SHERIFF’s RACE: WHERE’S THE REPORT? … DEATH CERTIFICATE RAISES HUGE QUESTIONS ABOUT PITTSFIELD WOMAN’S DEATH 3 DAYS INTO LOCKUP AT WOMEN’S JAIL IN CHICOPEE
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
ADD 1, Sept. 2, 2022 — Here’s the latest PLANET VALENTI VIDEO from our YouTube channel. In it, I share an hour’s worth of thoughts and notes on the campaigns for sheriff and district attorney. No notes. All improv. Just THE PLANET. Give it a watch. As always, all feedback is welcome. Subscribe to our channel now. It’s still a toddler but growing fast. We will be providing much more content and viewing. You don’t want to miss it. “Hey, somebody’s gotta say it.” Our next and final film related to the preliminary election will be posted on Election Day, Tuesday Sept. 6. We will be taking our camera to various polling places to conduct brief exit interviews. Stay tuned. The fun is just beginning.
Enjoy!
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(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION SEPT. 2, 2022) — On July 11, approximately three days into her sentence, a 46-year-old Pittsfield woman died in custody at Chicopee’s regional lockup for women. There’s where Berkshire County sends its female population, which presently numbers between 12 and 14.
Shortly after, candidate for sheriff Alf Barbalunga blasted Berkshire County sheriff Tom Bowler, saying the woman’s death “is part of a pattern of what happens to Berkshire County residents who find themselves in state or county jails.” Barbalunga said that “on average, every 10 months there has been either a death or an escape” under Bowler’s supervision.
Bowler excoriated Barbalunga for using “a family tragedy as fodder for his political purposes.” Bowler said Barbalunga failed to mention that “[t]his woman died from natural causes.” Bowler said “The medical examiner ruled that her death was the result of natural causes due to a pre-existing condition.” Hamden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi concurred. “Natural causes.”
But did she die from natural causes? This question has haunted the campaign since it first emerged in July and exploded during the August debate THE PLANET hosted between Barbalunga and Bowler.
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THE PLANET obtained a copy of the death certificate, signed by Boston Dr. Irini A. Scordi-Bello. It lists the immediate cause cause of death as “PENDING.” The form also has this: “Manner of Death: PENDING INVESTIGATION.”
Our questions:
- Has such an investigation been conducted?
- If so, by whom and has it been released? (If it has, we missed it)
- If not why not?
Death to “natural causes?” If so, why does the death certificate say that the manner of death is under investigation.
Alf Barbalunga Speech 1 September 2022 – SD 480… (Courtesy of Thieves of Light Productions)
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SIDEBAR (FROM WBUR)
Hampden County Jail
Current sheriff: Nicholas Cocchi
Total deaths 2008-2018: 22
Average inmate population (2018): 1,165
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A WBUR investigation by Christine Willmsen and Beth Healy found that from 2008 to 2018, 195 people died in custody of Massachusetts’ sheriffs. WBUR said gathering that information (including cause of death) proved extraordinarily difficult.
“Jails are perhaps the least accountable part of government in the United States,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project. “When you combine that lack of transparency, that lack of oversight, with a marginalized, unpopular captive population, it’s a recipe for neglect and mistreatment.”
The WBUR probe mentioned the case of an inmate in Worcester County who died “in agony” of a treatable type of meningitis after jail staff ignored his complaints. The sheriff’s report said the death came from “natural causes.”
Sound familiar?
So what, if anything, is being covered up in the Pittsfield woman’s death?
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The investigation found that “when people suffered from dire medical conditions in Massachusetts county jails, they were often ignored or mistrusted, with fatal consequences. The sheriffs … responsible for inmate health care face little oversight, and often have withheld the circumstances of these deaths from the public — even from inmates’ families.”
Is that what is happening in the Pittsfield case?
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Where’s the report?
From the WBUR investigation:
“The federal Death in Custody Reporting Act requires the government to collect data on the more than 1,000 inmates who die every year in American jails. Sheriffs have been required to file a form called a CJ-9, which provides the inmate’s name, age, race, cause of death and other information.
So where’s the report on the death of the Pittsfield woman?
According to WBUR, “compliance by the roughly 3,000 U.S. jails has been voluntary. The DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics … has no enforcement teeth. The result is that an unknown number of deaths go uncounted, and since 2014, reports have been years late.”
Voluntary reports.
Delivered late, if at all.
Written up, according to one lawyer quoted in the report, to be “all self-congratulatory.”
Did negligence occur in the Pittsfield woman’s death? The public in Berkshire and Hampden counties, to say nothing of the woman’s family, deserve a full report.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
LOVE TO ALL.
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Berkshire County’s performing arts seem to be suffering from long COVID. Despite attempts to adapt to the post-pandemic era – reduced budgets, discounts, or streaming performances – internal data from the county’s biggest performing arts venues show a 30-percent decline, on average, in ticket sales and attendance from 2019.
Guess who’s going to be asking for money?
BTG
Shakespeare and Company
Jacob’s Pillow.
Speaking of Jacob’s Pillow did anyone figure out how a building with no electricity turned on caught on fire?
Maybe if they allowed Americans that chose not to get vaccinated or could not get vaccinated due to medical issues back into their theaters they might do better! Why should a person who can’t get vaccinated due to personal reasons have to divulged their medical history to these theaters to get a ticket, it is none of their business. What happened to the HIPA rule. This Biden mandated bias bullying towards those that did not receive the vaccine for one reason or another has caused these folks to lose their jobs. This stupidity has caused a breakdown of Airlines, Fire and Police departments, Educational institutions, Military, the medical field, smaller hospitals and medical facilities are closing daily, causing major problems in the USA. Meanwhile Sleepy Joe who is double vaccinated, double boosted and wears a mask and probably Depends has had COVID twice and is still coughing up a storm every time he tries to speak, then turns and shakes hands. God Bless the USA, we need it.
Idiot Stephen Bannon, Mark Town Admin, and Andrea Harrington.
While you fuckwits play politics and kick the can down the road, this is what the water looks like this morning at my Daughter’s house in Housatonic.
Andrea you’re an idiot. Keep your politics out of our water problems.
Wonder if she will show up for the people suffering with the water issues after the election?
Probably about as much as she will invite the Edgerton family to the Harrington’s 4th of July backyard cookout next year.
I’m sure she kept them a VIP table under the oak tree
I need people to understand something about the Laquan Johnson plea, and it’s very important.
There are the charges a person is arrested for, the charges the DA brings forward, the charges in the plea deal, the charges that are adjudicated and the person is convicted of.
Normally that list starts out very large and as the process runs though the system, the charges are combined, dropped, or negotiated as part of a plea.
In the case of Laquan Johnson, Harrington and her office, in a desperate attempt to get a plea because they don’t want to go to trial and lose (something that happens often with her as DA) gave Laquan Johnson a sweetheart of a sweetheart deal.
That plea deal removed all of the serious charges and left the judge with nothing to really go on.
Image if you were charged with rape and murder but instead was told you could plea to jaywalking and get times served, would you do it? Probably so. That’s in effect what Harrington’s office has been doing these last 3 1/2 years. Violent criminals will be back out on the streets sooner because of the policies of Andrea Harrington
Andrea Harrington is never going to admit her role in putting criminals back on the streets and driving families and businesses out of Pittsfield. She claims to want stricter gun laws. Because she has taken away the threat of trial and possible jail and made numerous crimes only misdemeanors with no cash bail she has made the situation so much worse. She will never say that letting inmates out due to overcrowding that does not exist caused deaths. She’ll never admit the damage she did claiming racial bias by our police. But she knows. She knows.
That in a nutshell is why cops hate Harrington. They see her for the amateur she is. She was a laughingstock but now they just want her gone. Some are worried what she will do with certain cases out of spite when she loses.
Yup, Not one law enforcement group supports Harrington.
I love how Kelvin Santos and his pig friend Heather (and pitbull) are in an uproar on social media because someone in the sheriffs office wore a blue lives matter shirt to campaign for a law enforcement officer. Black Lives Matter is a joke. We all know it now.
They’re offended, and claiming racism. Get outta town. You people are fools.
We fully support anyone who wears a Blue Lives Matter T-shirt … because they do. BLM? We prefer ALL Lives Matter.
It stands for Buying Large Mansions. That group was in the business of scandal, corruption, and exploitation not helping people.
The best part of Buying Large Mansions (BLM), they bought the mansions in the YT’est of neighborhoods too.
Curious why they didn’t invest in the ghetto? But then again, if Cultural Competency Coach Shirley, invested her government awarded monies in Pittsfield’s “black and brown” community, how would she have been able to afford a trip to Africa to “explore her roots.”
Can you put white lives matter on youre lawns? Do they even have them?
Someone would probably burn your house down.
Her “roots?” What, did she die her hair blonde?
Burn Loot and Murder
Activists accuse BLM leader Shalomyah Bowers of stealing $10 million: lawsuit
The new leader of the national Black Lives Matter non-profit “siphoned” more than $10 million in fees from donors to pay his consulting firm, according to a lawsuit.
Bowers, who became head of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in April, is accused of paying the cash to his own Bowers Consulting Firm, and diverting resources from a new group called Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Inc.
BLM Grassroots was launched three months ago, records show. It claims to represent BLM chapters across the country.
“ Mr. Bowers decided he could not let go of his personal piggy bank,” BLM Grassroots charged in the lawsuit filed Thursday in the Los Angeles Superior Court. “Instead, he continued to betray the public trust by self-dealing and breaching his fiduciary duties. Instead of using the donations for its intended purposes, Mr. Bowers diverted these donations to his own coffers and intentionally took calculated steps to prevent those same resources from being used by BLM for on-the-ground-movement work.”
BLM Global Network Foundation paid the Bowers Consulting Firm $2,167,894 in 2021, according to federal tax filings.
The Foundation was rocked by controversy after The Post revealed in April 2021 that one of its founders, Patrisse Cullors, went on a real estate buying spree, spending more than $3 million on homes in Los Angeles and outside Atlanta. Cullors denied that the money came from donations.
Cullors resigned from the Foundation a month after The Post’s article. Later New York magazine revealed the group secretly spent $6 million on a sprawling mansion in Los Angeles to use as its headquarters, and another $8 million on a property in Toronto.
I just took a look at the upcoming business events the Berkshires Black Economic Council (BBEC) will be putting on in September and October:
No events planned.
I’m sure that the top-notch “consulting” Warren and Shirley gave to the last group, a traveling dance troupe, must have worn them out physically and mentally. They need a couple of months to unwind.
That $700,000 ARPA money given to the BBEC, sure could have benefited Wahconah Park and the many people who use it. Instead, only a lucky few POC get “consulting fees” to help wash their grift money.
MARK
Spot on. That 700 Gs could also help out the bedraggled Pittsfield taxpayers, The Kapanskis and small businesses. But nope. “Caint Tuch Dis.”
Scumbag Andrea Harrington Strike Again
The whiny witch of empty lots and municipal and state property.
These illegal signs aren’t going to help her one bit. She is one and done. She and fellow activists know it.
When you see such signs, illegally posted, it’s a sign of desperation. The SS Andrea OutTheDoria is going down.
Oh she’s going down alright, it’s just a question on whom. Can you hear me Andy we all saw what you did.
It was a pathetic campaign capped off by these signs in the wrong color blue strewn illegally around. It is the perfect testimony to her lack of integrity and class.
The most undemocratic and dangerous thing Harrington did was chastise Shugrue for encouraging Republicans to vote. It tells you everything you need to know about this politician. She does not want to be your lawyer or protect you, only her political allies. Andrea Harrington made it clear she wants to prevent people from being able to vote. This kind of supression effort really ought to make anyone associated with the local Dems sit up and take notice. It was an ugly move made by Harrington with no care for who the district attorney serves. It should be a crime for politicians to block voters.
Where’s a paintball gun when you need one?
Harrington caught lying about her endorsements AGAIN!
Andrea Harrington: zero integrity
You know it’s bad when they contact the paper to say they didn’t endorse Harrington.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to remove the name of Jamie Minacci, who had been listed as endorsing Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington’s re-election. Minacci said she has not endorsed either candidate. Harrington spokesman Adam Webster said Minacci’s name was erroneously included due to “miscommunication” between the campaign and Minacci, a member of the Stockbridge Select Board.