STORY: "Brian Peixoto’s Final Appeal," by reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts, published by Boston Magazine in its February, 2016 issue.
GIST:"The story about a suspected baby killer along the South Coast spread like wildfire. “Westport tot was killed over wet pants,” the Boston Herald blared on its front page. “Mom: I heard banging,” read another newspaper’s headline. The tabloid television show Hard Copy sent a film crew to cover the crime. The media zeroed in on the Ricki Lake show about unwed mothers, and how a small-town bouncer beat his girlfriend’s son to death after watching the segment that mirrored her lifestyle. Renee Dupuis, a Bristol County assistant district attorney who had successfully prosecuted priest James Porter—one of the first clergymen in Massachusetts sentenced to prison for sexual abuse—was in charge of the case against Peixoto. “When the child messed his pants,” she said during Peixoto’s arraignment, “he just lost it.” Having no experience with lawyers or the criminal justice system, Peixoto decided to take what the state gave him: a public defender who spent most of his time representing drug dealers. He wore a loud green suit jacket, Peixoto recalled, and laced his sentences with profanity. During pretrial motions, the defense attorney mistakenly included details of unrelated cases he’d worked on. Not one to mince words, Peixoto called him a “fast-talking, slick, used-car-salesman type of lawyer.” After nearly a year of fruitless efforts to meet in person and prepare a defense, Peixoto finally sat down with his attorney four days before trial. Dupuis was willing to drop the charge down to second-degree murder, the lawyer excitedly reported, meaning Peixoto could likely walk away with a sentence short enough to see his young daughter graduate from high school. Peixoto started crying. “I’m not pleading guilty to something I didn’t do,” he said. When his attorney responded, “I guess I can whip up a defense for you by Monday,” Peixoto recalled, he fired the man on the spot. The attorney did not respond to requests for comment.Peixoto’s family searched for a new lawyer, ultimately retaining Raymond Veary, an amateur actor who moonlighted at the local playhouse, where his roles included George from Of Mice and Men. A prosecutor for more than two decades, Veary had recently converted to criminal defense. With 60 days to prepare for trial, Veary thought Peixoto’s prospects looked bleak. “As the evidence currently stands,” he wrote Peixoto’s family in a letter seeking $25,000 before the trial began, “the child died as a result of multiple trauma, most likely the result of a single beating. Based upon this evidence, the most likely explanation lies with Brian, regrettably.” Dupuis, in the meantime, had secured a new medical expert to testify alongside Weiner. It was a familiar name among criminal attorneys: “Just received this from the prosecutor,” Veary stated in a fax a week before the trial. “They’re bringing in Dr. Newberger.”"
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2016/02/07/brian-peixoto-final-appeal/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
