Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Fugitive's Prayers Answered

They found him in a Chappell:

"Dorchester man acquitted of child rape charges" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff   March 02, 2016

A former Dorchester man who spent 18 years as a fugitive after his indictment in 1996 on child rape charges was acquitted of all counts last week, officials said Tuesday.

A Suffolk Superior Court jury on Friday acquitted Lens Chappell, 67, of charges alleging that he sexually assaulted four girls under the age of 16 between 1982 and 1996, according to the office of District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

Chappell, now of Providence, said Tuesday in a brief phone interview that he was relieved when the verdict was rendered, but he lamented that it took 15 months for his case to proceed to trial after his arrest in 2014.

He was held in lieu of $750,000 bail while the matter was pending.

“That’s a long time to wait ... for something that you know you did not do,” he said. “I’m sorry, I can’t even talk about it. I get emotional.”

One of his public defenders, John Hayes, wrote in an e-mail that, “The lack of physical evidence, the lack of any disclosures by the young women, and the evidence showing that Mr. Chappell’s ex-wife may have been the catalyst for these accusations were important factors in the jury’s decision.”

When are charges going to be brought against her?

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He was convicted because he asked them if they wanted ice cream.

Related:

"Police find loaded gun during OUI stop in Dorchester" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff  March 01, 2016

A Jamaica Plain man is accused of driving drunk and without a license while illegally carrying a loaded gun, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Hakim Jackson, 29, was arrested over the weekend and arraigned Monday in a case that charges him as an armed career criminal because of a previous conviction for armed robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley.

Thank God they got him.

Prosecutors said Jackson was driving a car that he did not own near Dorchester Center around 1:20 a.m. Sunday. He took a left at a red light on Norfolk Street and Talbot Avenue and swerved across the yellow line, prosecutors said.

Police stopped the 2005 Chrysler Sebring on Washington Street, determined that Jackson did not have a driver’s license, and smelled alcohol on him, according to Conley’s office. Jackson was slurring his speech, prosecutors said.

Police arrested Jackson, who refused a field sobriety test. He asked to take the test at the police station, failed, then took a breath test that registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.21, more than twice the legal limit, Conley said.

While preparing to have the Sebring towed, investigators found a loaded 9mm Gesichert Luger on the metal frame of the car, he said.

Jackson also faces a separate charge of assault and battery in Waltham District Court. In Dorchester Municipal Court Monday, a judge revoked Jackson’s bail in that case and set bail of $10,000 for the latest charge.

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