Blue Mass Group

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Impeach Judge Daniel A. Ford – Too Bad He Can’t Do Jail Time

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Since 2006 Mr. Baran has been released on bail but under home confinement. The Superior Court ruling that released him in 2006 was appealed by the Berkshire County District Attorney’s office.

The Appeals Court reported its decision on the case last month. The facts as reported show without question that the prosecutor, Judge Ford, manipulated evidence to mislead the grand jury that indicted Baran and did not provide the defense with exculpable evidence.

For instance, the children denied on tape that Baran molested them. Some named another person as molesting them. The tapes also showed the children being coached.

Judge Ford never showed the grand jury that portion of the tapes and did not turn copies over to the defendant. There were also exculpatory police reports and other documents kept from the defense. Ford did turn his complete file over to the victim’s attorneys.

Yes Mr. Baran had incompetent counsel, however that does not acquit prosecutor Ford.

Anyone who has seen My Cousin Vinny knows that the D.A. must turn everything over. Very limited exceptions to that rule. If it is exculpatory the D.A. turns it over automatically without being asked.

But for Judge Ford’s indifference, narcissism, ambition, or pathological tendencies Bernard Baran would not have spent 20 years in jail for crimes he did not commit.

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Daneil A Ford is corrupt and should go to jail for this. However the statute of limitations has expired so the best we can do is impeach him.

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  1. Also, why didn’t this come up at his confirmation to the bench?  I disagree on jail time.

  3. that they have turned over all exculpatory evidence. That way, if it is found later on that they haven’t done so, then they could be slapped with a perjury charge. Or perhaps there’d be a more straightforward solution. In any event, a requirement is meaningless without a potential penalty for noncompliance.

  4. What happened to Mr. Baran is a crime and the Appeals Court does not even mention Judge Ford by name.  Judge Ford should suffer at least suffer public scorn.

    <

    p>Why the arrest of a gay disk jockey in PTown last summer resulted in more outrage than this theft of the best twenty years of a young man’s life is just beyond me.  

    • The outrage wasn’t because of his being gay, it was because he was the guy who does the lost 45s.  Seems like you have issues.

      <

      p>In fact, why is there a need to compare it to any other case at all?  

      • Yet there has been little press in these parts.

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        p>It has come to light that a sitting Massachusetts Superior Court Judge committed serious acts of obstruction of justice while a prosecutor over twenty years ago. as a result a 19 year old gay man spent 20 years in prison and was released (still under house arrest) only after these acts of obstruction of justice were exposed.

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        p>The evidence shows how this judge used anti-gay prejudices to help his corrupt prosecution.

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        p>Is Judge Ford anti-gay?  Does it matter? But it is definitely gay related. And much more serious than other anti-gay episodes I’ve read on BMG.

        <

        p>WHERE”S THE OUTRAGE!!!

        <

        p>IMPEACH JUDGE FORD!!

      • I know I have issues, huh.  Why not educate yourself about the issue before casting aspersions?  This young gay man had his life taken away and the man who committed these wrong acts is now a judge.  This judge hid evidence, lied to the court and the jury and rode to power on a wave of homophobia.  I find it to be a little more important than the arrest of the dj on the cape last year. That arrest created a minor firestorm here while the Baran story barely managed a peep.

  6. The crimes that Mr. Baran was accused of were incredibly heinous, and children did openly accuse him of committing unspeakable acts against them, so a DA would certainly be right to deeply investigate Mr. Baron.  One might even be tempted to partially excuse Attorney Ford’s evident law-breaking zealotry because he was blinded by the horror of the alleged crimes.  I’m not in any way saying that would excuse or justify a DA hiding evidence or breaking the law- but, at least you could understand someone being just so horrified by what, they thought, was an incredibly dangerous predator that they just HAD to do anything and everything in their power (including breaking the law themselves) to keep a monster away from children.  

    <

    p>However, a quick review of some of the hundreds of articles from local papers show that Judge Ford hasn’t always acted with the unrelenting zeal he did in the case of Mr. Baron, and even was even sometime downright lenient, once being so kind as to let an admitted six time rapist free on his own recognizance pending sentence.  To be most fair to Ford (more than he was to Baron), let’s stipulate there are specifics circumstances in every case, it would take a lot more time to produce a definitive review of Judge Ford’s lengthy record, and there’s a big difference between the proper role of a prosecutor and a Judge (though a prosecutor is supposed to follow the law and even within the law is supposed to exercise judgment in deciding when to prosecute and how hard to push, unlike the defense which is supposed to do everything legal to get the defendant off).  Granting all that, it’s clear Judge Ford has not always acted as a merciless punisher child sex predators.  And, in the case of at least one repeat sexual offender, a short sentence by Judge Ford resulted in the horrible abuse of yet another child.  A sampling of terrible:

    <

    p>Sunday Republican, June 8, 1997-

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    p>

    A 12-year-old boy selling candy bars door-to-door for charity in the city’s North End on Friday was bound, gagged and raped by a convicted sex offender, police said.

    Kenneth J. Simmons, 38, of 53 Ringold St., was charged with two counts of rape and abuse of a child, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon – a pair of scissors, threat to murder, kidnapping and failure to register as a sex offender.

    The boy was alone selling candy bars to raise money for a church group, Strzempek said.

    Simmons reportedly lured the boy into his home at about 4:30 p.m. to have a conversation about religion, and then bound and gagged the boy with duct tape before raping him twice, Strzempek said.

    Simmons threatened the boy with a pair of household scissors, saying he would kill the boy if he told anyone about what happened, Strzempek said.

    The boy, whose name is being withheld because of his age and the nature of the crime, was treated at Baystate Medical Center for injuries suffered in the ordeal, and later released, Strzempek said.

    Simmons was sentenced to a year in jail on April 23, 1992 for a game of hide-and-seek that led to the Dec. 22, 1991 molestation of a 7-year-old boy in Springfield. A charge that Simmons molested the boy’s 6-year-old mentally retarded brother was dropped because the younger boy could not testify. Judge Daniel A. Ford spared Simmons from a 10-year sentence because of “his tragic past” as a child.

    In 1988, similar charges were brought against Simmons, but that case was dropped.

    <

    p>Union-News. December 20, 1990-

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    p>

    A Southampton man pleaded guilty yesterday to six sexual assault charges involving teen-age boys, and was freed on personal recognizance bail pending sentencing next week.

    Ronald Blais, whose age and address were not available, pleaded guilty to one count of rape of a child, two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years old.

    Hampshire County Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ford freed Blais on his own recognizance on the condition that he stay away from the victims in the cases, report weekly to probation, and attend individual and group therapy sessions every week. He was free on personal recognizance awaiting trial on the same conditions.

    On the first indictment, he is charged with rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child between May 1, 1988 and Oct. 31, 1989.

    <

    p>Union-News, December 18, 1990-

    <

    p>

    A Granby man was found guilty yesterday of rape of a child in Ware in 1989 and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail. He was freed pending his appeal.

    Andre T. Knap, 26, of 14 Palmer Circle, Granby, was sentenced to concurrent terms of 2 1/2 years on the convictions on rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child. Hampshire County Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ford allowed a request by Knap’s lawyer, Alan Rubin of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, to stay the sentence until the appeal is heard.

    Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Elaine L. Contant opposed Rubin’s request that the sentence be stayed, but Ford ruled that because Knap has no previous criminal record, he should be allowed to remain free pending the appeal.

    <

    p>Worcester Telegram & Gazette, December 29, 1990-

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    p>

    A doctor from West Brookfield began serving two years in state prison after he admitted to raping one patient and assaulting two other patients in 1988.

    Dr. Frederick J. Keefer, 37, of Chapman Avenue, West Brookfield, admitted he assaulted a 23-year-old female patient with a hypodermic needle during an office consultation, the crime for which Hampshire County Superior Court Justice Daniel A. Ford imposed the two-year sentence

    Dr. Keefer had maintained a practice in pediatric and adolescent medicine at 74 South St., Ware, until the state Board of Registration in Medicine suspended his medical license in May 1989 because of charges he had assaulted or sexually assaulted some of his patients. He was a staff physician at Mary Lane Hospital in Ware until January 1989.

    In Hampshire Superior Court this week, Dr. Keefer also admitted he raped a 21-year-old female patient, whom he had tried to hypnotize and then sedated, and indecently assaulted a 22-year-old female patient. Ford imposed sentences of three to five years for those two crimes. Dr. Keefer will be on probation for the next three years for those two sentences, the judge decreed.

    Ford filed a charge against Dr. Keefer of indecent assault and battery on a child, Assistant District Attorney David Angier said. The victim approved of that action after learning that Keefer had agreed to plead guilty to other charges and serve time in prison, he said.

    The prosecution dropped a charge accusing Dr. Keefer of drugging a patient for purposes of sexual intercourse because the statute of limitations had run out on that charge.

    <

    p>Union-News, February 3, 1993-

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    p>

    A former volunteer with the Boy Scouts and at Brightside for Families and Children was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail yesterday for raping and molesting a boy in a tent they pitched last summer at Tolland State Forest.

    Paul L. Fountaine, 36, of 17 Mallard Circle, Agawam, pleaded guilty in Hampden Superior Court to statutory rape and molesting during the Aug. 29 incident when he was camping with the 15-year-old boy and his parents.

    The guilty plea came a week after Fountaine was indicted on new charges that he molested another boy last summer.

    Judge Daniel A. Ford Jr. ordered him not to work with children for three years after his release from jail as a condition of probation for that period.

    “This was, in my part, not planned at all,” Fountaine said. “I was intoxicated. I am very ashamed of what happened. I don’t know where (the victim) was coming from. I thought he was coming on to me. He was undressed.”

    <

    p>Union-News, July 3, 1991-

    <

    p>

    A Ludlow man must serve a 2 1/2 year sentence and an additional three years of probation on charges he molested two children.
    Ford said a “suspended sentence is out of the question ” in the case involving “two very young, very vulnerable children who…were traumatized ” by the attacks.

    The charges involved incidents that occurred with a 6-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy. The children testified at the trial.

    <

    p>Union-News, December 14, 1990-

    <

    p>

    A Connecticut man was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in jail after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a Huntington girl on two occasions last summer.

    Charles E. Burrows, 60, of New London was sentenced after pleading guilty in Hampshire County Superior Court to two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and one count of assault with intent to rape a child.

    He was given concurrent terms of 18 months in the Hampshire County House of Correction on each indecent assault and battery charge and a suspended sentence of five to seven years in state prison on the assault with intent to rape charge.

    After he is released from jail, Burrows will be on probation for three years with the suspended sentence hanging over his head with three conditions. He must stay away from the victim in the case, attend sex offender counseling and he must not be the sole caretaker of any children under the age of 16.

    Burrows was originally charged with one count of rape of a child, but Steese said she agreed to reduce the charge to indecent assault and battery on a child to prevent forcing the girl, who is 9 years old, to testify.

    Ford agreed to the sentence, which he called “fair,” at least partly because Burrows has no previous criminal record.

    <

    p>Union-News, January 5, 1991-

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    p>

    A city man convicted of statutory rape and indecent assault and battery on a 12-year-old girl was sentenced yesterday to two years in the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction and six years on probation.

    Clyde L. Coursey, 34, whose address is unavailable, was sentenced to two years on a charge of indecent assault and battery on a child by Hampshire County Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ford .

    On two charges of statutory rape, Coursey was sentenced on each charge to five to 10 years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute, but both were suspended and Coursey was placed on probation for three years on each count.

    As conditions of probation, Coursey was ordered to undergo psychological counseling and to have no contact with the victim except as permitted by her mother.

    Coursey, who was originally charged with two counts of forcible rape, pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of statutory rape on incidents dating from June 1986 to Aug. 11, 1990.

    The sentence was imposed yesterday under the stipulation that the Commonwealth may revoke it if a 1973 New Jersey rape conviction proves to be for a more serious offense than statutory rape.

    Angier said his office learned of the prior conviction recently, but has not been able to learn the nature of the conviction. If – as Coursey claims – it is for a statutory rape charge involving a girlfriend when Coursey was 17, Angier said it will not affect the agreement.

    <

    p>Union-News, January 5, 1991-

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    p>

    A former Northampton High School girls’ track coach who had sexual relations with a team member was sentenced yesterday to nine months in the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction and three years on probation on three charges of rape of a child.

    In imposing the sentence, Hampshire County Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ford said Gleason’s past contributions to the community as a teacher and a coach were not relevant. What was relevant, he said, was that Gleason had committed “a massive violation” of the public trust.

    Gleason began a sexual relationship with the 14-year-old girl when the team was out of state, at his brother’s home in Schenectady, N.Y., according to Assistant District Attorney Renee Steese.

    Gleason told the girl sex was her reward for winning, he compared her sexual performance to his wife’s and he kicked her off the track team when she told him she was uncomfortable with their sexual relationship, Steese said.

    <

    p>Ugh

  7. This is a judge who sits on his bench watching the people in the court room making judgements without anyone saying a word. He doesn’t just act this way toward criminal cases. No he acts this way in general. If you don’t fit the ” profile” that he has in his head than he can’t and won’t hear you.
    He may have criminal immunity but not civil. Especially when it violates our amendments that everyone is entitled to not just what he invisions. You can’t get money while he is perched on that bench but you can get his cases reviewed or get other things. I have a feeling that 2015 will be a year full of answers. I hope that his bigotry and discrimination doesn’t destroy or effect anyone else. Justice can prevail in the federal justice system even if you are pro se.

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