Amherst shopkeeper charged in credit card fraud

By Owen Boss and Scott Merzbach

Staff Writers

AMHERST - A local shopkeeper, charged with using Bill Belichick's daughter's credit card to buy more than a thousand dollars of merchandise at stores in Hadley, denied his involvement at his court appearance Tuesday.

Mohamed S. Nagooradumai, 39, of 42 Palley Village Place, who owns Amherst Grocery Store at 319 Main St., pleaded innocent in Eastern Hampshire District Court to charges of committing credit card fraud over $250 and receiving stolen property valued over $250.

In December, Amherst resident Amanda Belichick, daughter of New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, went to the local police station to report several unauthorized transactions on her Bank of America checking account.

Her debit card, she said, had either been lost or stolen, according to police.

A police inquiry revealed that last year, during November and December, unauthorized charges were made on her card at Old Navy, Sears and Wal-Mart in Hadley and at Nagooradumai's grocery store, according to court documents. The largest transaction, made at Sears, was for a Kenmore washer and dryer set reportedly valued at $616.23.

After obtaining surveillance video from Sears, police identified Nagooradumai and his wife, Zuharia Mohamed, whom they recognized from past dealings, waiting in line just moments before the transaction was made, according to police.

On Tuesday at 11 a.m., police executed a search warrant obtained Monday in Eastern Hampshire District Court at Nagooradumai's Palley Village Place home and seized a Kenmore washer and dryer set and a variety of clothing as evidence.

Lt. Ron Young, head of the police detective bureau, said the investigation is ongoing and the credit card used in the alleged thefts has not been recovered.

Young said additional charges may be filed against Nagooradumai as the investigation continues.

Contacted Wednesday, Amanda Belichick, who is the assistant coach of the women's lacrosse team at the University of Massachusetts, declined to comment. A call to the number listed for Nagooradumai's residence was not answered, and a message left there Wednesday evening was not immediately returned.

Judge Laurie MacLeod released Nagooradumai on his own recognizance and ordered him to return to court for a pretrial hearing on May 18.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com

Springfield man faces several charges linked to stolen weapon

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

AMHERST - UMass police say a Springfield man who discarded a loaded firearm while being pursued by officers early Saturday morning unwittingly led them to the stolen gun after being bailed out of jail the following morning.

Lamont Thomas, 20, of Springfield, pleaded innocent Monday in Eastern Hampshire District Court to charges of carrying a firearm on school grounds, carrying a firearm without a license, receiving stolen property over $250, and possessing an unregistered firearm.

Thomas is not enrolled as a student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

At 3:22 a.m. Saturday, officer Jonathan Hall responded to an on-campus disturbance where witnesses claimed Thomas had brandished a handgun, cocking it to show it was loaded. Witnesses on scene led police to Thomas, who was arrested for disorderly conduct after a brief foot pursuit.

Although officers were unable to locate the weapon, they believed that Thomas had discarded it during the chase, according to court documents.

At 5:30 a.m., after being released on bail from the UMass Police Department, Hall followed Thomas to a grass embankment near Patterson dormitory and saw him searching through two bushes on the east side of the building.

When approached, Thomas reportedly told Hall he was just looking for his car keys and began acting "nervous and had difficulty standing in one place," according to court documents.

After issuing Thomas a trespassing notice and telling him to leave the area, Hall reportedly found an unsecured and loaded AMT Automag 2 pistol with a silver slide, a round in the chamber and seven more in the magazine. UMass dispatch ran the serial number found on the gun against the National Crime Information Center's database and found that it had been reported stolen out of Sidney, N.Y., in 1978.

Thomas was subsequently summoned to appear Monday. Judge John Payne Jr. released Thomas on his own recognizance and scheduled him to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on May 10.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.

Living wage advocates check on city's progress

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - The Northampton Living Wage Coalition celebrated the first annual Northampton Living Wage Week at Smith College Monday night and honored the memory of Frances Perkins, a Mount Holyoke College graduate who fought for the first national minimum wage after becoming the nation's first female Cabinet member.

The meeting drew about 20 people to the Neilson Library, including Mayor Clare Higgins and City Council President David Narkewicz, and featured speeches from Dan Czitrom, professor of History at Mount Holyoke College, Stephanie Luce, associate professor at the University of Massachusetts' Labor Center and Dale Melcher, labor extension coordinator at UMass Amherst.

Living Wage Week in Northampton was established as part of a Living Wage Resolution passed unanimously last fall by the City Council. The week commemorates the April 10 birthday of Perkins, who was labor secretary under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and who successfully fought for the first national minimum wage and overtime laws, unemployment insurance and the 40-hour work week.

Prior to the addresses, Higgins took to the podium and declared that from now on, the week including April 10 will be recognized as Living Wage Week and noted the importance of local residents asking that area employers offer their workers a base wage of at least $11.90 an hour.

"Earning a living wage is a struggle in this economy and it is going to continue be a struggle in the future," Higgins said. "We need to recognize that we have employers here in Northampton who are willing to meet that challenge and willing to help folks who are having a hard time."

Coalition steering committee member Kitty Callaghan stressed that offering workers a living wage in today's economy will go a long way to fueling an enduring economic recovery.

"This coalition believes that workers shouldn't have to struggle to find food to eat," Callaghan said, adding "We have people right now who are working two or three jobs and still have to go to the Survival Center at the end of the day to get their food for the week."

In a creative twist, Melcher channeled her inner Perkins and spoke as if she were able to comment on the nation's current economic woes. "I urge you to give this ordinance you have passed some teeth," she said, adding that "Poverty is always preventable" and encouraging voters to support the Employee Free Choice Act, currently making its way through Congress.

During her turn at the podium, Luce acknowledged that with a nationwide unemployment rate of 10 percent, now may be a difficult time to petition for higher wages, but it is the appropriate time to do so. "This is the time to recognize that this system isn't working and to reshape the rules of the labor market so that when this economy recovers, it will do so on a foundation that is focused on the needs of the American worker," she said.

Also announced at the meeting was the inaugural list of 14 city businesses that have been certified by the coalition as official living wage employers. They are: Allcroft Facial Plastic Surgery, The Center for New Americans, Fly By Night Inc., The Jamrog Group, Ostrander Law Office, The Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, Valley Community Development Corp., Western Mass Legal Services, Webber and Grinnell Insurance Agency, Spoleto Restaurant, Paradise City Tavern, Mama Iguana's Restaurant and Spoleto Express.

Residents interested in joining the coalition are encouraged to contact Callaghan at 413-584-4034 or kcallaghan@wmls.org.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com

Granby death a homicide: Autopsy determines woman was strangled

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

GRANBY - Authorities say an autopsy has shown that a woman found dead in her Granby home Monday night was strangled.

After reviewing final autopsy results, Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel said Friday night that an inquiry into the unexplained death of Annamarie Rintala would be deemed a homicide investigation.

Scheibel told the Gazette Friday night that there are no suspects at this time, and that the investigation is active and ongoing.

Rintala, 37, was found dead inside her Barton Street home Monday by police responding to a 911 call placed at 7:12 p.m. Dr. Joann Richmond of the medical examiner's office, who reported the results of Rintala's autopsy, told Scheibel that Rintala's death was a homicide by strangulation.

Granby police said the investigation is ongoing and all inquiries will be redirected to Scheibel's office.

Rintala was an emergency medical technician for American Medical Response of Western Massachusetts. According to the Hampshire County Registry of Deeds, Rintala's wife, Cara Rintala, bought their Barton Street property in 2002. They were married in Northampton in 2007, with Annamarie Cochrane taking the last name of her spouse, according to municipal records.

Cara Rintala has been an employee of the Ludlow Fire Department for the past 10 years, working as a firefighter and paramedic, Ludlow Fire Chief Mark Babineau said earlier this week.

According to court documents, in October 2008, Cara Rintala was charged in Eastern Hampshire District Court with domestic assault and battery following an Oct. 27 incident during which Annamarie Rintala told police that Cara Rintala had struck her hard in the back of the head with a closed fist during a domestic incident in their home. All charges in that case were dismissed at the request of the victim.

Annamarie Rintala's is the first homicide investigation in Granby since 1980, when Reinhold P. Kruger, 49, of East Longmeadow, was found in the woods off of Carver Street two months after he went missing, according to published reports.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.

Hurry up and wait! Traffic snarls region

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - The closure of a single southbound lane on Interstate Route 91 Friday afternoon caused rush-hour traffic across the city to come to a standstill and resulted in headaches for motorists looking to get a jump on the long weekend and some sunny spring weather.

At 6 p.m. Friday, snarled lines of traffic inched their way across the city center, and motorists like Sean Walsh, of Easthampton, suffered through what he called a "nightmare of a ride home from work."

"I don't understand why the state couldn't have waited to do the work at a time when there would be far fewer people looking to get on 91," Walsh said outside the Sunoco gas station on Pleasant Street. "My ride home has never ever taken this long."

The root cause of the traffic, according to Maureen Glenn of the State Police in Northampton, was the closure of a southbound lane so workers could pour concrete near the East Street Bridge in Easthampton. Glenn said the site had been cleared by 5:30 p.m., far later than the Massachusetts Department of Transportation intended to have the lane closed.

"I don't know if they had a problem with the concrete or what," Glenn said.

Also sitting in traffic on Pleasant Street Friday was Mary Charlemont, of South Deerfield, who said it took her about 45 minutes to get through the heart of the city.

"This is the worst I've seen traffic in Northampton in a long time," Charlemont said. "We came into Northampton for lunch and we've been trying to get out ever since."

Police said at the peak of rush hour, traffic extended several miles down Route 9 into Hadley, and motorists traveling on the highway sat bumper to bumper for several miles leading up to the Interstate 91 entrance ramp in Northampton.

Many motorists interviewed Friday evening were bewildered that the state would approve a highway project during rush hour right before Easter weekend, and when many college students in the five-college area would be heading home for the holiday.

The project, over East Street in Easthampton, is in its final phase and is expected to be completed this year, the state Department of Transportation says.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com

Fairgrounds project gains preliminary approval

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - The Three-County Fairgrounds redevelopment project took a small step forward Thursday night as the Conservation Commission unanimously approved a notice of intent to begin preliminary deconstruction on the site.

The fairgrounds are off Route 9 between Fair Street and Old Ferry Road, in the city's Meadows section.

After deliberating for more than three hours, commission members carefully changed language included in the 52 conditions attached to their approval to guarantee that the commission will have another chance to weight in before the project moves to its second stage.

"We want to make sure we get another bite at the apple," said commission member Kevin Lake, adding, "We want to be sure that we are comfortable enough with these plans and to be sure that it has to come back to us."

One condition in particular, regarding the progression of the project following the initial demolition of existing horse barns on the property, was rewritten several times before commission members were comfortable giving their seal of approval.

The condition required that before any other work can take place, other than horse barn demolition, construction of new barns and related drainage improvement, commission members must approve an order of conditions submitted by the developers.

Prior to their decision, commission members heard from a handful of fairground abutters, including Maria Tymoczko, who said she worried for surrounding wildlife and that runoff from a nearby parking lot would end up in her backyard.

"I think this could be a great project for Ward 3 and I also think it could be a disaster for all properties south of the fairgrounds," Tymoczko said. "It could end up impairing the fertility and arability of the surrounding land."

Representatives from Northampton's Berkshire Design Group, who are planning the $40 million redevelopment project, were on hand and asserted that when completed, the finished stormwater management system at the site would store more water and would function better than the current detention basins. The 51-acre redevelopment site lies within the 100-year flood plain.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.

Officials: Beware swollen rivers, streams

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

As one of the wettest Marches in state history came to a close, emergency crews statewide were warning residents about risks associated with flooding. Now, the state's Environmental Police are calling on residents to be extra cautious around swollen rivers and streams, some of which are running faster than usual and are expected to reach record depths this weekend.

According to the National Weather Service, two major storm systems that pummeled the state with more than 2 inches of rain at the end of March resulted in record-breaking rainfall totals. As runoff from the storms finds its way into area rivers and streams, conditions can become extremely dangerous.

"Right now we are just reminding people to use extreme caution when dealing with streams and rivers. It is swift water and it is cold water, and people should know that putting on a life vest is the most important thing they can do to stay safe," said Catherine Williams, an Environmental Police spokeswoman.

The weather service reported that on March 29, a record one-day rainfall of 1.67 inches was recorded at Worcester Airport, breaking a record set in 1986 of 1.46 inches. Then, the following day, the airport recorded receiving 2.43 more inches of rain, shattering the previous daily record of 1.78 inches set in 2001. Over the span of the month, the airport recorded 10.15 inches of rain, making 2010 the second wettest March since record keeping began in 1892. The record rain total for March is 11.13 inches in 1936, according to the service's Web site.

The record rainfall has caused area rivers and stream to swell to dangerous levels, and when combined with warm weather and cold water, Williams said the potential is there for danger. "This time of year our rivers are running an average of 40 degrees and at that temperature people can become hypothermic and that can weaken even a strong swimmer's ability to get themselves out of a dangerous situation," Williams said.

She noted that state law requires people kayaking or canoeing to wear life jackets between Sept. 15 and May 15, when rivers are particularly dangerous. On Thursday, the Connecticut River was the only local river above flood stage, measuring 113 feet, more than 6 feet higher than usual for this time of year. Other local river levels include the Mill River, 7.9 feet; the Deerfield River, 5.7 feet; and the Westfield River, 10.2 feet.

As the river depths decrease over the weekend and temperatures continue to rise, Williams said area residents who feel the urge to cool off in local waterways should remember that it is not the depth but the speed at which the river is moving that can get people into trouble.

"Sometimes, the safest decision a person can make with conditions like these is to not get into the water at all," Williams said.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.