Kevin Murphy’s Chelsea Courthouse All About Compassion; Fair Play

District courts all over this state operate under the laws of the state of Massachusetts.

Those laws allow them each to be harsh district courts; angry district courts; drab and inconsistent district courts; and district courts wracked by inside politicking, petty and personal jealousy on the part of the clerks and employees, and by the kind of negative attitude being conveyed everyday that starts with the chief magistrate and trickles down.

Not so in Chelsea.

The Chelsea District Court is one of the state’s best working courts.

It is and has consistently been over the decades perhaps the best example of a compassionate court.

Defendants in CDC must go to great lengths to have the court insist at various proceedings that that person be sent to jail.

Mind you, the bad guys go to jail. Everyone else willing to show reason for hope is given a break, and frankly, this is the way it should be.

Inside the Chelsea District Court that Kevin Murphy has overseen for two decades, there is an esprit de corps. The general feeling inside the courthouse is positive and affirmative, cases move along the right away, everyone is helpful and friendly. As district court experiences go throughout this state, Chelsea sets a great example.

Recently, two guns were stolen out of the evidence locker at the CDC, creating a problem for two separate cases being tried in the CDC.

An investigation by higher district court administrative authorities into the theft of those weapons is ongoing.

The investigators are after who ever stole the guns or who made them available or who helped them to disappear inside the district court. They want to know, as we want to know, how and why this could have happened.

As a result, Murphy has been transferred for 60 days to another court or until such time the investigation is completed. Assuming Murphy is shown to have had nothing whatsoever to do with the gun thefts, he will be allowed to return to his post in Chelsea, which would be the fair thing to do.

Murphy’s transfer is a cheap shot at a lifelong court employee whose record is unblemished and who runs a great courthouse.

The net effect of his temporary transfer is to give the appearance that he has somehow done something wrong.

Obviously, the man we know and whom we like didn’t steal those guns. Murphy’s modus operandi is that of an honest man with a pristine record at the courthouse he runs and which he loves.

Knowledgeable sources close to the investigation claim there is someone inside the courthouse that can’t be trusted which resulted in the theft of important evidence.

The perpetrator of that crime should be punished when he or she is caught.

Chief Magistrate Murphy should be moved back to the Chelsea court.

He’s not the perpetrator.

Making him look like one is worse than the crimes that were committed in stealing the guns.