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WEATHER TONIGHT Clearing and cold. Low of -4.
The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
— Soren Kierkegaard
www.thewestfieldnews.com VOL. 83 NO. 53
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014
75 cents
No surprises in primary election
Sister testifies in wrongful death case By Bob Dunn bdunn@gazettenet.com. NORTHAMPTON — Kerry Kareta broke down in tears on the witness stand yesterday afternoon as she recalled getting the news of her 22-year-old brother’s death after he was struck by a drunken driver on the lawn of his aunt’s house in South Hadley. She said she was returning to the area from Boston on Aug. 28, 2010, to celebrate recent graduations by her and her brother. As she was getting off the Massachusetts Turnpike, she said she received a call from her mother telling her to meet the family at Holyoke Medical Center. Kerry Kareta was the final witness in the wrongful death civil trial of Craig Barton, a former juvenile court attorney who pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and other charges in September 2011 in connection with the death of Frederick “Joey” Kareta III, 22, of Westfield. Kerry Kareta said because she and her older brother were born about 16 months apart, they were exceptionally close and often gathered with family to celebrate holidays and milestones. Through tears, she said that, after her brother’s death, she knew there would not be a celebration that Christmas, so instead, she created a book collecting photographs of Joey growing up for her parents. Since then, she has also helped organize scholarship fundraisers in honor of her brother. “It’s a nice way to try to keep his memory alive,” she said. Barton, 46, of Springfield, represented himself in the trial, which began Monday in Hampshire Superior Court before Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder. Barton rested his case yesterday without calling any witnesses. He presented a brief closing statement to the jury of eight women and six men, admitting he had taken the life of a “much loved individual” and he would be “eternally sorrowful for that action.” Barton said regardless of what decision the jury made, at the conclusion of the trial, he would go back to prison to finish his five- to seven-year sentence and try to put his life and law practice back in order when he is eventually released. “At the time of my release, you’ll be looking at a then-51year-old individual who’s divorced, with two years of probation remaining and no place to go,” he said. “Not the ideal resume.” Attorney John Ross of Springfield, representing the Kareta family, told the jury that Barton had already pleaded guilty to criminal charges of motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of alcohol, a second offense of operating under the influence and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. See Barton Trial, Page 5
“Boredom is the root of all evil— the despairing refusal to be oneself.”
Cash, heroin, marijuana and an unusually large amount of cocaine are spread out on a table at the Westfield Police Department as it is organized for analysis after it was seized in a raid on a drug house in the city Friday. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Narcotics seized, sellers arrested By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Many of the evils which assail American society stem for the need for addicted persons to attempt to satisfy the monkeys on their backs and, as their options dwindle and they resort to crime (as virtually all addicts eventually do) to fund their need for addictive drugs, society pays for their problems through housebreaks, shoplifting, identity fraud and dozens of other larcenies and scams. Westfield is not immune from the problems which affect every community in the nation and city police often seem to be bailing against the tide in their efforts keep the sellers of heroin, cocaine and other illegal and addictive drugs in the community at bay. Sometimes, there are successes which, at least for the short term, limit the drugs available on the streets of the Whip City. The brunt of the effort is borne largely by the city’s detectives who work in the nighttime (when all things secretive seem to be abroad) under the command of Det. Sgt. Steven K. Dickinson, once the city’s primary undercover narcotics investigator and now the supervisor of the night shift’s detectives. One of those detectives, Brian Freeman, reports (in a recently filed court document) how those detectives on Friday seized heroin, cocaine and marijuana which will not be sold on the city’s streets for thousands of dollars. Freeman reports that information assembled by city detectives was presented in a successful application for a warrant to search an apartment at 4 Sackett St. and a team of four detectives and two community policing officers, under the
command of Dickinson, executed the warrant Friday evening. Before the officers moved in, they set up surveillance of the residence and saw known drug addicts make brief visits to the house. When one of the men who the detectives knew from previous narcotics investigations left the house the detectives decided, “knowing that he had just come from the known drug house and his actions were consistent with purchasing narcotics”, to speak with him. When Dickinson rolled up, in an unmarked cruiser, and asked to speak with the man he took off running. Officers exited the cruiser to give chase and saw the man discard items from his pocket before he was detained on the Maple Street sidewalk. Officers recovered “a cellphone and a small bag of crack cocaine” and the man agreed to give the officers “a full statement of what was happening inside 4 Sackett Street.” The detective decided to execute the warrant then and, when they knocked on the door, it was opened by a man subsequently identified as Corey Mitchell-Edwards, 24, of 195 Hickory St., Springfield. Inside at the kitchen table was the target of the warrant, Robert W. Lemanski, 52, of 4 Sackett St., and found in a bedroom behind the kitchen were Ricky Stevens Jr., 27, whose last known address was 37 ½ Mechanic St., and another man. A brown paper bag on top of the refrigerator was found to contain more than 200 grams of
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Yesterday’s Special State Primary election to fill the state representative seat vacated by Don Humason’s election to the state Senate apparently was not all that special for city voters, who failed to show up at the poles. City voters mostly ignored the primary election, according to the unofficial numbers released last night by City Clerk Karen Fanion, with only 3.68 percent (883) of the city’s 23,882 registered voters casting ballots, one of the lowest turnout percentages in recent history. State law requires that a primary be held prior to every election in the Commonwealth, regardless of whether a candidate is running unopposed or not in their party, to allow for party candidates running a write-in, or sticker, campaign to be listed on the ballot. Write-in candidates must receive 150 votes to gain a place on the special election ballot. None did that yesterday with the two candidates, who submitted nomination papers and whose names will be on the April 1 ballot regardless of the primary process, receiving the majority of votes. The Democratic candidate, John C. Velis, took 393 ballots of the 398 ballots cast, while the Republican candidate, Dan Allie took 462 of the 485 GOP ballots cast yesterday. The primary results will have no effect in the April 1st special election for the 4th Hampden District seat in the State House of Representatives. Many residents are questioning the requirement to hold a primary election, which costs the city thousands of dollars, when candidates, who qualified for the special April election by filing nomination papers with the required number of registered voter signatures and who are running unopposed. Fanion said the state reimburses the See Primary Election, Page 5
See Narcotics, Page 5 Dan Allie
JOHN VELIS
City seeks land for rail trail access By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Mayor Daniel M. Knapik is requesting the City Council, under immediate consideration, to approve two appropriations totaling $19,600 to purchase property to provide access to the Columbia Greenway. Knapik is also requesting the council to take action tomorrow night to take two small parcels of land for the construction of a connector between the rail trail and Coleman Avenue. The Board of Public Works voted unanimously last May to conditionally award Part 2 of the South Phase of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail construction project to ET&L Corporation of Stow, which submit-
ted the low bid of $2,297,538 to construct the next three quarters of a mile of the trail, work that includes extensive bridge work. Work on the final section of phase 1 of the Columbia Greenway project, extending the rail trail from the Southwick line to East Silver Street, was initiated in February when a $2 million state grant, from the Executive Office of Energy and Environment, was released to the city. City Engineer Mark Cressotti said this morning that the contractor will begin to clear the former rail bed and that work to demolish the bridge over South Meadow Road will begin next Monday. Cressotti said the appropriations and land takings being submitted to
the City Council tomorrow night are to position the city for construction of a connector off the west side of the rail trail. Originally the city planned to take a former rail spur for construction of a connector between South Broad Street and the rail trail. That land is owned by Sullivan Transportation. That plan was dropped when Commercial Distributing expressed a desire to purchase the spur to expand its building which is located along the former railroad property. Cressotti said the city is planning to construct a connector on the east side of the rail trail down to East Silver Street, next to the bridge abutment, where the existing sidewalk will be expanded to weight feet in width, but that a connector to Coleman Avenue
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would provide a more direct route to the South Middle School campus which includes Amelia Park, the Boys and Girls Club and the Children’s Museum. “We’re asking the City Council to take enough land to get us to Coleman Avenue,” Cressotti said. “We’re going to secure land at this time which sets us up for the future opportunity to construct that connector. The East Silver Street Bridge will be removed, but not replace in the current scope of rail trail work. The South Meadow Bridge will be replaced and will allow the road to be widened to two lanes of traffic. Tin Bridge will be refurbished to connect to the existing trail which now ends just south of Little River.