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Orleans District Court

    JUSTICE

    Court Upholds Select Board’s Dangerous Dog Judgment

    Owner Richard Moore did not appeal the decision, but he did leave town

    By

    EASTHAM — The Orleans District Court has upheld the select board’s determination that two Boreen Road huskies are dangerous dogs. Assistant Clerk Magistrate Katie Sugermeyer, who oversaw the decision, also affirmed a set of conditions the board attached to its finding.

    Mattie the mare in her paddock on Barrow House Road in Eastham. She was attacked on Feb. 9 by huskies Barkus and Fernando. (Photo courtesy Virginia Delaney)

    The July 11 ruling may not matter to Richard Moore, the owner of Barkus and Fernando. “The Moores have purchased a property out of state that will be their future home,” said attorney Emir Sehic, who represents Moore and his wife, when contacted earlier this week. “The dogs are there now, and they won’t be coming back to the Eastham property.”

    Moore did not appeal Sugermeyer’s decision, which he had until July 22 to do. The case against Barkus and Fernando is now closed.

    On April 1, the select board made its ruling on the huskies following a two-hour hearing before a room packed with concerned residents. Animal Control Officer Stephanie Sykes, who requested the hearing, told the board that Barkus and Fernando had a history of running loose and biting animals and people without provocation.

    Sykes had asked for the hearing following a Feb. 9 incident in which the two dogs covered four miles over three hours, killing chickens belonging to a Meadow Road family and attacking an elderly mare in her paddock on Barrow House Road. The dogs roamed into Wellfleet and back to Eastham, tying up police in both towns. Owners of the chickens and the horse both testified.

    In addition to determining that the huskies were dangerous, the select board issued a list of orders for Moore to comply with, including the installation of an enclosed kennel with a roof and fencing sunk at least two feet into the ground. The board also ordered the dogs leashed and muzzled when off the property.

    Moore appealed the select board’s ruling in Orleans District Court, where a hearing was held on June 28. Attorney Sehic told the assistant clerk magistrate that his client had not been afforded due process. The town’s lawyer asked leading questions of the witnesses, Sehic said, complaining that he was not allowed to ask his own questions of the witnesses.

    In her decision, Sugermeyer said she reviewed all the documents both sides had provided and viewed the select board’s April 1 hearing. On Sehic’s claim that Moore was not afforded due process during the town’s hearing, Sugermeyer ruled that the select board’s handling of the proceedings did not rise to the “level of bad faith or without proper cause.”

    Sehic had referred to the select board’s dangerous dog hearing as a “kangaroo court” replete with a lack of decorum. He said the animosity in the room led Moore and his family to flee Eastham and take Barkus and Fernando with them.

    CRIME

    Police Failures Short-Circuit Justice for Abused J-1 Students

    Evidence was withheld, and the victims weren’t told a trial was taking place

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Paul Schofield, the innkeeper charged last fall with assaulting a Bulgarian student, destruction of property, and disorderly conduct, was found not guilty by a jury at a March 27 trial in Orleans District Court. But a review of court records by the Independent shows that the Provincetown police failed to turn over important evidence of the alleged crimes before the trial, and that the victims were never notified that the trial was taking place and therefore were prevented from testifying.

    The missing evidence includes a 22-page Provincetown Health Dept. report with descriptions of the assault written by Building Commissioner Anne Howard, Code Enforcement Officer Aaron Hobart, and Health Director Lezli Rowell, who witnessed the conduct Schofield was arrested for, as well as a video taken by Rowell during the incident. In interviews this week, Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Galibois and Provincetown Town Manager Alex Morse both said they had never seen the video.

    Morse argued that the police had acted within their discretion in withholding the video. He said he did not know who in the department had made that decision. But Galibois disagreed with Morse, saying it was the duty of the police to turn over all evidence in their possession.

    Four Bulgarian college students, Emanuil Ninov, Renata Alenina, Alexandra Atanasova, and Christian Bratanov, who were living in one of Schofield’s properties last summer and said that he harassed and assaulted them, told the Independent that they were never contacted by the district attorney’s office to testify and that they didn’t know the trial had taken place.

    Galibois said that his office had no way of reaching the students, who had returned to Bulgaria before the trial, and that the Provincetown police did not provide his office with contact information for them beyond the apartment they had rented from Schofield and their U.S. phone numbers. One of the students, Bratanov, said he gave his phone number, email address, and a local mailing address to the police following Schofield’s arrest on Sept. 7.

    Excluded Evidence

    According to pretrial documents, Schofield’s attorney, Christopher Somma of Durham, N.H., filed a motion to exclude evidence on March 25, two days before the trial. That same day, Somma said, he was notified by Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Suttle that Rowell provided him with notes, including a reference to the video Rowell took during the incident.

    This contravened Massachusetts criminal procedure, Somma argued, which requires automatic disclosure of possible evidence before trial. The information provided by Rowell had been available to the Commonwealth since October, Somma said. “There is absolutely no reason why Officer [Simon] Saliba or someone else from the government could not obtain this information in a timely manner,” he wrote. Judge Robert A. Welsh allowed Somma’s motion.

    Galibois and First Assistant District Attorney Jessica Elumba told the Independent that the responsibility for turning over evidence falls squarely on law enforcement. The police had handed over some evidence on Dec. 6, Elumba said, including photos, police logs, 911 turret tapes, and police reports.

    “All the information given on the eve of the trial was from the health dept.,” Elumba said. “It was never turned over by the police, and as a result, our office didn’t have it nor was even aware of its existence.”

    Elumba added that prosecutors would have requested a copy of Rowell’s video if they had known it existed.

    Bratanov said he had taken a video of damage Schofield had done to the students’ belongings, and that Officer Saliba took his and Rowell’s phones to view both videos. Morse confirmed that the police viewed the videos after Schofield’s arrest. According to Morse, the videos documented the incident only after the officer arrived on the scene.

    “The police department knew that as such it wouldn’t be admissible and wasn’t relevant to the charges being brought,” Morse said. “There was no intentional burying of the video.”

    Police Chief Jim Golden wrote in an email to the Independent that Officer Saliba saw five seconds of the video and did not take possession of it because he believed he could testify about what it showed. Golden said that Saliba is the only officer in the department to have seen the video; Morse and Galibois both said that they still have not seen it.

    In addition to assault and battery of Bratanov, the police charged Schofield with destruction of property and disorderly conduct, which, according to Rowell’s written statement, were captured on video. The destruction of property charge was dismissed on the morning of the trial, while a jury found Schofield not guilty on the disorderly conduct charge.

    “Prosecutors should have the opportunity to review what is potential evidence,” Galibois said.

    No Help From Police

    The four Bulgarian students lived in a one-bedroom apartment last summer at 5 Center St. owned by Schofield and his husband, Dr. Andrew Jorgensen, the former chief medical officer at Outer Cape Health Services.

    As part of their living arrangements, the students worked at Schofield’s and Jorgensen’s various rental properties, including the Rose Acre Guest Apartments on Center Street, the Prince Albert Guest House on Commercial Street, and a seven-bedroom rental at 7 Center St. Soon after the students started work, they said, Schofield refused to pay them, after which he broke into their apartment, stole money, destroyed their personal belongings, and assaulted them during multiple eviction attempts.

    Police records show that the students, as well as their employers at Mad as a Hatter and the Dolphin Fleet, went to the police several times that summer. Each time, officers told the students that their situations were a civil matter and not in the police’s purview.

    Schofield was finally arrested in September after town officials witnessed Schofield physically assaulting Bratanov, according to statements by Rowell and Building Commissioner Howard and a police report by Officer Saliba.

    The town paid for the temporary relocation of the students to the Harbor Hotel and Sandcastle Resort for two weeks before their return home. The move cost $3,111, which the town has asked Schofield and Jorgensen to repay. That has not happened, board of health chair Susan Troyan confirmed.

    Schofield did not respond to a written request for comment.

    A Trial Without Victims

    Bratanov told the Independent that none of the students were aware the trial took place. According to Elumba and Galibois, a victim witness advocate attempted to contact the students beginning Sept. 26 through standard mail. But the letters were addressed to 5 Center St. — Schofield’s apartment. The students never received them.

    The district attorney’s office also tried calling, Elumba said, but all they had were the students’ U.S. phone numbers, and the calls didn’t go through. The victim witness advocate reached out to the Provincetown police on Nov. 2 asking for other contact information for the students. A month later, on Dec. 3, they received a one-sentence email from Sgt. Jennifer Nolette that said, “They went back to Bulgaria/Romania.”

    According to pretrial documents, Judge Welsh allowed another motion from Somma to exclude use of certain information contained in Saliba’s police report. The report, Somma argued, relied on Bratanov’s statement to the police, and Bratanov “will not be attending this trial,” Somma wrote. Saliba should be able to testify only to what he witnessed, Somma said.

    Bratanov said that a couple of days after the assault, he and Atanasova went to the police station to give oral statements. They provided their emails and a post office box for the Dolphin Fleet, where several of the students worked. They also submitted a records request for documents related to the incident. The Independent reviewed correspondence between Bratanov and police records officer Barbara Peters.

    “I hardly believe they didn’t have any way to reach us,” Bratanov said. “I gave them three different ways to get in contact with me. Even if they didn’t have our contact information, they could have gotten in contact with our employers.”

    Golden said in his email that officers “do not routinely collect the email addresses of victims and witnesses in cases. However, should an email address be documented in a police report, this would be provided to the district attorney as part of the discovery process.”

    Morse admitted that the police dept. could have tried harder to provide contact information. Golden said that the department will make it standard procedure to collect email addresses for international visitors in the future. “Your community police officers, like all humans, are not infallible, and can make mistakes,” Golden said.

    “The town has worked very hard overall to protect these students,” Morse said. “This is a learning opportunity. We are learning how to prevent these things from happening in the future.”

    No Coming Back

    Bratanov, Atanasova, and Ninov applied for J-1 visas to return to Provincetown this summer. Their visas were denied. Renata Alenina withdrew her application before she received a response.

    According to Bratanov and Ninov, all four of the students were called into the U.S. embassy in Sofia on March 29, two days after the trial, to give statements about their experiences last summer. They were called in one by one, and each session lasted two hours, during which an embassy official asked questions regarding the incident with Schofield.

    “It was a range of, how did you find the housing, what was the arrangement with Schofield, what type of work did you do, what was the amount he was supposed to pay you,” Bratanov said.

    Bratanov believed the students’ visas were denied because of their experience with Schofield. “I don’t see anything else beside that being the reason,” he said. “If it wasn’t, why would they call us in two months before our visa interviews?”

    Bratanov said he had been looking forward to returning this summer. “Everyone told us that it would be better,” he said. “We were excited to try again, to experience Provincetown for what Provincetown is. Now we are in a position where we were abused, emotionally and physically exhausted, and then told that we can’t go back. Somehow, we are the ones getting punished.”

    PROVINCETOWN ELECTION

    Court Records Reveal Select Board Candidate’s Two Guilty Pleas

    Jere Miller violated one of a series of restraining orders and pleaded guilty to negligent operation of a motor vehicle

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Jere Miller, one of two candidates for select board on the ballot for the May 14 town election, is the subject of multiple restraining orders imposed in Orleans District Court from 2017 to 2023 at the request of Miller’s ex-wife, Kristen Reed, who is the current chair of the Truro Select Board.

    Miller, 56, who works as a carpenter and has no experience serving in town government, is challenging incumbent Leslie Sandberg, 61, for a seat on the five-person Provincetown Select Board.

    In July 2019, Judge Robert Welsh III accepted Miller’s guilty plea for violating an active court order that required him not to contact Reed directly or indirectly. As part of the plea agreement, Miller agreed to serve one year of probation, enroll in an intimate partner abuse program, complete a mental health evaluation, and stay away from Reed and her family.

    According to court documents, Miller’s probation was extended by six months in July 2020 because he had failed to complete the intimate partner abuse program.

    He did eventually complete the program, and his probation ended in early January 2021. Soon afterward, court documents show, Miller started sending harassing email messages to Reed at her Truro Select Board address, which led to the issuance of another restraining order in August 2022.

    From Jan. 16, 2021 to Aug. 19, 2022, according to the documents, Miller sent nine messages to Reed’s work email. In multiple messages, included in full in the court record, Miller targets not only Reed but also Sandberg, claiming that Sandberg was Reed’s campaign manager and mentor in running for office.

    Sandberg told the Independent that she acted as a “campaign adviser” to Reed during her first run for select board, giving advice on communications strategy.

    In an email from August 2022, Miller wrote, “my goal is to thwart any effort of yours and Sandberg.” He ends the message by saying, “It’s starting. And I have nothing to lose.”

    Later that month, the court issued another restraining order against Miller, at Reed’s request, which was in effect for one year. There is no indication in the documents that Miller was violent in his behavior with Reed or her family members.

    In an interview with the Independent this week, Miller acknowledged having violated the original restraining order. When asked if he set out to specifically displace Sandberg on the select board, he first said no but later compared Sandberg to politicians like Donald Trump and said that “those types of people shouldn’t be in politics.”

    Sandberg told the Independent this week that “the court documents speak for themselves. This campaign should be about which candidate the voters of Provincetown feel will best serve them on the select board, and I trust that the voters will make the right decision.”

    Reed declined to comment for this article.

    According to court records, Miller and Reed were married in September 2010. They filed for divorce in February 2017. The divorce was finalized in June 2017. That same month, according to one of Reed’s affidavits, Miller began demanding that Reed hand over items that he believed were in the home they had shared. Reed wrote that she communicated that she did not have the items that Miller requested. Miller then demanded payment.

    After Reed refused, Reed told the court that Miller began threatening her in text messages. Later, according to Reed, Miller contacted one of Reed’s male coworkers, sent a photo of Reed to him, and twice told him to stay away from Reed.

    In December 2017, Reed wrote, Miller texted a group chat that included six members of her family a photo of a book and the words “prepare for a reckoning.” These interactions were the basis of Reed’s first petition for a restraining order against Miller, which was granted that same month.
    Miller admitted that he sent the “prepare for a reckoning” message but said that he was referring to background research he was conducting on a writing project. Miller writes poetry, short stories, and screenplays. In 2019, Miller read from a self-published book, Family: A Battle at Kruger Lake, at the Provincetown Public Library.

    Miller violated the restraining order on multiple occasions in 2018. According to a report submitted by Truro Police Officer James Bragdon on April 10, 2018, Miller sent a message to Reed’s sister saying, in all capital letters, “Liars fall very hard in the end … and their minions.”

    Reed reported his behavior to the Truro police, and in July 2019 Miller was arrested and spent the weekend in Barnstable County Jail before pleading guilty to violating a protective order.

    In 2013, Miller was charged with suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, negligent operation of a vehicle. He completed 12 months probation in February 2015.

    A Tennessee native, Miller told the Independent that he first visited Provincetown in the summer of 1986. He said he has been a resident of Provincetown on and off for years.

    In 1998, at age 30, Miller joined the Marines. He worked as a supply analyst before being discharged in July 2002. He worked as a lifeguard at Herring Cove Beach for four years, after which he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He later went back to the university for a master’s program in nonprofit leadership and development.

    Miller told the Independent that advocating for affordable housing in town would be his priority if he is elected. Though he has not served on any town boards, he said he was encouraged by multiple people to run for select board. He expressed doubts about the cost of the Motta Field master plan and said his campaign slogan would be “A voice of Provincetown.”

    In 2024, Miller became a board member of Provincetown TV. He is also a member of the local American Legion chapter. He works for Winard Construction.

    VOTING IN TRURO

    Judge Rejects Voter Lawsuit Against Town Officials

    Herridge and O’Neill sought to stop hearings on registration challenges

    By

    TRURO — A civil lawsuit against several town officials regarding the appointment of registrars, the removal of names from the voter rolls, and the postponement of a special town meeting was rejected by Orleans District Court Judge Robert A. Welsh III, according to court records. The suit, filed on Nov. 2 by Truro voters Peter Herridge and Stefanie O’Neill, sought a declaratory judgment, an injunction, and $49,000 in attorney’s fees and damages.

    The defendants in the suit are Town Manager Darrin Tangeman, Moderator Paul Wisotzky, Town Clerk Elisabeth Verde, and select board chair Kristen Reed, as well as the board of registrars and select board as entities.

    Herridge and O’Neill were represented by Michael Lawrence Oliverio, an intellectual property and patent lawyer and a senior partner at the Boston firm Polsinelli PC.

    Oliverio himself was one of the people recently struck from the Truro voter rolls after he failed to appear at a hearing before the board of registrars. Oliverio had registered to vote in town on Aug. 30 with a Southborough mailing address.

    Herridge and O’Neill asked the court to declare that the select board’s temporary appointment of two Republican registrars was illegal, and that the registrars’ subsequent decisions were illegitimate. The board of registrars, Oliverio said, was an “illegitimate kangaroo court.”

    The suit stated that “the aim of these actions is to avoid defeat of Warrant Articles related to the development and appropriations of $35M for a public works facility and adoption of recommendations for a housing project at an indeterminate scale and unknown cost to taxpayers. The defendants simply are unwilling to lose the articles and have undertaken oppressive and draconian tactics to win.”

    It also stated that “Defendants’ acts have caused and are continuing to cause an interference with Plaintiffs’ right to vote that is substantial, unreasonable and illegal.”

    But the defendants were never served. The suit was filed as an ex parte emergency motion, meaning that the plaintiffs wanted the judge to rule without the defendants being notified. When asked about the suit last week, at least one town official was not aware it had been filed.

    “Courts are loath to grant any form of ex parte relief unless there is some dire emergency because it flies in the face of due process,” said Mike Fee, an attorney who lives in Truro.

    The Hearing

    The plaintiffs were seeking a 10-day temporary restraining order to stop the voter challenge hearings, due to begin four days later, until there was a properly constituted board of registrars.

    The plaintiffs filed the case on Nov. 2, and Judge Welsh heard it the same day. He denied all the plaintiffs’ motions, including for the appointment of a special process server.

    During the proceedings, attorney Oliverio claimed to be representing two challenged voters. While O’Neill’s registration was among the 67 challenged — but ultimately upheld by the registrars — Herridge’s was not. Oliverio also stated that town officials had made the initial decision to postpone town meeting on the spur of the moment based on how they expected people to vote.

    The Oct. 21 town meeting was, Oliverio told the judge, “supposed to be a vote on whether or not to approve a $34-million construction project. At that meeting, what happened was a supermajority of people from the town of Truro, voters, showed up at the meeting to the surprise of the board of selectmen. When they saw that all these people showed up, and that they were going to vote against the approval question, they unilaterally right there live on the spot terminated the meeting.”

    In fact, the town had announced on Oct. 19 in a press release that the meeting would be continued because of voter registration challenges and the resulting threat to the meeting’s integrity.

    Oliverio also told the judge that “at that same meeting, at the same time, they unilaterally decided to have a board of selectmen meeting to appoint two new registrars.”

    In fact, the select board had made two temporary appointments more than a week before, on Oct. 13.

    Oliverio also claimed that the town had “hired a man who sits on the board of the construction company that’s supposed to be awarded the project, to file a complaint against 67 voters in Truro to challenge them.”

    In an email to the Independent, Raphael Richter, who filed 66 voter challenges, said he does not serve on the board of any construction companies. He suspected that Oliverio may have been thinking of his board position on the Community Development Partnership (CDP), a nonprofit that works on affordable housing development.

    “The CDP has no involvement with DPW,” Richter wrote. He also said that the town didn’t hire him: “No one hired or induced me in any way to file the voter challenges. I did so of my own volition and at my own expense.”

    Judge Welsh suggested that the suit had likely been filed in the wrong court. He said that district courts typically do not hear cases concerning voting or elections. “I’m curious as to why this wasn’t filed in the Superior Court,” he said.

    “The Superior Court never grants restraining orders in my experience,” Oliverio said. “They have jurisdiction, but they just don’t hear you.”

    Under state law, district courts have jurisdiction over inquests, evictions, mental health matters, and domestic disputes, with a maximum recovery of damages of $50,000.

    Superior Court handles “civil actions over $50,000, matters where parties are seeking equitable relief, and actions including labor disputes where parties are seeking injunctive relief.”

    “It’s the easiest decision for a court to deny a request for relief if it doesn’t have the power to grant what is being asked,” said Fee. “A judge without jurisdiction doesn’t even have to get to the facts.”

    In an email to the Independent, Oliverio wrote, “It is a plain and simple fact that the majority on the Truro Select Board doesn’t represent the will of the vast majority of Truro residents, is at best unethical and at worst unlawful in its proven efforts to suppress, intimidate and disinform voters.”

    Oliverio did not respond to specific questions about his statements to the judge. Instead, he threatened to add the Provincetown Independent as a co-defendant in the lawsuit. “Be advised that you are individually liable in addition to the publisher,” he wrote to a reporter.

    Contentious Appointments

    On Tuesday, Dec. 12, Heather Harper and Julie Cataldo were reappointed as temporary registrars for 28 days.

    On Oct. 13, eight days before the scheduled special town meeting, the select board convened to make those temporary appointments — the action at the crux of the O’Neill et al. lawsuit.

    That day’s proceedings became contentious. Per MGL ch.51 §15, registrars are generally appointed “from a list to be submitted to them by the town committee of the political party from the members of which the position is to be filled,” with at least three nominees per vacancy. Timothy Hickey, chair of the Truro Republican Town Committee, submitted two names rather than six. But he had not been notified 45 days prior to the appointment to submit them, as is the expectation.

    According to Town Manager Tangeman, the board of registrars was in limbo after the May departure of former Town Clerk Kaci Fullerton, a Republican. As the town went about hiring a new clerk — who would have an ex officio membership on the board — it was unclear whether a new appointment would be necessary, because a new Republican clerk might have simply filled Fullerton’s vacancy. When Elisabeth Verde, a Democrat, was hired, the board needed to be reshuffled. Then, registrar Michael Kaelberer, who was unenrolled, resigned, and there were two spots to fill.

    “We needed to get them appointed so that we’d be prepared for both a town meeting and an election,” Tangeman said, adding that “historically, the local Republican committee has never provided names.” There hasn’t been a Republican committee in the past decade or so, he said.

    Just weeks after the board of registrars was reconstituted, the four members were responsible for hearing and ruling on dozens of voter registration challenges.

    Throughout the registrars’ appointment process, Tangeman said, officials worked closely with town counsel from KP Law.

    Temporary appointments to the board of registrars are allowed in the event of a resignation and vacancy. Per MGL ch.51 §20, the select board can “appoint in writing some person to fill such vacancy temporarily, who is of the same political party as the member whose position he is appointed to fill. Such temporary registrar shall perform the duties and be subject to the requirements and penalties provided by law for a registrar of voters.”

    For now, the status of the Herridge and O’Neill lawsuit remains open. According to a clerk at Orleans District Court, that will change only when a plaintiff calls for it to be dismissed.

    In the meantime, Oliverio did not say whether he plans to refile the suit in Superior Court.

    “We don’t respond to questions about pending litigation,” he wrote.

    COURT REPORT

    Adams Pleads Guilty in Child Pornography Case

    In sting, hundreds of files. In court, just one count. Sentencing set for July 22.

    By

    BOSTON — A decade after he appeared in Orleans District Court for sexual conduct towards a teenaged boy, Kerry Adams, 61, of Provincetown pleaded guilty in federal court on April 20 to distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography.

    Adams was voluntarily detained in October 2019 after the culmination of what a Dept. of Justice press release called a several-months-long “investigation of individuals using peer-to-peer networks for the trafficking of child pornography.”

    Peer-to-peer networks allow users to connect their computers and share resources — like specific folders or files — often anonymously, without passing those resources through a centralized server. Peer-to-peer networks are “the main trading platform” for child pornography today, according to a 2014 report by Thorn, a tech foundation trying to eliminate child sexual abuse from the internet.

    During their investigation, agents downloaded child pornography materials four times from a computer they traced to Adams’s residence, the press release said. When investigators searched his home, they seized his laptops, thumb drives, and SD cards. On the scene, they found files containing child pornography on one of his laptops. A subsequent forensic analysis, the press release said, “revealed hundreds of child pornography files on Adams’s devices.”

    Despite those hundreds of files, Adams’s guilty plea was to just one count each of distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography. Federal sentencing statutes order mandatory minimum sentences of five years in prison for the first charges of distribution and receipt of child pornography. At Adams’s July 22 sentencing, he’ll also face fines of up to $250,000 and a possible lifetime of supervised release.

    This is Adams’s first guilty plea. But these are not the first allegations against him.

    In January 2010, a Provincetown boy accused Adams — then a soon-to-be-reelected school committee member, Pier Corp. board member, and officer of the Knights of Columbus — of indecent exposure at a Knights of Columbus teen night he was chaperoning. According to partially redacted police reports, the victim said Adams had exposed himself and repeatedly encouraged him to do the same.

    In a 2010 interview with the Cape Cod Times, Adams claimed that the boy fabricated his story after Adams confronted him about 39 nip bottles of liquor missing from the Knights of Columbus supply.

    After an investigation, state police charged Adams with two counts of indecent exposure and one of lewd, wanton, and lascivious conduct. The lewd conduct charge and one indecent exposure charge were dismissed. A September 2012 bench trial found Adams not guilty of the other indecent exposure charge.

    In September 2018, Adams pleaded not guilty to charges of larceny over $1,200 and false pretense in a commercial transaction over $1,200 in Orleans, after investigations by state and Provincetown police into a $155,000 fraud operation. Adams stole $125,000 from “previous victims,” police wrote, and $30,000 from Barry Clifford, his client. Adams had been Clifford’s insurance agent.

    Adams had told each victim that he needed to wire large sums to an attorney named Peter Clark in order to collect a $4 million cash inheritance from Adams’s late, estranged father.

    An investigation into Clark and Adams had begun in November 2017, when police found Adams — who had been crowd-sourcing money to pay Clark for months — at home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his abdomen. State police determined that neither Adams’s would-be inheritance nor attorney Peter Clark existed. They told this to Adams, who, at that time, they believed to be the victim of a fraud scheme by “Clark.”

    But Adams continued to “borrow” money — including Clifford’s $30,000 — from friends and clients to wire to “Clark” to collect his “inheritance.”

    He knew that the state police said he was “involved in a scam,” Adams told Provincetown Det. Richard Alves in July 2018. But he “wanted to get redemption.”

    Adams appeared regularly in Orleans District Court for pretrial hearings until July 2019, when the commonwealth dismissed his case because, according to his docket, prosecution witnesses would not cooperate for trial.

    TRUE CRIME

    In Provincetown, a Good Deed Backfires

    Animal rescue leads to felony charge for Truro man

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Police Officer Thomas Radzik was parked at the CVS on Oct. 17 when a man — Brandon Czyoski, 39, of Truro — asked him for help.

    Czyoski said he had been hunting in the National Seashore when he found an injured bird. Could Radzik summon Animal Control Officer RuthAnne Cowing to the scene? And, in the meantime, could Radzik lend a hand?

    As Czyoski spoke, he led the officer to his truck, the rear door of which he opened to reveal a bird (“small,” wrote Radzik in his report, “and hawk-like”) swaddled in a sweatshirt. Radzik, though, was less interested in the ailing avian than in the creature’s backseat neighbor: a 12-gauge shotgun with a trigger lock.

    Radzik asked Czyoski to produce his License to Carry (LTC) or Firearms Identification Card (FID). Czyoski couldn’t; he said he’d left the license at home. A database check revealed that Czyoski’s Truro-based LTC had in fact expired last November — which meant both the shotgun (which was unloaded and not in a locked case) and the six red Birdshot shells in Czyoski’s truck rendered him afoul of the law.

    Czyoski’s father, Michael, who held an active firearms license, took possession of the shotgun and ammunition, and Radzik got down to business. On his recommendation, prosecutors charged Czyoski with possession of ammunition without an FID and improper storing of a firearm, both misdemeanors, as well as carrying a firearm without a license — a felony punishable by a maximum prison sentence of two years, or a $500 fine.

    Czyoski was arraigned on those three charges on Nov. 30 in Orleans District Court before Judge Robert Welsh III and released on personal recognizance. He’ll next appear on Dec. 30 at 9 a.m. for a hearing.

    The bird fared less well. It was a juvenile merlin — a small, fierce falcon common in the Northeast — that Officer Cowing transported to Eastham’s Wild Care animal shelter for X-rays and preliminary care. The merlin weighed just 167 grams — less than six ounces — and had been shot through the wing (not by Czyoski, Cowing said); the injury left its upper-wing bone, or humerus, exposed.

    The bird was transported to Barnstable’s Cape Wildlife Center to repair its open fracture. The procedure went well, said Cape Wildlife’s Seth Andrews, but the bird’s condition plummeted on its fifth day of recovery. Cape Wildlife personnel had to make what Cowing called the “more humane” decision; on Oct. 24, the merlin was euthanized.

    Concerned about the falcon’s well-being, Czyoski stayed in regular touch with Cowing before its death, she said.

    “It was very sad,” she said. “Very adorable bird. Very sad.”

    No Update on Status of Arrested Eastham Teacher

    By

    EASTHAM — Nauset Regional School District Supt. Thomas Conrad would not comment this week on the termination process for James Saidnawey, a fourth-grade teacher at Eastham Elementary School who was arraigned in Orleans District Court on Sept. 22 on two counts of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity or sexual conduct.

    Before landing a position in Eastham over the summer, Saidnawey taught in the Newton Public Schools.

    He was a student-teacher intern from September 2019 to January 2020, then a long-term substitute from January to June 2020, and served as the Newton North High School girls swim coach, said Julie McDonough, director of communications for the Newton schools. Before that, Saidnawey served as the head coach of Belmont High School’s boys swim team.

    The Nauset district placed Saidnawey on leave before the Sept. 16 start of classes because, Conrad told the Cape Cod Times, district officials “knew about the investigation” into his activities.

    “We were unaware of an investigation until it was reported by the Eastham Police Dept.,” said Newton’s McDonough. “Since the news release was issued, the Newton Police Dept. has been in contact with the Eastham police.”

    Eastham police arrested Saidnawey on Sept. 22; documents related to the investigation were not released by the court because of the involvement of minors. Saidnawey pled not guilty at his arraignment. He was released from custody after posting $1,000 cash bail and agreeing to have no contact with his alleged victims or any other minors.

    On the day of the arraignment, Supt. Conrad told the Cape Cod Times that the district was entering the final phase of Saidnawey’s termination. His office refused to comment further on Tuesday.

    Saidnawey will next appear in Orleans District Court on Nov. 23 for a pretrial hearing. He has retained the services of criminal defense attorney Martin Kane II of Boston, a former president of the Middlesex County Bar Association.

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