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by Joe DiFazio

August 27, 2018

BROCKTON - A Pembroke man was indicted by a grand jury Friday on charges of stealing more than $6,000 in state aid from a disabled person.

Christopher Gardner, 35, faces two counts of larceny, one from a disabled person. Gardner was an assistant manager at a residential group home in Whitman run by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said that Gardner was using one of his client’s electronic benefits cards, which carries money from state assistance programs on it, to buy things without the client’s permission.

Between January 2015 and October 2017 Gardner used the client’s card to buy $6,382 worth of groceries for himself, according to prosecutors. The district attorney’s office also said that Gardner used his own grocery reward points in conjunction with the stolen benefits.

The investigation was carried out by the state auditor’s office.

The district attorney’s office said Gardner would be summonsed for an arraignment date.

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by Cody Shepard

August 15, 2018

Police say the man was found to have a .357 Ruger and a .22 Ruger.

MIDDLEBORO — A town man was arrested Monday evening after an investigation by detectives into guns being sold throughout the county.

State police detectives assigned to the Plymouth County district attorney’s office investigated the case, which resulted in the arrest of 47-year-old David Melville.

Police say they received information that Melville was selling firearms within Plymouth County. As a result of the investigation, police obtained a search warrant for his GMC Sierra pickup truck.

On Monday, state police located Melville and his truck at a store in Middleboro, about 5:15 p.m. Police approached Melville and detained him, then executed the search warrant on his truck.

Police say he was found to be in possession of two firearms -- a .357 Ruger and a .22 Ruger. Police also seized 56 rounds of ammunition for the revolvers.

“Detectives determined that the firearms had defaced serial numbers and seized an ammunition feeding device and ammunition,” said Beth Stone, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Timothy Cruz.

Melville was arrested and charged with two counts each of illegal possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number and one count each of illegal possession of ammunition and illegal possession of a feeding device.

Melville pleaded not guilty Tuesday during his arraignment in Wareham District Court.

A prosecutor with the district attorney’s office requested Melville be held on $15,000 bail, but a judge set bail at $10,000 with the condition he wear a GPS-monitoring bracelet if he posts bail.

The case was investigated by the state police detectives assigned to Cruz’s office, who were assisted by the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotic Reduction Enforcement Team, State Police Special Tactical Operations Team, State Police Gang Unit and Middleboro police.

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By Dan McCready

August 14,

A conviction was handed down for a Buzzards Bay man in connection with a 2016 crash that left a motorcyclist dead. 

The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office says that 52-year-old Tom Traggis was found guilty of one count of Motor Vehicle Manslaughter. 

The charges stem from an incident that took place on May 29, 2016, after Traggis and the victim, 51-year-old Philip Rigney of Medway, were leaving Shenanigans bar and restaurant on Cranberry Highway in Wareham. 

Rigney left shortly before 10 p.m. and Traggis left moments after, the two men had no previous interaction. 

Traggis’s Chevy Blazer struck Rigney’s motorcycle roughly a half mile down the road causing Rigney to be ejected. 

Traggis lost control, drove over a guardrail, and struck a tree. 

He then left his vehicle and fled the scene. 

Traggis was stopped by a motorist who flagged down a police officer. 

The DA’s Office says Traggis failed field sobriety tests, and officers placed him under arrest. 

Rigney sustained critical injuries and was pronounced dead on June 3, 2016. 

Sentencing for Traggis will take place September 6 in Plymouth Superior Court.

Traggis was found not guilty of Leaving the Scene of Personal Injury Resulting in Death.

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By David Cedrone

August 10, 2018

There was a huge turnout at Carver’s annual night out yesterday as Police, EMS and fire departments from Plympton, Halifax and Kingston joined the town for their annual night out.

The event was held at the middle high school where hundreds watched a black hawk helicopter, brought by the Army National Guard, land behind the school.

9-year-old Jacob was at the event with friends and family and says the event is fun because you get to do stuff!

Plymouth County Sheriff Joe McDonald was there and says the evening is all about the kids.

Carvers night out was started four years ago to help build relationships between residents and law enforcement and to make the community a safer place.

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by Mariel Reed

August 10, 2018

A man is arrested after a package containing Ketamine was intercepted by state police at a place of business in Carver.

39-year-old James W. Carey of Swansea was arrested at 5:30pm on Wednesday after an investigation led police to him.

The investigation alleges that on August 2nd two packages, one sent to his home in Swansea, and the other sent to his work, a group home for adults in Carver was sent internationally from Cameroon and seized by detectives.

The bottles in the packages were labeled “natural ginseng” but field testing revealed they were filled with 6.6 kilograms of liquid Ketamine.

State police obtained warrants for both his home and workplace and seized three cellphones and 3.3 kilograms of Ketamine.

Carey was arraigned in Wareham District Court Thursday on one count of possession with intent to distribute and is being held on $15,000 cash bail.

Carey is ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet if he should post bail and is due back in court on September 7th.

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By Erin Tiernan

August 7, 2018

Christopher Barlow has previously faced charges of impersonating a Homeland Security officer and amassing weapons and explosives in his Duxbury home. Earlier this year police in Connecticut charged him with secretly recording ambulance patients while volunteering as an EMT while at college.

PLYMOUTH — A Duxbury man who earlier this year was charged with taking inappropriate pictures of patients while he was volunteering on an ambulance in Connecticut is now accused of secretly recording and photographing underage girls in Massachusetts.

A Plymouth County grand jury indicted Christopher Barlow, 21, of Duxbury on 58 charges including extortion, possession of child pornography, posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity, secretly recording or photographing a nude person and disseminating visual material of a child in a state of nudity or sexual conduct.

Prosecutors say Barlow secretly recorded and took photos of four underage girls in various states of undress between December 2014 and June 2017 and shared the digital files hundreds of times.

Barlow also tried to extort two of the victims, telling them he had uploaded their images to a porn website and would continue to share their images online unless they sent him more images of themselves, according to a statement from District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office.

It’s unclear where the images and videos were recorded or where the victims are from.

Barlow has a lengthy history with the courts. Last October, he was indicted on charges of impersonating a Homeland Security officer and illegal-weapons charges after police say he presented a fake badge to Duxbury police.

Police obtained a search warrant for his home, where they seized two long guns, a handgun, parts to build additional guns, large-capacity magazines, boxes of ammunition, chemicals that could be used to make explosives and several stolen pieces of equipment, including handheld radios, a defibrillator and medical bags full of supplies.

It was during this search in June 2017 that police seized the electronics on which the images of the underage girls and Barlow’s alleged communications with them were discovered.

Duxbury police first began investigating Barlow in 2016 after they were contacted by police in Easton, Connecticut, about chemicals, ammunition and a gun case found in a storage locker at a fire station where Barlow had been volunteering while attending college. The FBI became involved in the investigations with Connecticut and Massachusetts police following Barlow’s claims that he was a Homeland Security officer.

In March, Barlow was arrested on new charges – including voyeurism and stealing a firearm – after Connecticut police said they found evidence he was taking inappropriate images of patients in ambulances and that he had placed a hidden camera in the bathroom of the fire department’s headquarters and stole two guns from a co-worker there.

Barlow’s attorney, Michael Bergeron, has said that the old charges come from a period in 2017 when Barlow was experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations, which a judge’s notes filed in Plymouth Superior Court indicate may have been the result of an anesthesia overdose in 2016.

Calls to Bergeron’s Duxbury office were not returned Tuesday afternoon.

After his arrest last year in Massachusetts, Barlow spent several weeks at Bridgewater State Hospital under court order. After receiving treatment and medication there, Barlow was found competent by Plymouth County Judge Brian Davis in February and was released on $2,500 bail.

He has been living at a relative’s home in Kingston under GPS monitoring.

Reach Erin Tiernan at [email protected] or 617-786-7320. Follow her on Twitter @ErinTiernan.

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By Dan McCready

August 2, 2018

Two men have been indicted in connection with a May 12 shooting in Brockton that left an Avon man dead. 

The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office says that on Tuesday a grand jury returned indictments against 24-year-old Renardo Williams of Brockton and 29-year-old Chanel Martins of Taunton. 

Williams was indicted on charges of Murder and Assault with Intent to Murder. 

Martins was indicted on two charges of Accessory After the Fact. 

Police responded to 139 Pleasant St. after receiving a Shotspotter notification and a 911 call from a male who reported that he had been shot several times. 

Police arrived on scene to find two shooting victims in a Honda CRV. 

One of the victims, 26-year-old Bethgy Cator, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. 

The other shooting victim was also taken to Good Samaritan Hospital before being transported to Boston Medical Center where he was treated and released. 

The DA’s office says an investigation determined that Williams opened fire on the vehicle before fleeing in a car driven by Martins. 

The two suspects will be arraigned in Superior Court at a later date. 

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By Patriot Ledger Staff

July 30, 2018

PLYMOUTH — A Marshfield general contractor was sentenced to 18 months of probation and ordered to repay nearly $40,000 after he pleaded guilty to charges that he stole from a client and didn’t pay two of his vendors, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz announced Monday.

Donald S. McNeil, 48 of Marshfield pleaded guilty to three counts of larceny over $250 and two counts of larceny by check over $250 on Friday in Plymouth District Court.

Prosecutors say McNeil, who owns the Marshfield-based construction company M&M Contstruction Inc., took $31,050 in payments intended for materials to begin a $75,000 addition on a Bridgewater home, but never the homeowner never received any materials and no work was ever completed on the project. The homeowner contacted Bridgewater police in September 2017.

The other two victims were vendors hired by McNeil. He owed a surveyor $1,000 and a building material supplier $7,500. McNeil cut checks to both men that were returned for insufficient funds. The men both contacted police after unsuccessfully trying to contact McNeil for payment.

After pleading guilty last week, Judge Michael Vitali sentenced McNeil to 18 months of probation and ordered a restitution hearing to determine the amount he owes each victim — estimated to be $39,550. McNeil was also ordered to stay away from and have no contact with the victims, surrender his general contractors license and not work as a contractor during his probation period.

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Credit: Dan McCready

Whitman-Hanson Regional High School hosted Water Day on Thursday as part of the Plymouth Co. DARE Camp.