See: Boston Deacon Lived Double Life
Related: Minister suspected in teen shooting allegedly incited student fight
"More charges expected against former dean" by Laura Crimaldi, Globe Staff March 07, 2015
A minister and former English High School dean accused in an “execution-style” shooting of a 17-year-old student is expected to face additional charges after investigators found guns, ammunition, cocaine, and marijuana in his Roxbury home, officials said Saturday.
Officers executed a search warrant Friday at the Rev. Shaun O. Harrison Sr.’s residence on Pompeii Street, where they discovered two handguns, a rifle, a shotgun, different calibers of ammunition, enough cocaine to merit trafficking charges, and a large amount of marijuana, Boston police said.
Investigators saw a large gang mural inside Harrison’s residence, police said.
Harrison, 55, is being held on $250,000 bail on charges that he shot an English High student in the back of the head Tuesday evening on Magazine Street in Roxbury. He pleaded not guilty Thursday in the Roxbury division of the Boston Municipal Court.
Officials have not determined what additional charges Harrison may face as a result of the seizures, said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.
“With the benefit of high bail, we have time to proceed methodically and bring the best and strongest case,” Wark said.
Harrison’s lawyer, Kernahan Buck, did not return messages Saturday.
The drug and gun seizures came after police arrested three men Wednesday who are believed to have removed evidence from Harrison’s apartment....
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That led to this:
"Drug raid nets 5 arrests, cash in Hyde Park" by Melissa Hanson, Globe Correspondent March 07, 2015
Boston Police collected more than 1,200 grams of drugs and more than $75,000 in cash from a Hyde Park residence on Friday, resulting in the arrests of five people, police said Saturday.
The items were recovered at 12:50 p.m. Friday on a search warrant for 254 Austin St. as part of a task force involving Boston, Weymouth, Randolph, Quincy, and Franklin police, according to a statement.
Jose Villegas, 36, of Roslindale; Aderlin Tejada-Objio, 22, of Hyde Park; and Jordi Isaac-Dejesus, 22, of Dorchester, were the targets of the search warrant and were under surveillance for three months, the statement said. The three were arrested and charged with trafficking Class A (over 200 grams) and trafficking Class B (over 100 grams).
Recovered from the address were more than 1,200 grams of heroin, 36 grams of crack cocaine, 148 grams of powdered cocaine, and more than $75,000, police said.
Police said they discovered an additional 270 grams of powder cocaine and more than $2,100 from Villegas’s car.
Additionally, two other people were arrested after being present when the search warrant was executed, Officer Rachel McGuire said in an interview Saturday. Lucy Feliz, 42, of Mattapan, was charged with trafficking, Class A and Class B, and Sixto Ruiz, 54, of Hyde Park, was charged with possession of Class B drugs, police said.
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"Before shooting, former English High dean was to be fired; Rev. Shaun Harrison facing new charges" by Nestor Ramos, John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff March 09, 2015
The Rev. Shaun O. Harrison Sr. was set to be fired from his job as a dean at English High School for shoving a female student just hours before the minister and antiviolence activist allegedly shot a 17-year-old boy in the head, city officials disclosed Monday.
After his arrest last week for allegedly trying to murder a student who was dealing marijuana for him, school and police officials launched investigations into Harrison’s recent past.
On Monday, as prosecutors filed new drug and gun charges against Harrison, city, school, and police officials met to discuss the case. Police described a fruitless investigation into the minister’s activities last summer, and the city later released a timeline of his spotty Boston public schools career, including reprimands for his encounters with students.
However, although signs that something may have been amiss lay buried in the preacher’s recent past, evidence that would have unearthed what Mayor Martin J. Walsh called Harrison’s “double life” was hard to see, officials said.
“This guy is probably the last person we would expect,” said Boston police Commissioner William Evans, who said Harrison had no criminal record and no arrests of which he was aware.
“He was an advocate for antiviolence. Why would he be on our radar screen?”
And now all those preaching nonviolence will be, right?
The former dean of academy at English High School, Harrison was also a community activist who often interacted with Boston police and other law enforcement agencies.
The police and School Department investigations are ongoing, officials said. School officials plan to interview former co-workers, and police aim to talk to students who know Harrison. A meeting with parents at English is scheduled for Tuesday.
But emerging details paint a somewhat darker picture of the 55-year-old Harrison, whose arrest last week shocked the intertwined communities in which he was a fixture.
On March 3, the morning of the Magazine Street shooting, Harrison was involved in an altercation in which he shoved a female student, an infraction that officials said would have cost him his job even had he not been arrested and charged with the shooting the next day.
The shoving incident led to an investigatory hearing that found grounds for immediate termination, officials said. But by the time that was to happen — last Thursday morning — Harrison was already in jail awaiting arraignment.
It was not Harrison’s first strike: He had already been reprimanded twice in 2012, including once for pushing a student at Green Academy and again for inappropriate comments toward students, according to the timeline.
Niani Mendes, a former student, said Harrison, who was then a former community field coordinator, was “always flirting and asking students for their number.”
Harrison was punished for the 2012 infractions, but they were not enough to cost him his job, said John McDonough, interim superintendent of Boston public schools, at a brief news conference following the meeting with Walsh and Evans on Monday.
Harrison’s work history gave no indication that he was involved in anything criminal, officials said, but he had come to the attention of police last year, when separate tips led the department to stake out his Pompeii Street apartment.
After complaints to the police CrimeStoppers hot line and the district’s drug unit about suspicious activity at the apartment, “our officers sat outside that location for weeks and weeks,” said Evans.
But instead of the quick in-and-out visits that are often telltale signs of drug operations, visitors stayed for extended periods, Evans said.
“There was nothing consistent with drug dealing going on,” Evans said. “There was nothing to indicate this fellow needed to be watched any closer.”
But the apartment, police and prosecutors now say, held a trove of drugs and guns.
In addition to the charges on which he was arraigned last week — armed assault with intent to murder, aggravated assault and battery, and unlawful possession of a firearm — Harrison will be arraigned March 17 on the new charges, including two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, possession of a firearm in a commission of a felony, trafficking in cocaine, and possession with intent to distribute marijuana, said Boston police spokesman Lieutenant Michael McCarthy.
The drug and gun seizures came after police arrested three men last week who are believed to have removed evidence from Harrison’s apartment. Boston police charged Oscar Pena, 19; Wilson Peguero, 23; and Dante Lara, 24, with drug offenses. Lara and Pena also face firearms charges.
Officers who searched Lara and Pena found a 9mm semiautomatic firearm, a .45-caliber semiautomatic firearm, ammunition, and substances suspected to be marijuana and cocaine, according to a police report filed in the Roxbury division of Boston Municipal Court. All three have pleaded not guilty.
The teen who was shot told police he had been enlisted by the minister to sell marijuana and had been doing so for several months, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney David Bradley said in court last week. Shot behind the ear during a walk he allegedly was led to believe was a trip to get marijuana and meet girls, the boy survived with a bullet lodged in his cheek.
Officials say the attack was captured by nearby surveillance cameras.
Harrison joined the Boston public schools in 2010, and became dean of academy at English High School on Jan. 5 after holding various jobs at the now-closed Odyssey High School in South Boston, Boston Green Academy, and Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School, according to a city news release.
Harrison has been associated with different Boston churches over the years, including Charles Street A.M.E. Church and Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, though he no longer attends either church, according to their pastors.
For six months last year, Harrison attended Hampton Outreach Ministry, which is now called Refuge Deliverance Outreach Church, said George Hampton, the pastor.
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"Parents voice anger after former English High dean arrested" by Sean P. Murphy and Laura Crimaldi, Globe Staff March 11, 2015
Angry parents on Tuesday night expressed deep concerns for the children who attend English High School following the arrest of the Rev. Shaun O. Harrison Sr., the school’s former “dean of academy” who allegedly tried to murder a 17-year-old student.
“We parents need some assurances,” said one woman, the mother of a senior at the school in Jamaica Plain. “We need a guarantee that no other staff was complicit.”
That parent also expressed skepticism that no school staff noticed anything about Harrison that raised concerns before his arrest.
“I can’t believe there weren’t some rumors going around about inappropriate relationships,” the parent said.
Another parent told school officials: “I’m just concerned about my daughter, and all the children at the school. A lot is at stake here. The children need you and they need your support.”
After the hearing, a parent of four children said that after she learned of the shooting she felt “so grateful” that it wasn’t her son who was shot.
“It wasn’t my son but it was still devastating to me because it happened at my son’s school,” she said.
On Monday, Mayor Martin J. Walsh described Harrison, 55, as appearing to have lived a “double life” that escaped official notice until the alleged “execution-style” shooting on March 3 of a student who was allegedly dealing marijuana for Harrison.
City officials at that time also disclosed that Harrison was set to be fired from his job as a dean at English High for shoving a female student just hours before the shooting occurred.
The incident with the female student would have cost Harrison his job even had he not been arrested and charged with the shooting the next day, school officials said.
John McDonough, interim Boston school superintendent, told the audience of about 60 people at English High that there were no “red flags” raised by Harrison’s conduct before his arrest last week.
Related: Boston School $y$tem Thinks You Are Stupid
Must have been all the partying.
"McDonough said it is necessary to close the alternative schools and three others — the Elihu Greenwood Leadership Academy and William B. Rogers Middle School, both in Hyde Park, and West Roxbury Academy — because costs of running the city’s schools are rising much faster than revenues. “In the financial world, that’s the definition of a broken business model,” he told those on hand at the Middle School Academy. His explanations failed to satisfy many parents and teachers."
Are you $ati$fied?
“We are all questioning: Why didn’t we see anything before?” he told parents. “But there were no indications.”
Really? Not with all the surveillance and data collection and all? Or was this guy just allowed to operate until he became a liability?
McDonough said the school department is investigating whether school protocols should be revamped to possibly catch such a case in the future.
“We want to find out if there are things we should have known, things that did not come to us through our usual protocols that should have come to us,” he said.
The interim superintendent also announced the creation of a hot line to allow students and parents to anonymously pass along concerns they may have about faculty or staff. The hot line, 617-592-2378, is up and running and will be staffed around the clock and on weekends, he said.
“There should never be a student or parent who feels fearful about expressing concerns,” McDonough said.
Instead it should be staff and teachers fearful of a student or family carrying a grudge.
Boston Police Deputy Superintendent John M. Brown, who also attended the meeting, said evidence in the case was already being presented to a grand jury.
Harrison is charged with armed assault with intent to murder, aggravated assault and battery, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
The victim, who survived, told police he had been enlisted by Harrison to sell marijuana for several months, authorities said.
Harrison had been reprimanded twice in 2012, including once for pushing a student at Green Academy and again for inappropriate comments toward students. Harrison was punished, but the incidents did not cost him his job, McDonough said.
Harrison joined the Boston public schools in 2010, and became dean of academy at English High School on Jan. 5, after holding various jobs at the now-closed Odyssey High School in South Boston, Boston Green Academy, and Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School.
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Too bad you kids wouldn't be better off in church:
"Bulger-linked con man gets 12 years for swindling Boston church" by Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff March 06, 2015
Edward J. MacKenzie, convicted of “preying on society’s most vulnerable members” for swindling the church he managed, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Friday after a prosecutor told the judge “the public is not safe if Eddie MacKenzie is on the street.”
US District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV apparently agreed. He rejected the argument offered by MacKenzie’s lawyer that MacKenzie’s criminal career “is over,” and that a four-year prison sentence would be sufficient punishment.
“I am struggling to find any redeeming qualities in Mr. MacKenzie,” Saylor said, moments before imposing a prison term even longer than the maximum 10 years called for under federal sentencing guidelines.
“This was no momentary lapse,” Saylor said of the charges of racketeering, extortion, bribery, and money laundering. “This was a decade-long episode of criminal behavior driven entirely by greed. He made his choices and he will have to live with the consequences.”
He should have become a banker instead.
MacKenzie, 57, pleaded guilty last October to what prosecutors described as looting millions of dollars from the Swedenborgian Church on Beacon Hill after taking over management of the church from “an unengaged and elderly congregation” in 2003.
“He is a lifelong con man with an extensive history of violence,” Saylor said in preparing to sentence MacKenzie. “He lies and deceives people on a regular basis. He stole a massive amount of money from a charity. He has a long and sordid history.”
MacKenzie is the author of a 2003 autobiography in which he portrays himself as an enforcer for Whitey Bulger and “the Boston Irish Mob.”
Assistant US Attorney Zach Hafer told the court that MacKenzie used the threat of violence to maintain control of the church. He would hand an autographed copy of the book to anyone who got in his way with the warning: “Don’t make me come out of retirement,” Hafer told the court.
Of course, it is okay when the US government does it.
As a result, a church with a history of ministering to “the sick, the downtrodden, and the needy” was drained of millions of dollars to instead allow MacKenzie and his friends to spend lavishly at Foxwoods Resort Casino, on a $90,000 Cadillac, and on luxury box seats at sporting events at TD Garden, among other extravagances, Hafer told the court.
MacKenzie systematically helped himself to the church’s assets through a combination of fraud, deceit, extortion, theft, bribery, and money laundering, according to Hafer.
Should have become a bank.
No one from the church took the opportunity to speak during the 30-minute session, which was attended by numerous MacKenzie family members and supporters, including a woman who shouted “We love you Eddie” as MacKenzie was led away. MacKenzie has been incarcerated since his arrest in 2013.
After the sentencing, one church member, who asked that his name not be used, described MacKenzie as having “destroyed the church.”
“It barely exists,” he said of the church. “There’s nobody left. People were afraid. They stopped coming.”
The Boston Society of the New Jerusalem runs the Swedenborgian Church, a small Protestant sect that follows the teachings of the 18th-century Swedish scientist and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg.
MacKenzie, his eyes intensely focused, pleaded for mercy before sentencing. A burly man with a shaven head, MacKenzie said, “I am very, very sorry to everyone,” before telling the court he was most concerned for the welfare of his two troubled daughters “who are hoping their father will come home.”
Hafer, however, told the court that, even while locked up pending trial, MacKenzie had engaged in insurance fraud and witness intimidation and “used his own daughter to facilitate crimes.” In conversations from jail monitored by authorities, Hafer said MacKenzie was heard encouraging one daughter to have a sexual relationship in exchange for money with a “nasty” inmate whom MacKenzie met in jail.
“Is there anything worse?” Hafer asked.
Hafer also cited an excerpt from MacKenzie’s book in which MacKenzie describes how he bit one man’s ear off, swallowed the finger of another, and scalded someone else with hot coffee.
Besides the prison sentence, MacKenzie was ordered to pay restitution of more than $700,000 to the church. When MacKenzie asked through his lawyer that the restitution order be stayed until MacKenzie completes his sentence, Saylor said no.
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Related: MacKenzie's Faith in Mail Fraud and Money Laundering
Also see: Whitey Bulger in Jail
I hope you are not expecting more posts today.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Minister’s villainy hidden by the collar
FURTHER UPDATES:
Man denies link to shooting
"Harrison remains mysterious, but public records and interviews with those who knew Harrison before and during his disappearance paint a picture of a man hellbent on going his own way. They depict a man both frustrated and foolhardy, convinced he could help Boston’s hardest cases by himself. Soon, some say, he was smoking marijuana and drinking in the apartments of much younger men."
Con man’s associates plead guilty in Beacon Hill church looting
