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Four Arrests On Human Trafficking Around Western Massachusetts

Four people are facing charges for trafficking women between New York, and Central and Western Massachusetts, following an investigation led by Massachusetts’ attorney general Maura Healey.

According to Healey’s office, Feng Ling Liu and her husband, Jian Song — both of Sunderland — plus Liu’s daughter, Ting Ting Yin, transported women from Long Island to Hadley, East Longmeadow and Framingham.

The women were then allegedly forced to have sex for money, using massage parlors as fronts.

A fourth suspect from West Springfield, Shuzi Li, is accused of similar crimes in Northampton and Agawam.

Li was arraigned on Wednesday, while Liu and Song were expected to be arraigned the next day, pending the arrival of an interpreter.

Healey said the victims appear to be Chinese immigrants who were isolated, spoke little English, and lured with false promises.

“They were in New York and then brought into this state, and held in rooms at these locations and forced to stay there while they provided these services round the clock,” Healey said.

Healey said her office is helping ten victims find housing and other support.

The Short List: Lawmakers Act On Bills This Weekend, Healey’s Assault Weapons Ban, Peter Pan Bus’s Rail Pushback

NEPR's Week In Review

What made The Short List this week?

  • Massachusetts lawmakers will act on bills this weekend, as Sunday marks the end of the formal legislative session until January, 2017.
  • Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey stands behind her move to ban so called “copycat” assault weapons.
  • Peter Pan Bus Company’s owner pushes back on expanded East-West rail service.

Click the audio player above to hear New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy explore these issues with Larry Parness of the Daily Hampshire Gazette and “Vaya Con Muñoz” radio host and marketing consultant, Natalia Muñoz.  

Race For Attorney General Turns Testy At Debate

With less than two weeks until Primary Day, the two Democrats running for attorney general are locked in a tight fight.

A recent Suffolk University/Boston Herald poll finds former state Sen. Warren Tolman holds a six-point lead over civil rights attorney Maura Healey.

The most recent Boston Globe poll finds the numbers slightly reversed, with Healey capturing 28 percent of the vote and Tolman garnering 26 percent.

But, in both data sets, a huge margin of voters remain undecided, and the candidates know they need to quickly win them over, which is perhaps why this seemingly cordial contest turned testy Tuesday afternoon at a Boston Globe Op-Ed Debate.

The two Democrats agree on many issues. Neither supports legalizing recreational marijuana. Both say they would have called for an analysis of the post-Boston Marathon Watertown shootout. And both agree the attorney general’s office should have conducted a separate, independent investigation into the killing of Ibragim Todashev in Florida.

But the consensus on major issues disguises the fact that these candidates are eager to nitpick.

When the issue of sexual assault on college campus came up during the debate, Tolman criticized Healey for taking no direct action on the issue in the attorney general’s office.

“You headed [the civil rights] division. And this problem has been an epidemic on college campuses,” he said. “This is an issue of Title IX on college campuses.”

Healey was quick to pounce back.

“Warren, look, you’ve never prosecuted a crime. I have,” she said. “You’ve never handled a civil rights investigation. I have. So, I find it hard to … be lectured by you on this.”

Perhaps because of how much these candidates agree ideologically, Healey likes to point to her experience in the attorney general’s office.

She threw Tolman a backhanded compliment by praising him for his work in the State House, but then added, “I wish you’d talk more to the voters about what you’ve been doing the last 10 years. You never mention you’re involvement with a hedge fund company, you never mention running an online gaming company and you never mention your time as a lobbyist.”

Tolman just shook his head and took the criticism.

As he did during much of the debate, Tolman was reluctant to raise his voice and punch back with as much fervor.

When Tolman eventually responded, he seemed paternal, telling Healey at one point that something she said was “unbecoming.”

“Maura, we’re running for the office of attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of the commonwealth,” he said.

Healey cut in.

“I know, I’ve been there,” she said.

“No, you haven’t been attorney general,” he said. “You were one of several hundred people that worked under the auspices of the attorney general.”

“Warren, I ran half of that office,” she replied.

It was a testy end to a debate full of fighting words. The two candidates meet again this Thursday for a debate at Stonehill College.

The attorney general primary race is widely seen as tantamount to a general election, but whoever wins technically faces off against Republican John Miller in November.

First Candidate for Mass. AG Enters Race

There’s finally an announced candidate in the election next year to replace Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Coakley has served as AG since 2007. Instead of seeking a third term she is running for governor. That leaves open perhaps the state’s second highest profile office and the first announced candidate is Democrat Maura Healey, an assistant attorney general under Coakley for six years.

Healey says she is proud of the way Coakley has handled her responsibilities. She declined to specify anything she’d have done differently if she’d led the office.

“There are any number of hard decisions that an AG has to make on a daily basis and hard calls and complicated issues that the attorney general has to think through,” Healey says.

Coakley released a statement praising Healey for her work to protect consumers and homeowners, and for leading the office’s challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

But a Coakley spokesperson says the AG has no plans at this time to endorse anyone in the race.

A source tells the State House News Service that another candidate is likely to announce soon: Democratic state Representative Harold Naughton of Clinton.