Notable Criminal Cases and Verdicts
Attorney John LaChance • Criminal Defense Trial Lawyer
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Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Salvi
John Salvi was a very disturbed young man who walked into an abortion clinic with a gun, killed two employees and walked away from the carnage. He clearly had mental problems and difficulties communicating with his court appointed counsel about the offense he was being charged with. The issue before the court was whether he had a mental illness which prevented him from assisting counsel in his own defense. Because Mr. Salvi denied any mental illness and did not want his attorney to argue that he was incompetent, the court selected Attorney John LaChance because of his experience with psychiatric witnesses, to act as a “friend of the court” and present any evidence of Mr. Salvi’s incompetence at the evidentiary competency hearing which was to held in three weeks. The competency hearing, which lasted four days was broadcast live on Court TV due to nationwide interest in the case. Mr. Salvi was eventually tried, convicted and then committed suicide in jail.
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United States v. Carozza, et.al.
Robert “Bobby” Carroza a reputed La Costra Nostra capo regime was indicted along with a number of other individuals from East Boston in a Federal racketeering case charging them with attempting to wrest control of the Boston LCN from Frank “Cadillac” Salemme and his people by violence and several murders. The defendants were also charged with running a gambling and drug criminal enterprise. The case was tried for four months in the Federal District Court in Worcester and resulted in acquittals for all defendants on some of the charges and a hung jury with respect to the remaining charges. This was the first defeat for the government in a major mob trial in Massachusetts. Mr. LaChance represented the lead Defendant, Robert Carozza. The defense success in this case was largely attributed to the cooperation of the defense lawyers in presenting a unified defense to the various charges.
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Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Larkins
In this first murder case, Massachusetts Attorney John LaChance won an outright acquittal for his client in a highly publicized Metrowest murder case. Mr. Larkins was accused of killing the victim by stabbing him a number of times while the victim was engaged in a fight with a friend of Mr. Larkins. The defense was able to discredit several of the eyewitnesses and develop an alternative theory of who had committed the murder. The defense was also able to use the Commonwealth’s forensic experts to establish evidence favorable to Mr. Larkins.
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Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. LeBlanc and Commonwealth v. McGrail
These two operating under the influence (OUI) cases stabilized helpful appellate precedents in defending these types of cases. LeBlanc established the principle that police cannot pursue a motor vehicle across town lines in order to stop the driver for a civil infraction. McGrail established that the Commonwealth could not introduce the fact that the defendant had refused to perform field sobriety tests for the police against him at trial. Both cases were district court cases that ended up in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
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United States v. Psendonynm
In this child pornography case, a case of first impressions in the First Circuit Attorney LaChance successfully challenged the validity of the government’s anticipatory search warrant for the defendant’s bedroom. Everything discovered was suppressed and the case against the defendant was eventually dismissed.
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