News

The top 10 local stories of 2008


Published: December 31, 2008

1. A police scandal in Hamilton

Eighteen Hamilton police officers, including Chief Walter Cullen, await their fate in the new year, after state and private investigations uncovered fraudulent records that implicated almost every member of the department.

The scandal has rocked the town's police force and angered and embarrassed residents.

The state Office of Emergency Medical Services suspended the town's ambulance service, and eight officers lost their state EMT licenses for falsifying training records to obtain certification as emergency medical technicians. Some are appealing.

Another 10 were reprimanded by the state for lying about training records, although not to gain their certifications.

Five Danvers officers were also cited.

Cullen and Sgt. Donald Dupray were suspended amid allegations they falsified records to obtain a state grant for computer equipment, and former Plymouth police Chief Robert Pomeroy stepped in as interim chief.

Even the town counsel, Donna Brewer, was criticized by an independent investigator for improperly interfering in Police Department politics.

Cullen retired as chief effective yesterday, but the Essex County Retirement Board will not consider his request for retirement benefits until criminal investigations are completed.

Selectmen have yet to determine what disciplinary action to take and, in the meantime, the legal bills are mounting.

2. Salem schools budget crisis

The Salem schools were turned upside down when a $6 million deficit surfaced midyear following the departure of School Business Manager Bruce Guy.

The crisis forced 32 layoffs and deep cuts to programs and services.

The Salem community rallied with donations and fundraising events that helped spare some teachers and other workers through June.

The schools had to slash millions of dollars from this year's budget to compensate for years of faulty budgeting and overspending, which school and city officials blamed on Guy's mismanagement.

The district attorney investigated Guy, but concluded last month that while his practices were "questionable" and used to "conceal School Department budget shortfalls," they did not constitute a crime.

3. Peabody police seek Sept. 11 holiday

It was a single line, eight words, one number, within the Peabody police union's new contract that reverberated throughout the country: "Amend to add Sept. 11 as a paid holiday."

The simple declaration, the focus of local and national news stories, struck a chord. Many accused police of exploiting a national tragedy to increase their pay. Others used it to hammer the union — which already gets 13 paid holidays — for its perceived greed.

The new holiday pays officers time-and-a-quarter on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Union President Manny Costa said the backlash caught him off guard, and the union wanted the holiday to honor emergency responders who performed bravely on Sept. 11.

The provision broke ground for a police union, according to state and national union representatives. New York City's 24,000 police officers don't get Sept. 11 as a paid holiday.

The City Council will vote sometime in the new year on whether to fund the contract.

4. Lappin Foundation closes after losing $38M

The North Shore's largest Jewish charity was forced to close after Wall Street investor Bernard Madoff was arrested in an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Robert Lappin, the 86-year-old founder of the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation in Salem, temporarily shut down the charity in December and laid off seven employees after losing $8 million invested with Madoff.

The Lappin Foundation donates $1.5 million annually to a number of Jewish causes, notably a program that has sent thousands of North Shore teenagers to Israel. Lappin also contributes to many area nonprofits, including Catholic Charities, St. Joseph Food Pantry and North Shore Arc.

"It breaks my heart that the actions of one man are hurting so many lives, here and around the world," Lappin said.

5. Cigarette ignites inferno in Peabody

The fire that brought down an entire luxury apartment building in May, leaving more than 40 people homeless, was sparked by the embers of a cigarette butt and fueled by a gas line.

But seven months after the blaze at The Highlands at Dearborn in Peabody, little has been done to rebuild Building No. 8. Slabs of concrete remain where garages once stood, and the site is still cordoned off by a chain-link fence.

The massive, four-alarm fire on May 29 at The Highlands at Dearborn displaced 700 tenants temporarily at the complex, which had 18 buildings. It was the second fire at the new complex; another had broken out in March 2007.

During the fire, windblown embers touched off mulch fires all over the complex, forcing police, firefighters and bystanders to stamp them out with their shoes. Following the fire, the mulch spread across landscaping beds was replaced with rocks.

6. Beverly soldier killed in Afghanistan

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan hit home again with the death of Stephen Fortunato, a 25-year-old U.S. Army infantryman from Beverly. Fortunato was killed Oct. 14 in Afghanistan when the armored Humvee in which he was riding was blown up by a bomb, making him the city's first wartime fatality since the Vietnam War.

On the day of the funeral, hundreds lined the route as Fortunato's flag-draped casket was taken by horse-drawn carriage from the church to the cemetery, where he was buried with military honors.

"He was always trying to make people laugh," said his 22-year-old wife, Sherri. "He was always the funny guy. Even in a bad moment, he always tried to make good of it."

7. Beverly schools budget crisis

In a move that drew protests from hundreds of parents and prompted the city's first Proposition 21âÑ2 override election — which lost — the city shut down McKeown Elementary School to help close a $2.6 million gap in the budget.

Neighborhoods were divided and friends split up as students switched schools in an emotional, citywide redistricting that reduced some parents, and their kids, to tears.

The district teamed with the North Shore Education Consortium to turn McKeown into an alternative secondary school for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The idea is that it will eventually save money in special education costs.

Although no one from Beverly has signed up yet for the program, Superintendent James Hayes has said he expects to have a few students enrolled by the end of the year.

8. Power plant faulted in deadly accident

Two government investigations into the 2007 fatal boiler tube explosion at Salem Harbor Station were highly critical of the power plant.

In May, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the power plant owner, Dominion Energy New England, for 10 "serious violations" and issued nearly $47,000 in potential fines.

Two months later, the state Department of Public Safety revoked the license of the plant's engineer-in-charge and found an outside insurance inspector "incompetent and untrustworthy."

Both probes concluded that the lower section of the boiler, the so-called "dead-air space" where the steam explosion occurred, had not been inspected in about a decade. The state said the primary cause of the accident was a weld defect, combined with corrosion in tubes in that section.

The company appealed the findings, as did the two individuals.

Last month, the plant dedicated a waterfront memorial to the three deceased co-workers: Phil Robinson, 56, of Beverly; Mark Mansfield, 41, of Peabody; and Mathew Indeglia, 20, of Lawrence.

9. Beverly Hospital CEO forced out

Pressure from doctors and nurses led to the resignation of Stephen Laverty, the controversial CEO of Beverly Hospital. Laverty stepped down Nov. 11 in the wake of separate no-confidence votes by doctors and nurses, as well as the arrest of one of his former executives for allegedly stealing paintings and other valuables from the hospital.

Hospital trustees credited Laverty with improving the system's financial standing and technology during his eight-year tenure, but he ultimately couldn't survive the accusation by the nurses union that he had created a "toxic work environment." Retired obstetrician Henry Ramini was appointed interim CEO while the hospital searches for a new permanent leader.

10. Peabody police officer shoots, kills suspect

A Peabody police officer shot Phillip Noto Sr., 55, when he brandished what was later described as a starter's pistol. Noto died four days later at Salem Hospital, making his the first death by a Peabody officer in recent memory.

Police officers were called to Noto's Washington Street home on Sept. 15, the third domestic violence call to the house in two days. Despite a restraining order against him, Noto had gone to the home around noontime, just hours after posting bail in Peabody District Court.

Patrolmen Richard Cochran and Steven Molk were the first to arrive. When they told Noto they planned to arrest him, he took out the starter's pistol and dared them to kill him. During the ensuing scuffle, Cochran shot Noto once in the stomach.

Three months later, an investigation by state police assigned to Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.