ORLEANS — Felony firearms charges against Barbara Boone of Wellfleet, stemming from an incident last spring, have been dismissed after six months of probation and 25 hours of community service.
Former Truro paramedic Reid Mason of Barnstable, who was also charged last year with multiple felonies for improper storage of guns, was offered a similar arrangement. He is eight months through a 12-month probation period; if the remaining four months pass without incident, he will be eligible to have all charges dismissed in September.
In May 2022, Wellfleet police received a complaint of an unregistered and unsecured gun at Boone’s home, according to official reports. Officers investigated and were told there was no weapon there. They declined to conduct a search. Boone, 56, later filmed herself throwing her disassembled 10-round Taurus .380 toward the ocean from a dune in Truro. Within a few hours, the video had been sent to the police. Boone was arrested and charged with possession of a large-capacity firearm, improper storage of a large-capacity firearm, and possession of ammunition without a license.
Because Boone did not have a gun license, she would have faced a mandatory state prison sentence if she had been convicted on the firearm possession charge.
In February 2022, Mason, 23, was found by officers intoxicated and slumped in his vehicle in the parking lot of a nightclub in Barnstable. There were five unsecured but unloaded weapons in the passenger seat next to him, according to the police report. He was charged with five counts of improper firearms storage.
Mason had a firearms license and was not charged with having a large capacity weapon, so he did not face mandatory prison time.
The Cape and Islands district attorney’s office declined to prosecute Boone on the two more serious felonies, partly for lack of evidence, according to records of a July 14, 2022 hearing in Orleans District Court.
Boone’s attorney told the court that Wellfleet police persuaded Boone to take them to the spot where she had tossed the ammunition, magazine, slide, and body of the gun over the dune. The prosecutor said an extensive search recovered only the slide and magazine.
Prosecutors asked for a continuance without a finding and 18 months’ probation on the remaining charge, said Russ Eonas, the second deputy in the Cape and Islands D.A.’s office. Boone’s lawyer asked for a continuance and 12 months’ probation.
Judge Robert A. Welsh III ultimately chose a continuance, six months of probation, and community service. The final charge was dismissed on Jan. 13, 2023.
Boone lost her job when Wellfleet police arrested her at her workplace, her lawyer told the court. Boone did not respond to phone calls from the Independent seeking comment.
Mason’s hearings were held last year in Barnstable District Court but with prosecutors from Essex County and a judge from Norfolk County, Eonas said.
Mason’s father is recently retired State Police Col. Christopher Mason. The elder Mason had worked for the Cape and Islands district attorney’s office as an investigator for 17 years and was appointed in 2019 as head of the state police — which led the Cape Cod judges and prosecutors to recuse themselves from the younger Mason’s case, Eonas said.
According to court documents, prosecutors recommended a guilty plea, 12 months’ probation, and a substance abuse evaluation, Eonas said. The defense asked for a continuance without a finding, probation, and the evaluation.
The judge, Daniel O’Malley of Stoughton District Court, decided to offer Mason a continuance without a finding. It does not involve a guilty plea and can lead to a dismissal of the charges. The 12 months’ probation began last September.
Mason no longer works for the Truro Fire Dept. He did not return phone calls from the Independent.
