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Closing arguments to begin in rape trial of former state prosecutor in Boston

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

Closing arguments will begin Friday in the case of a Boston lawyer charged with rape. Gary Zerola, 51, is accused of attacking the friend of a woman he had been dating in 2016. In opening statements on Tuesday, a prosecutor told jurors the victim was 23 years old at the time and had been out drinking with Zerola and other friends before falling asleep in Zerola’s friend’s apartment. When she woke up, the prosecutor said, she found Zerola allegedly assaulting her. Zerola once worked as a prosecutor for the state and was once named one of “People” magazine’s top 50 bachelors.He’s also accused of raping another woman in 2021 while awaiting his current trial, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Zerola pleaded not guilty in the 2021 case as well as the 2016 case.Zerola was previously acquitted in a separate sexual assault allegations in 2008. He faces life in prison if convicted in this ongoing trial.

Trailblazing 7NEWS photographer Therman Toon honored posthumously with Mass. Broadcasters Hall of Fame induction

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

A beloved member of the 7NEWS family received a special recognition posthumously. Therman Toon was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame on Thursday – a special honor recognizing his trailblazing career, which included being the first Black television news photographer in Boston.Toon joined Channel 7 in 1968 and for more than three decades, worked the streets with a camera on his shoulder and a nose for news.Reporters who worked with Therman appreciated all he brought to the job and all of his family connections as the youngest son of eleven children growing up in Dorchester.“Therman really saved my little rear end a lot of times in the stories because he knew everybody!” said retired reporter Byron Barnett.“Therman was the unofficial Mayor of Boston and that would give me a free ticket to go into all of the various communities because I was a friend of Therman Toon, as opposed to Gary Armstrong, Channel 7 reporter,” said Gary Armstr...

Local lion donates blood to help his brother in rare transfusion at Franklin Park Zoo

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

A lion at the Franklin Park Zoo may be able to save his brother’s life. Dinari and Kamaia are 14-year-old brothers. They’ve been with the zoo since 2015.Recently, Kamaia has struggled with severe pneumonia and anemia. Last week, doctors discovered his spleen was enlarged.Staff at the zoo say surgery is the only option.“We’re also going to perform an abdominal exploratory surgery to determine what the underlying cause for his anemia is,” said Chris Bonar, a doctor at Zoo New England.His brother Danari will be a critical part of it all. He donated blood that will be used during a blood transfusion on surgery day.“We collected blood from Danari today and that procedure went very well. He was a star under anesthesia,” Bonar said. “We collected a good amount of blood so we will use that for a transfusion for Kamaia tomorrow.”Doctors say without a familial match, finding a blood donor for Kamari would have been extremely difficult.“Transfusion medicine is not commo...

Plane carrying Joran van der Sloot, who is accused of defrauding and extorting Natalee Holloway’s mom, lands in US from Peru

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

(CNN) — Joran van der Sloot has landed in the United States, where he is accused of extorting money from the mother of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teen who was last seen with the Dutch national and two others 18 years ago in Aruba.FBI agents flew with van der Sloot on a US Department of Justice plane to an airport in Birmingham, Alabama, where he landed Thursday afternoon.He was indicted in 2010 on US federal charges of extortion and wire fraud in connection with a plot to sell information about the whereabouts of Holloway’s remains in exchange for $250,000, according to an indictment filed in the Northern District of Alabama.The missing 18-year-old’s mother, Beth Holloway, wired $15,000 to a bank account van der Sloot held in the Netherlands and through an attorney gave him another $10,000 in person, the indictment states. Once he had the initial $25,000, van der Sloot showed the attorney, John Kelly, where Natalee Holloway’s remains allegedly were hidden...

A sick lion at Franklin Park Zoo needs surgery. His brother’s blood may help

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

A sick lion at Franklin Park Zoo will be undergoing surgery on Friday, while the zoo’s veterinary team looks at whether his brother’s blood could be the secret to a treatment.Kamaia, a 14-year-old lion that has lived at the Boston zoo since 2015, has been experiencing serious health issues. Kamaia is severely anemic, his spleen is greatly enlarged, and he has recently been lethargic and hasn’t been eating as much.His brother Dinari, also a 14-year-old, on Thursday underwent a procedure to hopefully help his sick brother. The zoo’s veterinary team drew blood from Dinari to see if it’s a match with Kamaia, so they can potentially perform a blood transfusion.On Friday, the veterinary team is planning to perform exploratory surgery on Kamaia to determine the cause of his serious health issues. If he’s a match with Dinari, a blood transfusion will also be performed.“We remain very concerned about Kamaia and his ongoing serious health issues,̶...

Dave & Busters fined for breaking child labor, meal break laws, AG Campbell says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

The AG’s office has issued 287 citations over the past three years for violations of child labor laws, Attorney General Andrea Campbell said Thursday, just as she fined Dave & Busters for overworking minors and breaking meal break laws.Campbell said those citations have amounted to $1.3 million in penalties, covered roughly 2,000 minors, and affected 127 employers. And children, especially those of migrant families, who are stuck in illegal labor situations often feel afraid or that they have no other options to make money, the attorney general said.“They’re afraid that their employers will retaliate against them or their families. They’re afraid that coming forward might expose them to immigration enforcement. Too often, they feel they don’t have a choice,” Campbell said at a press conference in Boston. “I, along with the team, want to be crystal clear that they do have a choice.”Campbell urged more education on child labor laws after her office announce...

Both sides rest their case in rape trial of former prosecutor Gary Zerola

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

Former prosecutor Gary Zerola did not end up taking the stand to testify in his own defense in his rape trial, and his side only called one witness before they rested their case.Zerola, 51, of Salem, who served as a prosecutor in both Essex and Suffolk counties before becoming a defense attorney, has pleaded not guilty to accusations that he raped a 23-year-old woman in a friend’s Beacon Hill apartment the morning of Nov. 10, 2016.Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday morning at 9 a.m.At the beginning of Thursday morning’s Suffolk Superior Court session, the third day in the trial, prosecutor Tom Brant said that the commonwealth was resting its case. While rumors and indications abounded around courtroom 815 that Zerola would take the stand as a defense witness.Instead, defense attorneys Joseph Krowski Jr. and Rosemary Scapicchio called only one witness: another defense attorney named Paul Moraski, who lives on Beacon Hill and is a friend of Zerola’s.Moraski testified that he c...

Gunnar Henderson hits go-ahead 2-run homer in 8th as Orioles rally late to beat Brewers, 6-3, avoid sweep

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

Gunnar Henderson made a defensive blunder that was a catalyst for the Brewers’ three-run first inning.Playing shortstop, the 21-year-old went up the middle for a soft ground ball that should’ve been an out, but he pulled up as second baseman Adam Frazier approached, allowing it to trickle into center field. Three more hits followed.But Henderson more than made up for the early mistake, hitting a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning to propel the Orioles to a 6-3 win over Milwaukee. The clutch home run was his second of the road trip after his solo shot in the seventh inning of Friday night’s win over the San Francisco Giants gave the Orioles a 3-2 win.Henderson came up with the Orioles trailing by a run and just four outs away from being swept. But the rookie barreled up the first pitch he saw from Brewers reliever Peter Strzelecki, hammering the high-and-away fastball and hitting it 366 feet over the left field wall.Baltimore’s offensive woes conti...

The bulls are back; Stocks climb 20% from last fall’s low

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

NEW YORK — Stocks rose just enough Thursday for Wall Street to barrel into a new bull market as the S&P 500 keeps rallying off its low from last autumn.The index rose 0.6% to carry it 20% above a bottom hit in October. That means Wall Street’s main measure of health has climbed out of a painful bear market, which saw it drop 25.4% over roughly nine months.The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 168 points, or 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite, meanwhile, led the market with a 1% rise. That’s been the norm so far this bull run, as chip maker Nvidia and a handful of other big tech stocks have been responsible for the lion’s share of Wall Street’s gains.Declaring the end of a bear market may seem arbitrary, but it offers a useful marker for investors. It also provides a reminder that investors able to hold on through downturns have nearly always made back all their losses in S&P 500 index funds eventually.Even though it was driven by so many superlatives — the w...

As tourists flock to view volcano’s latest eruption, Hawaii urges mindfulness, respect

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:05:00 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii tourism officials urged tourists to be respectful when flocking to a national park on the Big Island to get a glimpse of the latest eruption of Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Kilauea, Hawaii’s second-largest volcano, began erupting Wednesday after a three-month pause. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on Thursday lowered Kilauea’s alert level from warning to watch because the rate of lava input declined, and no infrastructure is threatened. The eruption activity is confined to the closed area of the park.“Out of respect for the cultural and spiritual significance of a volcanic eruption and the crater area for many kamaʻāina, the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority urges mindfulness when planning a visit to the volcano,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday night, using a Hawaiian word often used for Hawaii residents. For many Native Hawaiians, an eruption of a volcano has a deep yet very personal cultural significanc...