National Roundup

Massachusetts
Authorities make arrest in killing linked to Bulger
BOSTON (AP) — A suspect in the 1984 killing of a South Boston man that authorities say was linked to mobster James “Whitey” Bulger’s control of the drug trade in the neighborhood is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

Michael Lewis, 61, faces a first-degree murder charge in Suffolk Superior Court in connection with the fatal shooting of Brian Watson, according to a statement from the Suffolk district attorney’s office.

The defense attorney for Lewis has yet to be determined, the district attorney’s office said.

Watson, 23, was last seen alive on July 16 or 17, 1984, and was reported missing by his mother on July 28 that year, authorities said. His body was found hidden among the trees and bushes by a motorist who had pulled over on Interstate 93 in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Sept. 16, 1984.

According to the prosecution’s account of events, the then 24-year-old Lewis and an another man involved in the drug trade drove around the neighborhood in July 1984 looking for a drug dealer they thought had told Bulger that Lewis’ associate was selling angel dust in South Boston.

As a result, Bulger had demanded a $5,000 payment plus another $1,000 per week from the man, whose name was not disclosed by prosecutors. Bulger was known to shake down drug dealers doing business in South Boston.

The pair encountered Watson, who agreed to help them find the other dealer and got in their car, prosecutors said.

“While the three men drove around South Boston, Lewis suddenly turned, shot and killed Watson,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Authorities do not allege that Lewis or Watson were tied directly to Bulger, who was killed in a federal prison in West Virginia in 2018. He was 89. Bulger, who spent 16 years as a fugitive, was convicted in 2013 of participating in 11 killings.

Federal authorities developed a “significant break” in Watson’s case in 2009, but not enough to secure an indictment, the district attorney said. But new information was developed within the past year that led to Lewis’ indictment on Friday.

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden thanked New Hampshire law enforcement agencies and federal authorities for their efforts in securing an indictment.

“This was a true team effort to help indict and charge a homicide that hearkens back to a very different Boston,” he said. “Brian Watson was a young father cut down seemingly on a whim. A remarkably cold-blooded whim. Mr. Watson’s family has endured many, many years of loss and heartache. At the very least, they now have some answers.”

California
Fisherman sued in ‘egregious’ crabbing case
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California fisherman illegally caught hundreds of Dungeness crabs in the protected North Farallon Islands State Marine Reserve, according to a lawsuit filed last week by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

State Department of Fish and Wildlife investigators said they found over 90 crab traps within the ecologically fragile area off Northern California, where fishing of any kind is prohibited.

“Our officers received an anonymous tip from a commercial fisherman who said he saw another fisherman’s crab traps in the Marine Protected Area. He was concerned that this fisherman’s illegal activities would put other law-abiding fisherman in a bad light,” Fish and Wildlife Assistant Chief Eric Kord said in a statement.

More than 250 Dungeness crabs from those traps were released back into the ocean, the agency said.

Tags and buoys on the traps were traced back to the Pacific Mist, a boat owned by commercial fisherman and Vallejo resident Tam Van Tran, SF Gate reported Sunday. Efforts by The Associated Press to find contact information for Tran on Monday and seek comment about the lawsuit were unsuccessful.

The district attorney’s lawsuit alleges Tran gained an unfair business advantage by illegally fishing in a Marine Protected Area. It is a misdemeanor for commercial fishing operations to work in protected areas, punishable fines ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 for a first offense, SF Gate said.

“Upon information and belief, this is the most egregious case of unlawful crabbing activity in San Francisco’s history, as well as the largest incident of unlawful commercial crabbing in any Marine Protected Area in the entire State of California,” the lawsuit said.

The Farallons, a small collection of islands about 30 miles (48 kilometers) off San Francisco, holds one of largest bird nesting sites along the North American coast. Whales and sea turtles also pass through the area, and crab traps threaten to entangle them.

In order to protect the islands, they are completely closed to the public.

New York
$2M relic stolen, angel statue beheaded at Brooklyn church
NEW YORK (AP) — Police say someone busted into the altar at a New York City church, stole a $2 million gold relic and removed the head from a statue of an angel at some point late last week.

The incident happened between 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 4 p.m. Saturday at St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, known as the “Notre Dame” of Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.

The church was closed for construction at the time. Camera recordings from the church’s security system were also stolen, the church’s pastor said.

The Diocese of Brooklyn called it “a brazen crime of disrespect and hate.”

The diocese said the thief or thieves cut through a metal protective casing and made off with a tabernacle dating to the church’s opening in the 1890s.

The tabernacle, a box containing Holy Communion items, was made of 18-carat gold and decorated with jewels, police and the diocese said. It’s valued at $2 million.

The diocese said it is irreplaceable because of its historical and artistic value.

According to a guidebook posted on the church’s website, the tabernacle was built in 1895 and restored in 1952 and 2000.

It’s described as a “masterpiece and one of the most expensive tabernacles in the country, guarded by its own security system,” which involves an “electronically operated burglar-proof safe” and one-inch thick steel plates that “completely enclose the tabernacle.

Angel statues flanking the tabernacle were decapitated and destroyed, the diocese said. A safe in the sacristy, where priests prepare for Mass, was also cut open but nothing was inside.
Holy Eucharist, bread consecrated as the body of Christ, was taken from the tabernacle and thrown on the altar.

“This is devastating, as the Tabernacle is the central focus of our church outside of worship, holding the Body of Christ, the Eucharist, which is delivered to the sick and homebound,” Rev. Frank Tumino, the pastor of St. Augustine said in a statement issued by the diocese.