Suffolk County | featured news

Former Gov. Deval Patrick told a Kansas City radio station that running for president in 2020 is on his "radar screen."  "It's on my radar screen, but it's a huge decision," Patrick said when asked of a potential presidential campaign. "I am trying to think through 2020 and that's a decision I'm trying to think through from a personal and family point of view."

BOSTON— One of the largest hospital mergers ever proposed in Massachusetts has moved a step closer to completion.A staff report prepared by the state Department of Public Health recommends approval of the 13-hospital deal.The merger would involve Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center hospitals, The Lahey Health system, along with New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, and Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport.

CHICOPEE  — A western Massachusetts police officer has been arrested on rape, kidnapping and assault charges.Chicopee police Chief William Jebb says Officer Corey Fournier was arrested at department headquarters on Monday night after going there voluntarily to meet with state police investigators.The alleged incident in which the 27-year-old Fournier is charged occurred Saturday morning in Ayer. The three-year veteran of the department was off-duty at the time. Police say Fournier and the alleged victim know each other.

WORCESTER  — A former resident of a Massachusetts center for the developmentally disabled has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of another facility resident.The Telegram & Gazette reports that 26-year-old Anthony Remillard, of Worcester, was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison in the 2013 death of 64-year-old Dennis Perry at the Templeton Developmental Center.Prosecutors say Remillard pushed Perry, who fell and hit his head. The Athol man died at the hospital 11 days later.

WAREHAM  — Police have arrested the suspected hit-and-run driver that struck and seriously injured a firefighter responding to a traffic incident during last week's powerful nor'easter.Authorities said Monday 28-year-old Paul Durgin, of Sandwich, is facing charges of leaving the scene of an accident with injury, reckless operation of a motor vehicle and assault and battery.

DEDHAM — The trial of a Massachusetts man accused of abusing a dog so severely that it had to be euthanized is scheduled to get underway.Jury selection in Radoslaw Czerkawski's  trial on animal cruelty charges is expected to begin Tuesday in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham.The year-old pit bull mix was found in Quincy in 2013 with fractures, a stab wound and a split tongue. The starving dog that came to be known as Puppy Doe was euthanized.Czerkawski has suggested that kids he saw drinking in a park were responsible for the abuse.

LYNN — Police say the mother of a Massachusetts youth hockey coach charged with sexually abusing four young boys sent threatening messages to one of her son's alleged victims.Authorities say 55-year-old Louise Martino, of Winthrop, sent a message to the victim on social media shortly after her son's initial detention hearing March 1.Martino pleaded not guilty to witness intimidation Monday at court in Lynn, and she has been ordered not to have any direct or indirect contact with the victims or their families.

The man at the center of the Troopergate scandal is crying foul over his former commander’s request that the court toss the case against her.Trooper Ryan Sceviour said former state trooper Maj. Susan Anderson is violating protocol by arguing facts at this stage of the case, but even in doing so is ignoring evidence against her.

North Reading police and firefighters are being hailed as heroes after saving the life of a choking puppy as the dog’s desperate owner looked on.The dramatic 10-minute rescue — captured on video in the police station lobby — shows a frantic Megan Vitale of North Reading running into the station shortly after noon Sunday with an acquaintance carrying the limp body of her 9-week-old Saint Bernard, Bodhi.

Family members of a 15-year-old Chelsea boy gunned down in the street more than a year ago sat in a Boston courtroom yesterday waiting for their first glimpse of Jimmy Vasquez’s alleged killer — only to have the young man hide from their sight behind a metal door.Juan Carlos Matos Figueroa, 21, his voice echoing from a prisoner passageway, pleaded “not guilty” to more than a dozen charges, including murder and five counts of armed assault with intent to kill.