The Scene at the Arraignment of Officer Chesna's Murderer was One of the Most Dramatic Things I've Ever Seen
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From my old job in the Mass. Trial Court I got to witness a lot of raw emotion. Murder trials. Arraignments. Child rapists. Families that wanted to tear each other apart. But in 17 years on the job I never saw anything like the display at Quincy District Court for the arraignment of Emanuel Lopes for killing Weymouth Officer Michael Chesna and 77-year-old bystander Vera Adams. It’s just a haunting and solemn display by all involved.
This is what law enforcement is. This is what they have to do. This show of restraint. Of professionalism. There was not a man or woman in uniform there that didn’t want to reach down Lopes’ throat and pull his spine out by his mouth. But instead they’re forced to protect him. Help him, even. Respectfully. Like he’s a wounded warrior showing up for the Veteran’s Day parade, and not someone who got shot in the leg by police before he could shoot more innocents through their windows like Mrs. Adams.
Here’s what I’ve found out about Lopes in the last 24 hours. According to my buddy who works in the probation department, every time he’s arrested he tells them he’s “homeless.” But he drives a BMW. And when he was picked up on charges of selling coke to minors, he had no problem putting up the $5000 bail the judge put on him.
Second, I know a Weymouth EMT who responded to the scene. And just to give you a preview of what is probably to come, Lopes was telling the officers who took him into custody that he was afraid that Officer Chesna was going to shoot him first “because I’m an immigrant.” There’s no word on whether he felt equally threatened by the 77-year-old widow sipping coffee in her sunroom.
So that’s what I know. Other than the judge at the hearing did the right thing when the court appointed lawyer filed a motion to have Lopes held in Bridgewater State Hospital, a much easier, more comfortable stretch than the one he’ll have instead, at Dedham House of Corrections:
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Held without bail and not going to Bridgewater is about the best we could hope for on these first steps down the path to some degree of rough justice on this one. In the meantime, thanks to the thousands who showed up to my alma mater Weymouth High School for the candlelight vigil to pay respects last night as a large, grieving town morphed into a small community:
UPDATE: Yesterday I mentioned a comedy show benefit I’ll be doing at the Weymouth Elks. I gave a specific date but in order to do this thing to the size and scale we want, we are pushing it back. When it’s all set I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, please keep purchasing the shirts as 100% of the profits will go to the Chesna family.
