October 24, 2023
Boston federal prosecutors rolled tape Tuesday on secret in-person and telephone recordings at the center of their case against a Massachusetts attorney charged with seeking to bribe a local police chief to give his cannabis client an edge over the competition for scarce local approvals for retail cannabis shops.
October 23, 2023
Prosecutors manufactured a pot-license bribery case against a Massachusetts lawyer by relying on an informant who engaged in "a pattern of lies and deceit," the lawyer's defense team said at the start of trial Monday.
October 16, 2023
A Massachusetts attorney wants a federal judge to nix prosecutors' attempt to lock him into an entrapment defense before his trial over whether he floated a bribery scheme in order to get a client's cannabis shop to market, urging the court to instead decide whether an entrapment instruction is warranted based on the evidence at the trial.
July 19, 2023
A Massachusetts attorney charged with floating a bribery scheme to get a client's pot shop opened can't wield either the First Circuit's "Varsity Blues" ruling or a recent U.S. Supreme Court case reeling in honest services fraud prosecutions to sink the indictment against him, a judge said Wednesday.
June 20, 2023
A defense attorney for a Massachusetts lawyer charged with wire fraud for lobbying to get a marijuana shop opened told a Boston federal judge Tuesday that prosecutors have fallen short of requirements adopted by the First Circuit when it unraveled two parents' convictions in the "Varsity Blues" case.
May 22, 2023
A Massachusetts attorney said Monday that the recent First Circuit ruling throwing out convictions in the "Varsity Blues" college admissions case also undercuts the government's claims that his lobbying to get a marijuana shop opened amounts to wire fraud.
November 07, 2022
A Massachusetts attorney lost a bid Monday to toss bribery charges stemming from his efforts to lobby the relative of a city's police chief to have the official back a marijuana company's application for a local retail license.
October 19, 2022
Federal investigators won court approval Tuesday to screen the phone of an attorney accused of trying to bribe a police chief to secure his client's pot shop bid, despite the lawyer's claim that any government review of client communications would violate attorney-client privilege.
October 03, 2022
Boston federal prosecutors have asked a court to reject claims of government misconduct and overreach in their case accusing a pot shop attorney of attempting to bribe a police chief.
September 08, 2022
A Massachusetts attorney accused of attempting to bribe a police chief to approve a pot shop in his town called the charges against him "manufactured" by the FBI, according to a motion to dismiss Thursday.