15 Minutes Of Fame?

Luke V. Gatti (center) and father (right) appear before Judge John Payne last year

Just so some Cowardly Anon Nitwit can't say "Gee Larry you're numbers have dropped precipitously; you must be losing your touch":

In the routine course of covering rowdy student behavior -- mostly UMass -- I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting in a cyber sort of way, Luke Gatti, aka the "mac and cheese kid."

 Previous all time record was 134,000 for Blarney Blowout coverage March, 2014

I actually covered him three times over a very brief period last year and he even interacted with me in one of the posts -- although I assume his response was written by an expensive attorney.

So when he screwed up yet again at UConn in a viral sort of way (my definition of viral is minimum of 1 million hits) almost all the major digital media outlets linked to me -- most of them in two places.

This of course was meant to demonstrate Gatti was exhibiting a pattern of bad behavior -- not just a one off aberration that should be forgiven under the Christian guise of "Whoever is without sin cast the first stone."

Luke Gatti one state over

 When I went to bed the night of October 5th this blog was at the usual 75,000 hits for the month.  I usually get around 500 hits during the overnight so I was a little taken aback when I awakened the next morning to see my sitemeter fast approaching the 100,000 mark.

Over the next 24 hours I averaged around 10,000 hits per hour.  And the story had legs of which I've never seen because even a week later I was getting numerous referrals.  But that impact will start to disappear any day now as we approach the one month anniversary.

I get requests almost weekly from individuals I've covered asking for forgiveness in the form of name deletion.  My standard response is, "If you don't want your name to appear here then don't do the crime."

But I do sometimes think about maybe modifying the post once the District Court mandated terms have been met i.e. fines paid, "educational programs" taken and probation period completed without any further incidents.

Of course if I had used that leniency with Luke Gatti those three posts would have disappeared long before his mac and cheese incident.

His total punishment for both incidents on Phillips Street near UMass amounted to $250 in fines, one day alcohol education program and four months probation.

But now his mac and cheese antics as well as his UMass failures, will live on. Forever.

 Gazette even garnered much needed boost in circulation

Educational Point/Counterpoint

Amherst Public Schools are nothing if not colorful these days

With all that's going on with the Amherst Public School system -- new school, expanded regionalization, merging Middles School students into the High School, etc -- it's easy to forget teaching, that most basic function taking place in a classroom.

I found this exchange between a former ARMS teacher/parent and Principal Mendonsa interesting.

   Education Clash Of Ideas

Thirsty Thursday Party House

203 Northampton Road (Rt 9)  "Everybody into the pool"

This large out of control party disturbing the Rt. 9  neighborhood  (not already disturbed by the high traffic volumes) last night is probably not a good sign going into Halloween weekend.

This morning in Eastern Hampshire District Court all four "college aged youth" took a standard plea that  diverts from criminal to civil with payment of the $300 town noise bylaw fine.

 All four signed a waiver in order to represent themselves.  And they were out in time for a 11:15 AM class

The other "nuisance house" charge was dropped, although if the bad boys repeat this type of behavior before the end of the semester and end up before Judge Payne, that charge will quickly reappear.  And then some.  

Sunderland Barn Fire

Thick black smoke could be seen for miles

If anyone in Amherst looked out their windows this morning towards the northwest you couldn't help but notice the dense black plume of smoke billowing over the farm fields of Hadley and Sunderland.

A barn, mostly used for storage, had caught fire and despite the best efforts of many, many fire departments (including Amherst) the barn was a total loss.

Fortunately there were no injuries.

The morning after

2nd Chances

 706 South East Street 10:00 PM  (9/1/14)

706 South East Street today:  "Barricaded in our homes"

As a matter of equal parts expediency for the Commonwealth and fairness for a 1st time offender our state in its infinite wisdom came up with the standard 24D disposition for the all too numerous Operating Under the Influence cases that occur in Massachusetts.

Yes everybody -- except perhaps murderers and pedophiles -- deserves a second chance.  Let the first among us who has never driven after having had a few sips too many cast the first beer bottle.

 Ailton Correia (left) with Attorney Fred Chamberland

In Eastern Hampshire District Court today after about 20 minutes of testimony that included a compelling witness impact statement Judge Payne looked at at Ailton Correia and said, "I am going to agree with this plea deal as I hope this incident was only a bump in the road -- no pun intended."

But he then went on to add 50 hours of community service, attendance at "Brains At Risk" program and alcohol screens for the duration of his one year probation.

The 24D all by itself costs $2,587.76

 Standard 24D disposition fees/fines

Although Judge Payne did waive the first four months of $65 probation payments so Mr. Correia could pay restitution of $295.40 for a neighborhood cat that was killed by flying debris.

As is standard procedure the Commonwealth presented the facts to Judge Payne first, which would have been used against Correia had the case gone to trial.

ADA Bob Opsitnik said the car -- a 1998 gray Honda civic -- was traveling south on South East street at a very high rate of speed, lost control over the hill, crashed into a tree and ended up against the front door of a brick house.

A young woman (his cousin) was ejected from the vehicle and ended up screaming on the front lawn.  The driver (Correia) and his passenger were both transported to Baystate Medical Center.   He suffered a broken leg.

An Amherst police officer noticed the driver had bloodshot glassy eyes and the odor of stale alcohol.

Since blood was drawn at the hospital during the course of Correia's treatment, the state requested a BAC test which converted to between .87 and .09 Blood Alcohol Concentration (legal limit is .08).

Defense Attorney Fred Chamberland told Judge Payne his client is a student at Greenfield Community College who worked two jobs up until the time of the accident.  Since he suffered a broken leg he had to give up his job with UPS.

The defense hired two expert witnesses who would have testified that his Blood Alcohol Concentration was between .07 and .08 and the car was traveling at around 50 MPH.

 Janet McGowan, after waiting 3.75 hours, addressed Judge Payne

But Janet McGowan told Judge Payne it was more in the 80-90 MPH range as she described the roar of an engine unlike any she has heard before on her busy street.  And she brought a poster sized blow up of the mangled vehicle that blocked her front door.

 Judge Payne examining mangled car photo

The Judge said, "That looks like more than 50 MPH" as he perused the picture.  He went on to say he lives on a somewhat busy street and he knows the sounds cars make.  "You know the difference between 50-60 MPH and 80-90 MPH ... It's an extraordinary sound.  You can't make that up."

Looking directly at Correia Judge Payne told him he was, "Extraordinarily lucky.  You could have killed a person instead of a cat."

When adding the extra 50 extra hours of community service Judge Payne said he wanted it to be dealing with people who have suffered traumatic brain injury, maybe Wounded Warriors for instance.  That way he can see the consequences of a serious accident.

Finally Judge Payne suggested Correia meet with Janet McGowan and her husband to apologize for the disruption he brought to their lives that night.

A disruption that today, over a year later, still lingers.

DUI Victim Impact Statement

There They Go Again

Katherine Appy (4th from rt), Vira Douangmany Cage (2nd from left)

The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee has been cited yet again by the Attorney General's office for violating the Open Meeting Law.

Or maybe I should say just Amherst School Committee Chair Katherine Appy was cited since the AG used the term "individual violation".

   School Committee Chair OML Violation

Interestingly the violation is a result of Ms. Appy thinking that Regional School Committee Chair Trevor Baptiste overstepped his bounds when he announced to the committee he was going into "mediation" with the NAACP over a "breach of contract" from a 1993 consent agreement.

Regional School Committee attorney Regina Tate thought no such breach occurred. 

That 20+ year old divisive issue related to discipline meted out to non white students at a higher rate than white students.  An old issue that apparently never seemed to go away.

Town Gown Collaborative

Steering Committee sat at tables forming a U

The University Town of Amherst Collaborative (UTAC) met for the first time today in the Amherst Room on the 10th floor of the tax-exempt Campus Center.

But the one hour meeting had a distinct air of deja vu as the committee co-chairs are once again Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations Nancy Buffone  and interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek.

Amherst Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer and UMass Chancellor Subbaswamy also sat at the head table although the Chancellor is not listed as a member of the Steering Committee.

The idea for UTAC came out of the successful Town/Gown Steering Committee which met for just over a year with the stated goal to increase cooperation and collaboration between the town and UMass, our number one employer.

In addition to the UTAC Steering Committee, which will also have an undergrad and grad student by next semester, there are three independent subcommittees focusing on economic development, housing, and cultural arts/entertainment.

Chancellor Subbaswamy, who would like to see Amherst become "Cambridge West" (without the traffic and tall buildings) acknowledged he would be hiring a couple hundred more employees down the road.

He would also like to think those new employees could afford to live and recreate in Amherst, not that he has anything against nearby towns.

Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek said it's not just about increasing the vibrancy of our downtown but also the Village Centers and he pointed out how North Amherst is growing with the recent opening of the Mill District.

Mr. Ziomek stated the town is still in the search phase for an Economic Development Director -- a top recommendation of the Town Gown Steering Committee -- and he would keep everyone informed through November and December.

But, he was optimistic they would find "the right person for Amherst.'

Nancy Buffone concluded the meeting on an upbeat note:  "It's going to be a lot of fun."

UTAC subcommittee members