Series: Wasted Youth -- Cases Of Neglect (Day 4 -- 1 Of 6)

JUSTICE SOUGHT

Overdose Deaths Still Treated As Accidents, Not Crimes

Police found Donald J. Bergeron of Easton lying face up, dead, in a
bed at the Fall River house. The 24-year-old had two syringes in one
pocket, and a personal check for $8,481.20 made out to someone else
in another. Police seized the needles, took 24 photos of the scene
and interviewed people in the house. The death on Nov. 11, 2006, they
concluded, was a drug overdose.

As with most overdose deaths, no one would be charged. Although the
state Supreme Judicial Court cleared the way more than 14 years ago
to charge someone with manslaughter in overdose deaths, fewer than a
half-dozen have been brought forward in Bristol and Plymouth counties
since 1990.

Seventy-four people have died of opiate-related overdoses --
including heroin -- between Jan. 1, 2004 and Aug. 31, 2006, an
examination by The Enterprise of death certificates filed in 28 local
communities found. Most occurred in Plymouth County. But while
prosecutors say they'll charge suspects if there's enough evidence,
some families of the dead say after the body is carted away, the
investigation dies.

"No one ever got back to me or asked me anything more," said Linda
DeSisto, whose pregnant daughter, Shannah, died at their Taunton home
in 2005. "They never once asked where she got the drugs. There wasn't
a follow-up."

Mark Dunay, a Plymouth psychologist, said there is a public tendency
to blame the victim in an overdose -- rather than see it as a potential crime.

"They view it as another drug addict gone as opposed to someone dying
of a gunshot. There is a definite pecking order in people's
sympathies," Dunay said. "People will step back and say, 'He had a
chance to get straight. He had counseling when he was 16 and didn't
use it. He had counseling when he was 18 and didn't use it. He had
two months in jail and still didn't get straight.'"

Police and prosecutors say that's not how they view it -- they
investigate the overdoses, but sometimes there's not enough evidence
to charge or convict someone.

"It's difficult," said Brockton Sgt. Kevin O'Connell, head of the
police drug unit. "You don't usually get stuff handed to you on a
silver platter."

The reasons are varied: witnesses won't talk or are unreliable, some
crime scenes are cleaned before police arrive, and getting the right
evidence to identify the drug supplier is tough, police and
prosecutors say. Even getting fingerprints from the narrow needles
used to inject drugs can be tough.

And unlike other states, Massachusetts can only charge someone with
manslaughter -- not negligent homicide. That means prosecutors must
meet a higher standard -- reckless and wanton conduct -- to convict
someone of manslaughter in an overdose death, as opposed to just
negligence. In motor vehicle deaths, prosecutors can press negligent
homicide charges if they can show the person's actions -- such as
speeding -- were negligent and caused someone to die, even if the
driver didn't mean for it to happen.

A similar type of charge would make it easier to charge more people
in overdose cases, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said.

The state Supreme Judicial Court -- in clearing the way to charge
someone with manslaughter in drug overdoses -- noted that heroin is
"inherently dangerous" and using it carries a "high probability" of death.

In recent years, Plymouth County charged one person in an overdose
death involving GHB, a clear liquid date rape drug; the suspect was
acquitted. In North Attleboro, police charged a 35-year-old man with
manslaughter in the overdose death of his girlfriend last December --
but the charge was later dropped by Bristol County prosecutors. In
Attleboro police charged a 33-year-old man with manslaughter last
year after a friend overdosed and died in a County Street basement
apartment on heroin he bought in Worcester. And there are at least
two active overdose death investigations in Plymouth County.

But those are the exceptions.

State Sen. Robert Creedon, D-Brockton, said he's looking at what can
be changed to make it easier to lodge charges in overdose deaths.
"The dealers are in there to make a buck and they are making a buck
on the lives of our young folk," he said.