Montpelier, Vt.

Governor honors state’s winter Olympians

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and legislators are honoring the 19 Olympians with ties to Vermont who competed at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Shumlin hosted five of them at a Statehouse ceremony on Wednesday.

The five – mogul champion Hannah Kearney of Norwich, Nordic skiers Ida Sergeant of Orleans, Liz Stephen of East Montpelier and Sophie Caldwell of Peru, and biathlete Susan Dunklee of Barton – also appeared before the House and got multiple standing ovations.

Shumlin told them that Vermont is incredibly proud of them and that he’s proud to be their governor.

Advertisement

Nashua, N.H.

Woman pleads guilty to reckless conduct in son’s painkiller death

A New Hampshire woman has pleaded guilty to reckless conduct after her 7-month-old son was poisoned by a powerful painkiller.

WMUR reports that Kristine Davis of Hollis received a suspended sentence of 1 to 3 years.

Prosecutors say the fentanyl patch accidentally transferred from Davis’ body to her son, Izik, in July 2011. Hillsborough County Attorney Patricia LaFrance said did not believe Davis intended to hurt her child.

Davis told the court she wants to help raise awareness about the dangers of painkiller patches. Davis declined comment as she left court.

Advertisement

Doctors say fentanyl is more potent than morphine. The federal Food and Drug Administration reports that 30 children have died in the past 10 years through accidental transfer or contact with painkiller patches.

New Hampshire man admits to sledgehammer killing of roommate

A New Hampshire man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and been sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison for bludgeoning his roommate to death with a sledgehammer.

Assistant Attorney General Stacey Kaelin said Wednesday that 70-year-old Peter Bartoloni had only been living with 56-year-old Robert Roderick in Hampton for a couple of months when the killing occurred last October. Bartoloni had lived in Lowell and Brockton, Mass., before moving to Hampton.

Kaelin said Bartoloni told investigators he had been drinking throughout the day and was angry with Roderick for telling neighbors about Bartoloni’s extensive criminal record, including an aggravated rape conviction.

Beyond entering his plea, Bartoloni did not say anything before he was sentenced in Hillsborough Superior Court in Nashua.

Advertisement

Concord, N.H.

No arrests will be made in Weare fatal shooting of drug suspect

Despite an eight-month investigation, New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster says he does not have enough evidence to charge a Weare police officer who shot and killed a drug suspect in August.

In a 44-page report released Wednesday, Foster is highly critical of the actions by Weare police officers the night 35-year-old Alex Cora DeJesus was killed.

Two officers fired at 35-year-old DeJesus of Manchester; Foster says Officer Nicholas Nadeau fired the fatal shot.

Foster cited conflicting statements by officers and eyewitnesses as the primary reason he didn’t think he could convict Nadeau. Foster called the inconsistencies “troubling.”

Advertisement

Attorney Larry Vogelman, who represents DeJesus’ father, said he plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Weare police.

Boston

Two former college football players charged with assault on man, 50

Two former college football players have been charged with beating a Boston homeless man unconscious.

Boston College senior Craig Parsons of Newton and Anthony Varrichione of Medway were charged Wednesday with allegedly kicking and punching a 50-year-old man in the early morning of Jan. 26 in the city’s Allston neighborhood.

A spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office says the victim was hospitalized for three days. He says the charges stem from a grand jury investigation where multiple witnesses identified Parsons and Varrichione, who played quarterback and graduated from Marist College in New York. The suspects went to high school together in Massachusetts.

Advertisement

Parsons was suspended and barred from campus less than a month before graduation.

Their attorneys say the men are good kids, from good families, who were wrongfully identified.

UMass Boston student pleads not guilty to making 2 bomb threats

A University of Massachusetts Boston student has pleaded not guilty to making two recent bomb threats to the same campus building.

Twenty-nine-year-old senior Dean Beckford of Somerville was arraigned Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court and ordered held on $20,000 cash bail.

Prosecutors allege Beckford called in bomb threats against Wheatley Hall from pay phones on April 17 and again on Tuesday. The building was evacuated but no bombs were found.

Advertisement

Prosecutors said surveillance footage near the pay phones, one at an MBTA station, led investigators to Beckford. He was detained Tuesday by campus police. Prosecutors said Beckford allegedly told police he was not doing well in school but did not discuss the bomb threats.

Beckford is due back in court May 19. Telephone messages were left Wednesday for his attorney.

Williston, Vt.

Police: Man posed as doctor to get drugs from pharmacies

Police in Vermont say a South Burlington man called pharmacies here and in New Hampshire and identified himself as a doctor to get prescriptions filled for a pain reliever.

Since June 2013, police say 29-year-old Kyle Daley had been calling pharmacies, saying he was a doctor at a pain clinic in Massachusetts and getting prescriptions for Suboxone.

Advertisement

Suboxone is also used to treat addiction to heroin and other opiates.

Police say Daley would call in prescriptions for small amounts of the drug then pick them up and pay cash. They say he obtained 35 prescriptions in Vermont and three in Concord, N.H.

Daley was charged with prescription fraud, a violation, and released. He’s due back in court on June 24. A phone number could not be found for him.

Gilford, N.H.

‘Ice-out’ declared on Lake Winnipesaukee

In a New Hampshire springtime tradition, “ice-out” has been declared on Lake Winnipesaukee.

Ice out is declared when the M/S Mount Washington tourist boat can safely travel between its ports on the state’s largest lake without encountering ice. Pilot Dave Emerson of Emerson Aviation made the call during a flight Wednesday afternoon.

– From news service reports


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.