New England Public Radio

UMass Students Skeptical of University Organized World Series Campus Events

The Red Sox play the Cardinals in Game 6 tonight. With a win, the Sox become World Series champs.

Officials at UMass are trying to prevent students from getting too rowdy by screening the games in dorms and dining commons and stationing police throughout campus. UMass is setting up food and an inflatable bouncy house in the Southwest residential area, where there have been problems – including riots – during past major sporting events.

Senior Jack Goddard says the inflatable playhouse, combined with drunk students, is an incident just waiting to happen. “[The administration] have the whole bouncy castle idea set up in Southwest. I don’t think it’s going to work.” says Goddard. “They’re trying to contain the madness, but, I don’t think it’s going to add to the madness. People are just going to go crazy with it.”

Sophomore Tom Barrasso is a residential advisor in a UMass dorm. He thinks tightened security means things won’t get out of hand. He says “Everybody knows that security is tightened around these events, so it’s usually not a good time to be belligerent.”

If people do get belligerent, students say it probably won’t be as bad as previous years, like 2012’s Super Bowl game when rival teams the Patriots and the Giants faced off.

One thing is for certain. Both students and the administration will both be watching tonight’s World Series game closely. The Sox and the Cards begin Game 6 at 8:07 tonight.

This story was written and reported by New England Public Radio’s David Chang.

Defendants in UMass Rape Case Ordered to Submit DNA

Three teenage men charged with raping a female Umass Amherst student in her dorm room last October were ordered to submit DNA samples Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court. .

The UMass sexual assault case inched forward as Judge Bertha Josephson ordered Emmanuel Bile, Adam Liccardi and Caleb Womack to join fellow defendant Justin King in submitting DNA samples. King has already submitted a sample. The four defendants, three of them eighteen years old, and one nineteen, lived in Pittsfield at the time of the alleged rape last October, though Womack now lives in Connecticut. Each defendant faces three aggravated rape charges, while Liccardi faces an additional count of rape.

State prosecuting attorney Jennifer Suhl says it’s currently unclear how all four defendants will be tried.

“There’s a lot of open questions as to whether or not they would all be tried together, or four separately, or maybe two at a time. A lot of it depends on the outcome of pretrial motions and hearings that are still to be held. So we won’t know that for several months.”

Suhl says the defendants’ DNA samples will be compared to samples taken from the victim in the case, and may be used as evidence at trial. She says a trial date is tentatively set for December, though that could be delayed by DNA analysis, which can take as long as six months. All four defendants are free on bail – but face several limitations including a curfew and GPS monitoring. They are due in court for another pretrial hearing July 26th.

 

UMass and Amherst, MA Negotiate Public Safety Issues

Thousands of students, many underage, converged at an off-campus party at UMass Amherst earlier this month, resulting in six arrests, property damage, and many ambulance trips. That has prompted Amherst town officials this week to ask UMass to step up public safety spending for the rest of the semester. The incident is just the latest in the sometimes complicated relationship between UMass and the town.

It’s almost an annual ritual: the weather gets warmer, UMass students hold bigger, more raucous parties, demanding more police officers and more ambulance trips. Amherst Town Manager John Musante says that puts a strain on resources.

“There are public safety resources that have increased and what I think are unacceptable demands placed on them, and I think they’re stretched to the limit.”

Musante has asked UMass to pay for two additional staffed ambulances on weekends, longer hours at University Health Services, and more police patrols in dorms. Musante says ambulance calls from UMass have increased this school year, leaving the town vulnerable. University spokesman Ed Blaguzewski says UMass will comply with the request for ambulances and police officers, providing an additional $40,000 to the town starting in April.

Kim Griffo, executive director of the International Town-Gown Association, says schools and towns throughout the country struggle with public safety issues. She says it’s reasonable for a college town to ask for more funding.

“There’s a lot of wear and tear on the budget, and so everybody just needs to be prepared, and one way to address it is sit down and talk about it.”

Other schools in the region, like the University of Connecticut, have well-established town relations committees. And while Blaguszewski says UMass has several “working groups” with the town, there’s no equivalent, centralized group for all town-university issues.

Amherst, MA Drug Lab Chemist Arraigned on Tampering, Possession Charges

A Massachusetts chemist employed at a state crime drug lab in Amherst was arraigned Tuesday on multiple charges of evidence tampering and drug possession. The arrest occured after a fellow chemist reported missing drug samples late last week.

35 year old Sonja Farak brushed past reporters to her parents’ car outside Eastern Hampshire District Court after posting $5,000 bail.

Farak, a Northampton resident, pleaded not guilty to the two counts of evidence tampering and two counts of drug possession. Farak was arrested over the weekend after fellow employees at the Amherst drug lab were unable to locate several cocaine samples that Farak had analyzed and tested positively earlier this month. According to the criminal complaint filed by the Commonwealth, co-workers found packages of the missing samples in Farak’s work station which were sliced open and filled with white chunks that tested negatively for cocaine.

 On Saturday, state police searched Farak’s car, where they found heroine and cocaine. She was arrested at her home later that day. The Amherst drug lab is temporarily closed and its employees have been transferred to a Sudbury facility. Farak was released with one week of probation and a nine-to-five curfew. She is due back in court for a probable cause hearing on February 22 where her case will likely be transferred to the Superior Court level. The case comes just a month after another state drug lab chemist in the Eastern part of the state pleaded not guilty to tampering charges that could affect hundreds of criminal cases.

With First Phase Casino Applications In, Mohegan Sun CEO Addresses Amherst Chamber of Commerce

The applications and fees are in, and eleven companies are now officially vying for casino licenses in Massachusetts. That includes four competing for the single license in western Massachusetts. Now the state’s gaming commission will spend up to six months conducting background checks on all registered casino developers. Companies are continuing to make their case to the region. On Wednesday, the head of Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun spoke to the Amherst Chamber of Commerce.

CEO Mitchell Etess says his company’s proposal for a rural casino in Palmer, two towns south of Amherst, is the best for the area. Naturally, Penn National Gaming, MGM Resorts, and Hard Rock have said the same of their proposed casinos for the region. But Etess says Mohegan Sun’s Connecticut casino is a proven model in New England. 

“Let’s face it, the reason there’s gaming in Massachusetts is because the Connecticut casinos were so successful, and those are based on the rural model, not the downtown model. So we believe, at the end of the day, we’ll be able to display to everybody that we have the best ability to provide the most revenue to the commonwealth, which is what this is all about.”

Etess answered questions from chamber members on potential economic impacts of a Palmer casino and on problem gambling. Chamber executive director Tony Maroulis says he’s concerned about the casino’s access to Amherst’s student population. 

“With our large school-age population, what’s that going to mean? Will we have a lot of students going down there, going over hill and dale getting down to Palmer. Even though it’s two communities away, it’s mostly back roads.”

Though Mohegan Sun has talked about a Palmer casino since 2007, it was one of the last developers to submit its $400,000 fee and application before Tuesday’s deadline. Two other companies based in Holyoke and Chicopee, submitted requests for an application extension to the gaming commission. The commission has not yet responded to those requests.

Defendants in UMass Rape Case Indicted on Charges

Four male teenagers accused of raping a female Umass Amherst freshman in October were indicted on aggravated rape charges by a Hampshire County Grand Jury this week. The defendants could face life sentences if convicted.

The Grand Jury indictments move the cases from the district to superior court level. The defendants are three 18-year-old Pittsfield residents, and one 17-year-old resident of Windsor Locks, Connecticut. All face three counts of aggravated rape, while one, Adam Liccardi of Pittsfield, faces an additional count of rape. The defendants allegedly raped a female UMass freshman in her dorm room after she agreed to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana with them.

Don Frank, a Springfield defense attorney says, if convicted, the defendants could face life sentences in prison, or be registered as level two or three sex offenders.

“Which means that they will be constantly monitored for, perhaps, the rest of their lives, until removed from the sex registry. It is a burden that is very, very heavy, just the sex registration alone.”

Frank says that alcohol complicates the case. He says under Massachusetts law, being drunk is not considered enough to inhibit one’s ability to give consent unless the complainant is drunk to the point of “stupefaction.”

“In this case there’s apparently some indication that she may have been in and out of consciousness, and that might be a problem for the defendants in this case.”

The defendants were also allegedly drunk, but Frank says impaired judgment can’t be used as a defense.

“An honest and reasonable, although mistaken, belief that the complainant consented, is no defense to rape in Massachusetts.”

Three of the four defendants are scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Hampshire Superior Court on Monday.