers. Hours later, the defense team said at trial, she discovered O’Keefe had never come home and raced back to the house, where she found his body.
Read’s lawyers have alleged that O’Keefe was most likely beaten inside the home and left outside in the snow.
The defense has blamed authorities for failing to carry out a “real” investigation and instead focusing on Read.
They have alleged the lead investigator in the case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, was one of the chief reasons the investigation was biased. They say he manipulated evidence and made derogatory comments about Read.
Proctor has denied the allegations and said his comments were unprofessional and regrettable but they didn’t compromise the case.
Proctor has not responded to requests for comment.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Massachusetts
A Kenyan man wanted in Massachusetts for allegedly killing his girlfriend has been extradited
![A Kenyan man wanted in Massachusetts for allegedly killing his girlfriend has been extradited A Kenyan man wanted in Massachusetts for allegedly killing his girlfriend has been extradited](https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_thumb,w_700/v1/media/gmg/U2DGUIO3YFH3FCB3WA7HJVQB7I.jpg?_a=DATAfRfiZAA0)
NAIROBI – A Kenyan man wanted in Massachusetts to face murder charges has been extradited nearly a year after he fled the United States, authorities said Monday.
Kevin Adam Kinyanjui Kangethe is wanted for allegedly killing his girlfriend, Margaret Mbitu, whose body was found in a car at Logan International Airport in Boston on Oct. 31.
Kangethe left Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Sunday, and he’s set to face murder charges at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston on Tuesday, Kenyan Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga said.
“I wish to reiterate my commitment and support, whenever needed, to the United States of America, and in particular the prosecution team as they proceed with the next phase of the case,” Ingonga said Monday.
The prosecution said that the extradition order has earlier been issued by the court in July.
Kangethe, who has renounced his U.S. citizenship, was involved in a dramatic escape from a police cell after his Kenyan lawyer visited him in January. Disciplinary action was taken against four police officers who were on duty when he escaped. He was rearrested a week later, and his extradition case continued.
Kangethe’s girlfriend Mbitu was a health care aide in Halifax, Massachusetts, and was last seen leaving work on Oct. 30 and reported missing by her family.
The preliminary investigation showed Mbitu had left her workplace and traveled with Kangethe to Lowell, Massachusetts, where he lived, the prosecution in Kenya said during the extradition case hearing.
Kangethe was also found in possession of personal items belonging to the deceased, prosecutors said.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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