Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign I'm Joe Catalano with an AM Quincy news update for Tuesday, September 2nd.
[00:00:22] It is preliminary Election Day in Quincy today. Voters are casting ballots in the race for the three at large city council seats and and for the Ward 6 City Council seat. There are eight candidates for councilor at large today and four for Ward 6. Today's election will eliminate two candidates for the at large seats and two for the Ward 6 seat. Incumbent at large councilors Noel DeBona and Scott Campbell are seeking reelection. Nina Liang is not Andrew Pham, Jackie Carvey, Zequang Yuan, Hannah Kaplan, Ann Mahoney and Allie Shaughnessy are all in the running for counselor at large. The top six vote getters today will face each other for the three seats on November 4th. And in Ward 6, incumbent Bill Harris is running again along with Christopher Chan, Deborah Riley and James Coffee, all in the running today. The top two vote getters today will face each other for the Ward 6 seat on November 4th. Polls are open until 8 o' clock tonight, and City Clerk Nicole Crispo is predicting an 18 to 20% turnout at the polls today.
[00:01:38] A judge has ruled that the Quincy police and firefighters unions cannot join in the lawsuit regarding the proposed statues of St. Michael and St. Florian outside of the new public safety complex. The unions had requested that they be allowed to join the city in defending the statues, but the judge ruled that the unions did not meet the legal requirements for joining the suit. The unions may file a statement as a friend of the court. The city is being sued by 15 residents who say the statues violate the constitutional separation of church and state. The plaintiffs are asking that the statues not be installed until the case is settled. The city contends the statues are longtime symbols of support for police officers and firefighters. The city is asking that the case be dismissed. Another court hearing in Norfolk Superior Court is scheduled for September 19th.
[00:02:38] Quincy Police are searching for suspects who threw a rock at a woman's apartment window in West Quincy early today. Police say it happened at 150 Rushudi Drive at about 12:30 this morning. Three men were seen fleeing the area. The woman told police one of them may have had a gun. So far, no arrests have been made.
[00:03:02] Authorities still investigating after they say dozens of vehicles were vandalized in Quincy's Marymount neighborhood overnight last Thursday. According to police, the cars damage were parked on Narragansett Road, Shore Avenue, Butler Road, Marymount Road, Samoset Avenue and other surrounding areas. Investigators believe the vandals struck between the hours of 9pm Wednesday and 2am Thursday.
[00:03:30] Residents are asked to check their home surveillance cameras between those hours to see if it shows any suspicious activity.
[00:03:37] Anybody with information asked to report it to Quincy police.
[00:03:42] A legally blind man who was stabbed at a Walmart in Plymouth over the weekend said that the incident started because he was defending his co worker. 28 year old Desmond James said that while he was shopping and checking out his groceries on Saturday evening at the Walmart on Colony place at about 7pm he heard a man insulting a black Walmart employee. A suspect fled the scene after the fight. James had to get three stitches after the incident, but said that he hopes that both he and the suspect can forgive each other. Police found and arrested the 65 year old suspect who is from Kingston. His name has not been released. He faces charges including disorderly conduct, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, carrying a dangerous weapon. He'll be arraigned today in Plymouth District Courts.
[00:04:38] A South Shore postal worker has been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the elderly to allegedly hire escorts and make improvements on his home.
[00:04:51] 51 year old Scott Kelly of Pembroke has been charged with stealing $330,000 from elderly victims. According to an indictment, Kelly allegedly intercepted about 1950 packages between January of 2019 and August of 2023. The packages were suspected to have been mailed by scam victims, primarily elderly individuals who were deceived into sending cash with false promises of lottery winnings. The victims were persuaded to mail cash ranging from 1400 to $19,000, believing that they were paying fees or taxes required to claim their prizes. Kelly is accused of opening the packages and stealing the cash. In addition to intercepting packages, Kelly allegedly used a postal employee's keypad code to access an evidence vault and steal $7,000 in cash, later blaming a colleague for the theft. He's also accused of laundering nearly $340,000 of stolen cash through postal money orders and bank deposits, attempting to conceal his actions by listing relatives as purchasers of those money orders.
[00:06:12] An arrest has been made in connection with the death of a Maine man whose body was found wrapped in duct taped blankets in a car outside South Shore hospital. Last weekend, 42 year old Christopher Karen turned himself in to Scituate police. He was booked and taken to the Plymouth County House of Correction. He'll be arraigned today on a murder charge in Hingham District Court. The arrest stems from an incident on the afternoon of August 23rd.
[00:06:42] Weymouth police were contacted by Sasha Hospital about a dead body that had been found in the rear seat of a Honda Civic with a main license plate that was parked in front of the emergency room entrance. A hospital coordinator exited the hospital, walked to the car where he found an unresponsive male wrapped in multiple blankets secured with duct tape. The victim was pronounced dead and has been identified as 27 year old Declan Perry from Portland, Maine, the DA's office said. Investigation revealed that a man later identified as Karen drove the Honda Civic with which belonged to Perry to the hospital and alerted medical staff. There was a body in the car, then fled the area. Neighbors who live in the Driftway condos in situate saw the news coverage and called police to report they had assisted a man loading a large heavy blanket into the black Honda Civic outside of a residence where Karen was staying. Investigators determined the incident occurred at 40 Driftway Unit 13. They secured a search warrant and recovered some evidence.
[00:07:50] As a result of the investigation, state police got a warrant for Karen's arrest and that happened on Saturday morning. The manner and the cause of Perry's death have not been released.
[00:08:03] An East Weymouth woman charged in federal court in Boston with scheming to fraudulently obtain Social Security benefits 68 year old Deborah Seiler was charged with one count of bank fraud and will appear in U.S. district Court in Boston September 11th. According to documents, Seiler fraudulently obtained about $61,000 in Social Security benefits from June of 2015 through September 2020. Seiler allegedly had access to the checkbook and debit card of a Social Security beneficiary who died 10 years ago. Instead of reporting the death to Social Security or the bank where the benefits were deposited, Seiler allegedly accessed the improperly paid benefits by forging the deceased beneficiary's name on several checks and then depleting the account through debit card transactions.
[00:09:03] Thousands of union members and community allies marched through Boston yesterday in a historic display of worker solidarity on Labor Day. The theme of the parade was Workers over Billionaires. Yesterday also marked two months since the union representing employees of Republic Services went on strike against the company. The trash worker said there is no end in sight. The parade replaced the annual Labor Day breakfast, which was historically held inside the Park Plaza Hotel. Organizers said. Labor Day also comes at a time when there is much uncertainty over federal programs and funding that directly benefit workers families.
[00:09:47] Jack of Business News this morning and stocks are down. The Dow dropped 92 points last Friday. The Nasdaq played plummeted 249. The S&P lost 41. Price of gold hit a new record and world shares were mostly lower today after US Markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday. The dollar rose, the euro fell and oil at $65 a barrel.
[00:10:15] Sports Red Sox beat Cleveland 6 to 4. Series continues at Fenway at 6:45 this evening. Forecast from the National Weather Service. Today, mostly sunny at a high of 78 degrees. Clear tonight, lows in the lower 50s. Tomorrow, mostly sunny, high of 80. But Thursday, partly sunny and a high 82. Maybe some storms around on Friday with a high 80 degrees.
[00:10:44] The boater waves about a foot. Rather, winds northeast, 5 knots, becoming easterly later today. High tide 7:38am and 7:49pm Sunrise 6:10 sets, 7:15.
[00:11:00] And a reminder, curbside collection of trash and recycling will be delayed one day in Quincy all this week due to the Labor Day holiday. I'm Joe Catalano with an AM Quincy news update for Tuesday, September 2nd.
