FIREARM ARREST ON LYNN STREET EXT.
On July 17, at 10:08 p.m. a Chelsea Police officer who was in the area of Central Avenue and Shurtleff on an unrelated call observed two young men walking away from him towards Lynn Street Extension. The officer made observations of one of the two males pull out what was believed to be handgun. He then observed a single muzzle flash and the discharge of the weapon. The two fled on the approach of the officer. He and other responding officers placed the two juveniles into custody on firearm charges and recovered the firearm.
The officer believed the gun was most likely accidently discharged when the suspect removed it from the waistband. No injuries or intended victims were noted. The firearm recovered has been turned over the State Police Crime Lab for analysis.
POLICE TO SPONSOR CHILD FINGERPRINTING JULY 27
Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes announced that the Chelsea Police would be conducting two events in the coming weeks for children and elderly.
On Monday, July 27, from 4-6 p.m., the Police will be at the Chelsea Public Library for child fingerprinting and identification kids. The goal is to aid parents and guardians in keeping their children safe through the fingerprinting program. The fingerprint kids can be done in the library or at home and the information will belong to the family. The police will not keep the prints or the kits.
For questions on the initiative, contact the police at (617) 466-4855.
Another service for elderly resident called SafetyNew Service is also being debuted by police, but not in the library event.
The service helps police find and rescue people who wander and get lost in the city. SafetyNew by Lojack aims to protect residents with autism and Alzheimer’s Disease. The CPD has been trained and certified on the SafetyNet service. Officers are equipped with search and rescue equipment so they are able to locate anyone who signs up for the program and goes missing.
Lojack provides emergency support 24-hours a day.
The service uses bracelets for the wrist or ankle that emit a signal. Chelsea Police can detect the signal from the bracelet within a one-mile radius during searches.
To sign someone up, called the CPD at (617) 466-4855.
CHA EMPLOYEE SENTENCED
A former executive of the Chelsea Housing Authority (CHA) and a former public housing inspector were sentenced this month for their roles in rigging the inspection process of federally funded housing units.
James Fitzpatrick, 63, of Acton., and Bernard Morosco, 50, of Utica, NY, were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to three months and six months in prison, respectively, and one year of supervised release. The two were convicted in April 2015 of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by impairing, impeding, and defeating the proper operation of HUD’s inspection process.
Pursuant to federal regulations, to determine whether a public housing authority is meeting the standard for its residents of conditions that are “decent, safe, sanitary, and in good repair,” HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) is required to “provide for an independent physical inspection of a public housing authority’s property or properties that includes, at a minimum, a statistically valid sample of the units in the CHA’s public housing portfolio to determine the extent of compliance with the standard.” REAC inspections are conducted by independent contractors who have received training from REAC on the inspection protocol and applicable regulations, and have been certified by HUD. Once certified, an inspector is given an inspector number, and with a password, can access the secure REAC server, which contains data on all public housing authorities and also later enable the inspector to generate a random sample of units to inspect on the scheduled date of the inspection.
Before the REAC inspections of the CHA in 2007, 2009, and 2011, Morosco gave Fitzpatrick, the Assistant Director of the CHA, an advance list that revealed which units at the CHA would be inspected. During those years, Morosco, who was a REAC-certified inspector, worked for the CHA as a consultant, advising the CHA about how to get better scores on its REAC inspections.
One or two months before each REAC inspection, using information provided by Fitzpatrick, Morosco accessed HUD’s secure database and downloaded information to which he was not entitled. That information enabled him to use his REAC software to generate, in advance, the random sample that would later be generated by the assigned REAC inspector. Morosco then gave the samples to Fitzpatrick who, in turn, provided it to the CHA’s Executive Director, Michael McLaughlin.
McLaughlin divided CHA employees into pairs, calling each pair a “SWAT team,” and sent them to inspect the units identified by Morosco. For the month before each inspection, the “SWAT teams” visited several apartments a day, inspecting and re-inspecting them as maintenance crews visited the units to make repairs, fumigate, and exterminate. When the REAC inspectors conducted the inspections, the units that were selected were the same as the ones provided in advance by Morosco.McLaughlin, the former Executive Director of the CHA, was previously sentenced to serve an additional 12 months in prison for this offense after having already been sentenced to 36 months for other illegal conduct involving the CHA.