PLYMPTON – On Monday, June 25, selectmen met in Plympton to discuss a brief agenda. Halifax Selectman Kim Roy and Halifax Fire Chief Jason Viveiros were both present for ongoing discussions regarding shared fire services between Plympton and Halifax. The board also interviewed candidates for Highway Superintendent and had a heated discussion with ZBA Chairman Ken Thompson over Town Counsel hours.

Shared Fire Services Miscommunications

Kim Roy was not happy with the Plympton Board of Selectman on Monday. She expressed, “sadness and disappointment,” with Plympton officials for a breakdown in communications over the proposal.

The project, which would be the first of its kind in the Commonwealth, according to Roy, in its most likely iteration would see an inter-municipal agreement between the two towns, with Halifax acting as an “employment agency” for Plympton’s department. Each town would retain its identity as a department and would own its own equipment.

Roy expressed surprise that Plympton seemed to be discussing options that were already off the table, such as only sharing EMS services.  “We were getting informal requests throughout May…I was just so confused by the requests.”

The board and Roy agreed that they wanted to move forward with an aggressive timetable in exploring the plan and put the communications issues behind them.

Selectmen Chairman John Traynor said, “We’ve really been trying. You have to protect Halifax. We have to protect Plympton.”

Both selectmen Christine Joy and Mark Russo apologized for the breakdown in communications. “I’m absolutely aghast at how communications broke down,” said Russo, citing that everyone was well-intentioned.

The board set a July 9 meeting to discuss a draft agreement and budget with their fire consultant, Chief Lance Benjamino of Middleboro and Halifax officials. Halifax Chief Jason Viveiros is preparing those documents.

Discussing the ongoing status of the Plympton Fire Department, Traynor said of the leadership, “We’ve just had the wrong people,” and then, “We’ve come back from a dark place.”

Big shoes to fill

Two candidates were interviewed for the position of Highway Superintendent, a job made available by the retirement of James Mulcahy, who will retire June 30. 

The first applicant, Scott Ripley, who has worked as a Pembroke DPW foreman, grew up in Hanson. He has been with Pembroke DPW for 15 years, working closely with the Highway and Water Departments.

Ripley said, “I like to work with everybody,” when questioned on his management style, but that he needs to work on delegation. Selectman Joy noted that one goal of the board was to create a “master-plan” of the roads in town.

Ripley agreed this was a project he could collaborate on. Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy wanted to make sure that Ripley could, “wear many hats.”

“I don’t want to be bored,” Ripley replied.

Next, the younger and more local candidate, Robert Firlotte, of Plympton, has spent 13 years with the Plympton Highway Department.

Firlotte says he’s familiar with all aspects of the department, although he’d need to learn a bit more about budgeting.

He also agreed a master plan of the roads was an important project that he could work on.  Dennehy stated that she wanted to make sure that Firlotte would be able to take continuing education classes that she felt would be essential to his success at the job.

Firlotte said that this was something he was open to.

No date was proposed when the board’s choice would be announced.

ZBA gets TC hours, but not without an argument

Ken Thompson, chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals, attempted to make a presentation to selectmen Monday, but was cut short because it was not on the agenda. “This board cannot discuss ongoing ZBA hearings,” said Dennehy.

Thompson protested, attempting to hand out documents outlining why the ZBA was attempting to meet with Town Counsel, and where that money was going.

He did not think the five hours that the board offered would be enough for the two weeks before the board met again.

“What do you want from this board?” snapped Traynor, “Is five hours enough?”

“No,” said Thompson, but he took it and left.

In other news:

• There was a brief update on the Atwood property. An informal working group of various members of different committees has been formed to explore various options for the town if it exercises it’s right of first refusal on the sale of the property.

• With the help of Town Clerk Tara Shaw, the Selectman appointed 46 committee members, 15 provisional appointments, and authorized the reorganization of several boards and committees such that they would have staggered terms in their membership.

• Town House summer hours begin next week.

• Town House will be closed on July 4 in observance of Independence Day.

• The following are upcoming Selectmen meetings:

• July 9, 6 p.m. including Fire discussions and Plympton Gas & Convenience liquor license transfer

• July 12, 6 p.m. joint meeting at Halifax Town Hall with Halifax officials regarding shared fire services.

• July 16, 6 p.m. open meeting and Right of First Refusal Hearing on the Atwood property.

•July 23, 6 p.m. open meeting.

On Thursday, June 21, 2018 Soi Dang, 34, formerly of 46A Wamsutta Avenue, Halifax, was found guilty of the 2015 second-degree murder of Marissa Randall, 19, of Revere. The dramatic and lengthy trial began on Monday, June 11, in Plymouth Superior Court, presided over by Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty, II.

Plymouth County Assistant District Attorneys Amanda Fowle and Jennifer Sprague alleged that Dang, a Vietnamese immigrant who once worked at Shaw’s in Carver, met Randall for the purpose of exchanging money for sex on Tuesday, November 17, 2015. The two had met once for the same purpose, they say, a week before, with no incident.

Dang picked Randall up in Revere that afternoon and drove her to Halifax.

After sex, they had a dispute that became physical over the amount of money to be exchanged, prosecutors say, during which Dang stabbed and choked Randall to death.

Dang bound Randall’s body and hid it in a closet, wrapped in a plastic tablecloth. He then drove to the Castle Island area of South Boston, took a 30-minute nap, and went to work the next morning at Shaw’s, according to the assistant district attorneys.

Randall’s body was discovered by Halifax police the day after the stabbing, said the district attorney’s office. Halifax police were searching for a missing Duxbury minor who they found with Dang that day by tracking her cellphone to his address. The girl, who Halifax police returned to Duxbury police, told Duxbury officers she had seen blood at Dang’s apartment, and that he said he had killed someone the night before.

Halifax Police returned to Dang’s home, where he freely let them in, and found blood, so they obtained a warrant to search the premises and contacted State Police. Halifax and State Police investigated the incident.

Opening the trial, the prosecution laid out a methodical case against Dang, who sat through the proceedings calmly. They entered over 100 exhibits into evidence and called multiple state scientists, crime scene investigators, and state police to the witness stand. The testimony was often confusing, slow, and filled with technical jargon.

But the picture that the testimony and evidence painted was damning. The final piece of evidence before the prosecution rested was an audio recording of an interrogation conducted primarily by lead investigator State Police Detective Paul MacDonald.

In the recording of the more than hour-long interview, Dang is casual as he admits to the violent stabbing he is accused of. His voice is emotionless as he chillingly explains, “Things just got out of control,” and that there was an “average amount of blood…it wasn’t like in the movies” after he killed Randall.

Next, the court-appointed defense attorney, Timothy Bradl, a former 13-year Suffolk County A.D.A., called Dr. Carl Dahlberg, an expert witness who is an ER doctor, to the stand to interpret toxicology reports conducted on Randall. The doctor testified that Randall had consumed Adderall and marijuana, and the dose of Adderall, an amphetamine, may have been enough to make her impulsive, euphoric, or manic. “It is reasonable to infer it was a larger dose than a doctor would prescribe,” he said.

After that, Dang testified in his own defense. He admitted to the stabbing but testified that Randall was agitated and that she had stabbed him with a screwdriver first, before he stabbed her with a knife. Upon cross-examination, however, he was nervous, seemed confused, and was unable to keep his testimony consistent. “I wasn’t thinking,” he said multiple times, when asked why he never mentioned the screwdriver to the police.

On Tuesday, June 19, the defense rested. The prosecution called one rebuttal witness, lead investigator Detective Macdonald, who testified that he knew of no wound consistent with a stabbing on Dang’s body. He also said that he didn’t know of Dang ever seeking medical assistance from the police, casting further doubt on Dang’s story of Randall attacking him.

The trial was unusual due to the busing of jurors under police escort to the crime scene in Halifax, the graphic nature of pictures and a video entered into evidence, and the length of time taken by all parties in conducting the case.

On Wednesday, the 16 jurors, who were evenly split between men and women, heard about 30 minutes of closing arguments from both the prosecution and defense.

The defense lawyer, Bradl, argued that the Commonwealth was unfairly entering graphic photos and a video into evidence and that Dang was a “passive guy.” He stated that the jury had a legal duty not to be too strict on self-defense.

The prosecution summed up their arguments as well, describing a horrific stabbing and an indifference to suffering on the part of Dang. “The words from his own mouth seal his fate,” said A.D.A. Sprague.

Judge Moriarty, a deliberate and soft-spoken man, spent about an hour instructing the jury on the law. He explained the two theories of murder in the first degree, on which Dang had been indicted, (one based on deliberate meditation and the other on extreme atrocity and cruelty), either or both of which can support a finding of guilty, and he instructed jurors on the two lesser charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

Twelve of the 16 jurors were randomly selected to deliberate on a verdict, while four were sequestered as alternate jurors. The final 12-person jury comprised seven women and five men, 11 of whom are Caucasian and one African-American.

The jury spent about 8 hours deliberating before delivering their verdict on Thursday.

When the verdict was read, Dang stood emotionless, in an ill-fiting blue shirt and khaki slacks.

Dang will be sentenced on Friday to the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. The judge will hear arguments on parole and the victim’s family’s impact statement at that hearing.

The trial was attended frequently by family members of Randall, including her mother, Annmarie Stoilov, who was a witness to Randall’s character. “She was just getting her life together…I have one word for this trial: speechless. I’m speechless,” Stoilov said after the sixth day of the proceedings.

Stoilov became visibly overwhelmed and exited the courtroom several times during the trial. She was also chastised by the judge on the seventh day of proceedings for using her cellphone to photograph license plates of the defendant’s family members, angering defense counsel. “I can’t imagine the stress these proceedings have put you under,” the judge said, but he ordered her to cease taking photographs of the defendant’s family, defense counsel or their vehicles and threatened to call a mistrial or hold Stoilov in contempt of court if the photography continued. Stoilov said she would stop, and the judge said he would take her at her word.

Dang’s younger brother, older sister, mother and other supporters were present at different times during the trial.

 

Jessica Zeoli

Express correspondent

It was a joyous event, Thursday, June 14 –  Flag Day – when hundreds of area residents came to Halifax to be part of history. People gathered at the Pope’s Tavern Senior Center in Halifax to unfurl a huge 45 by 90-foot American flag owned by Marc Valentine of Halifax

Express photographer Stephanie Spyropoulos towered 78 feet over the crowd in the bucket of the new Halifax Tower fire engine to officially document this historic moment.

Valentine, curator of the American Flag Project, emceed the event telling of some of the history of this flag and the places it has been throughout the world.  He said this giant flag has been “touched by more Americans than any other flag in history” and that he hopes it will renew appreciation for our flag.

Valentine introduced the Halifax town officials, and invited Selectman Troy Garron to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Among the throng  needed to hold the hem of Old Glory, the sixth grade class of Halifax Elementary School also helped by walking under the flag to be sure it didn’t touch the ground.  After the flag was rolled back up, the sixth grade class was surprised with their very own official photograph with the Giant Flag.

Holding the flag was not an easy job!  Gusts of wind took the flag, threatening to whip it off into the wild blue yonder!  It took a lot of combined strength to hold it steady.

The event, which lasted only about 15 minutes total, consisted of unfurling the flag as “You’re a Grand Old Flag” resonated through the green in front of the Senior Center. People of all ages, including town officials, were dressed in red, white, and blue, and smiled wide as they held the edges of the massive flag.

Valentine has been traveling the globe for the past 30 years with his giant flag-painted truck, to bring his giant American flag to more than 1,000 official ceremonies. One of the Flag’s greatest appearances was when it flew next to Lincoln at Mount Rushmore’s 50th rededication celebration. An award-winning photograph of this moment was captured, and went on to be featured in Life Magazine.

. The flag has been in all 50 states, as well as 34 countries.