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By Gintautus Dumcius
Reporter Correspondent
Thanks in part to a police
roundup of 80 individuals over the weekend,
Dorchester District Court's cells were packed with
over 100 people on Tuesday, some of whom spent the
three-day weekend in lock-up.
Precisely how many people the
sweep brought to the court itself is unclear, but
the first session, where arraignments occur,
overflowed with relatives and those who had made
bail.
While the court was able to
dispense with 30 to 40 cases in the morning,
matters slowed down considerably in the afternoon
after the regularly-scheduled lunch break, visibly
irritating Judge Sydney Hanlon, who presided over
the session.
"I've never seen this place so
inefficient," she said aloud, having said earlier,
"We're going to be here until 10 o'clock at
night."
Many of the people hauled in
from the sweep were picked up on warrants or had
been accused of skipping out of a previous court
date, such as Tisean Jones.
Jones, 19, was accused of
defaulting on a pre-trial hearing on drug
charges.
His court-appointed attorney,
Dianna Abdala, said he thought he was due back in
court on Jan. 22.
He works a temp job and was
supposed to be at a demolition site, she said. Bail
was set at $350 and he was ordered back to court on
Feb. 13.
Others, such as Krisendat Ganga,
police singled out for being part of a gang.
The sweep, done in conjunction
with Boston Regional Intelligence Center, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Massachusetts
State Police, the Parole Department, and U.S.
Marshals, came after a violent month, particularly
in Dorchester, which has been racked with murders
and shootings.
Pair accused of gun
charges
An 18-year-old and a 23-year-old
were charged this week with gun charges stemming
from a Dec. 13 incident near Geneva Avenue and
Topliff Street.
Krisendat Ganga, 18, and Imran
Laltaprasad, 23, were arraigned this week in
Dorchester District Court. Judge Sydney Hanlon set
bail for Ganga at $5,000; bail for Laltaprasad was
set at $10,000. They're both due back in court on
Feb. 19.
Three females allege that the
two and another male were involved in sticking a
gun in their faces. Keith Nicholson, an attorney
for Laltaprasad, said his client was working at the
Copley Mall when the incident allegedly
occured.
Dianna Abdala, the
court-appointed attorney for Ganga, said the
charges may be in retaliation for an earlier
case.
"This whole scenario doesn't
seem to make sense," she said, noting that police
took about a month to pick him up.
Ganga goes to Bunker Hill
Community College and elsewhere for carpentry, she
said.
Dot man alleged to have
forced woman into prostitution
A 21-year-old Dorchester man was
arraigned this week, charged with prostituting a
woman against her will in New Jersey, beating her
with a belt, and forcing her to have sex in
Dorchester with four or five men.
The man was also accused of
forcing the woman to take nude photos of herself
and post them on Craigslist.com, a classified ads
website.
Jonathan Edwards, 21, of Merlin
Street, was charged in Dorchester District Court on
Tuesday with kidnapping, intimidation of a witness,
statuatory rape and assault by means of a dangerous
weapon. A not guilty plea was entered on his
behalf.
Judge Sydney Hanlon set bail at
$50,000. Edwards is due back in court on Feb.
8.
Attorney Dianna Abdala,
appointed by the court for the bail hearing, said
the defendant had never been in the New Jersey
area.
Answering charges that he had
also defaulted on some warrants, she said he was
going through some testing.
The defendant lives with his
mother, goes to North Shore Community College and
works at W.B. Mason, a Brockton-based office
retailer.
Prosecutors also charged Edwards
with an Nov. 19 assault and battery case. Police
allege that the defendant was mad at his girlfriend
over a number in her cell phone.
When she came to his home to
drop off money she owed him, he dragged her inside
and slapped her, according to the police
report.
During the fight, her finger
nails were bent off, and police said they saw blood
come from the area and a swollen wrist.
As she ran out of the house up
to the Codman Square area, police say the suspect
stated, "I'll just go to your mother's house and
[expletive] you up."
She declined medical assistance,
according to the police report.
Abdala said they were engaged in
a verbal argument, and everything had been
resolved. The woman was in court to support him,
she said.
An attorney for the Committee
for Public Counsel Services is expected to take
over the case.
Killer gets life for fatally
stabbing wife
A 42-year-old Dorchester man was
sentenced to life in prison without parole last
week, after a Suffolk County jury convicted him in
the fatal stabbing of his wife.
Nile Reavis was sentenced by
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady in the
November 2006 murder of his wife, Sandra, in their
Armandine Street home.
Prosecutors alleged that Reavis
grabbed the "biggest kitchen knife he could find"
to stab his wife in a fit of early morning
jealousy, after an argument with her.
Reavis later was taken into
custody later that morning, when he went to Boston
Medical Center.
Jury deliberation in
Blue Hill Ave. death continues
A Suffolk jury continued this
week to weigh the fate of Anthony Davis, 25, in the
shooting of Barcelone Luc four years ago.
The 24-year-old Luc was shot in
the head at the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue
and Landor Road in March 2004.
Prosecutors allege that Luc and
Davis got into an argument at Joseph's Pizza and
later continued it outside, with Davis then
shooting Luc in the back of the head with a 9mm
semiautomatic.
A jury deadlocked on the charges
last year.
Gintautas Dumcius covers
court proceedings and law enforcement for the
Reporter. He can be reached at gin.dumcius@gmail.com.
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