Bob_Ward's Blog

On Monday September 29th, a gunman burst into the Sharon Credit Union in East Walpole, igniting moments of sheer terror for the tellers on duty that day.

The robbery was captured on surveillance video, it's video you'll see only on Fox 25.

The gunman was fully masked, he was wearing gloves, and from the moment he opened the front door of the bank, the gun was drawn.

Immediately, he ordered all of the tellers down on the floor. But he couldn't see them, so he tried jumping up over the teller counter. All the while, the gun was in plain view.

One of the tellers stood up, and opened the drawers. The gunman stuffed his bag full of cash and took off.

Most bank robberies are note jobs: the gunman passes the teller a note demaning cash. Many times, other customers don't even know the bank is being robbed.

This was different. The gun was drawn and in open view for the entire robbery. While the gunman was loading up his bag he waved the gun around, even put it down at one point. At any time during the robbery, that gun could have gone off.

Luckily there were no customers inside as this went down. But Walpole Police Chief Richard Stillman told me. "If a customer had come in, what would he have done? How would he have handled that situation? This guy was ready to do business. He was ready to commit violence, serious violence. He had a gun in his hand. He was ready to go."

If you know anything about this case, please call Walpole Police at (508) 668-1095.

Bob Ward

I don't know which is the bigger shock this morning: the Red Sox taking two games from the Angels, or OJ Simpson convicted on all counts.

Actually, I do know. It's OJ's conviction.

And I'm sure I join the majority when I say, "About Time!"

Like most of you, I remember exactly where I was when the original OJ verdict came in. And it felt like a kick in the teeth. The evidence was overwhelming to me that OJ Simpson killed his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.

But the Trial of the Century quickly turned into the Circus of the Century and information that had no bearing on guilt or innocence helped OJ's criminal jury reach a radically different conclusion. To me, that verdict, and its speed was a travesty of justice.

The only solace for Ron Goldman's family was the verdict of the civil jury which found OJ liable, and awarded the Goldmans more than 33 million dollars.

But OJ being OJ, he was able to skate away from even that amount of justice by having his NFL pension excluded from the award, thus allowing OJ to continue to live his lavish Playboy lifestyle while thumbing his nose at the Goldmans.

It seemed that's how it would always be for OJ, a celebrity for all the wrong reasons, living out his care-free life on golf courses, always in the company of attention craved Nicole Brown look-a-likes. And always within earshot of everyday people who thought OJ got away with murder.

To be honest, when OJ was arrested in Vegas, I fully expected more of the same. Overwhelming evidence. And another acquittal. Celebrity trumping justice once again. To paraphrase Leona Helmsley I was beginning to think only the little people do time.

And now OJ is guilty. On all counts. It still hasn't sunk in. And this new verdict arrives 13 years to the day that the criminal jury acquitted OJ on the murder charges. Amazing.

OJ will be sentenced on December 5th. He faces the very real possibility of life in prison. You know there will be appeals and this will likely drag on in the courts for years.

But for once, OJ Simpson has been held criminally responsible for a crime.

I never thought I'd see the day.

What about you? What's your reaction to this verdict?

Bob Ward

This week's (9/27/08) New England's Unsolved takes an in-depth look at the disappearance of 5 year old Giovanni Gonzalez in Lynn, Massachusetts.

   This is an incredibly frustrating case for law enforcement. Giovanni disappeared during a weekend visit to his father's house. The father, Ernesto Gonzalez, claims he never saw the boy that weekend and he has no idea where Giovanni is right now.

   But police say they have witnesses that can place Giovanni with his father on Saturday August 16th, the day after Giovanni's mother, Daisy Colon, handed Giovanni over to his father.

   Not only that, but Daisy's memory is crystal clear about the handoff on Friday August 15th. Daisy, as well as top law enforcement, is convinced that Ernesto Gonzales knows exactly what happened. But he's done talking to police.

   In fact, Ernesto is held in the Essex County House of Correction on $500,000 bail on a charge of child endangerment. This carries a penalty of two and a half years in jail. And Ernesto is not talking.

   Daisy Colon is so frustrated with Ernesto that she recently showed up unannounced at the Essex County House of Correction and met Ernesto face to face. She put it to him point blank: “Did you kill Giovanni?” Daisy told me Ernesto wouldn't look her in the eye, and wouldn't answer the question.

   Since I conducted my interviews, Ernesto was in court in Salem on Friday September 26th, looking for a bail reduction. And the state presented some interesting facts.

   According to the prosecutor, Ernesto brought Giovanni to a therapy session the day after Daisy dropped him off. A medical professional told police the father was with the son that day.

   The search of Ernesto's apartment revealed two small dinosaur toys that Daisy remembers packing in Giovanni's backpack for the weekend visit. The backpack and Giovanni's clothes are all missing.

   We also learned that around the time Giovanni disappeared (the prosecutor was no more specific than that) Ernesto moved $14,000 to family in Puerto Rico. Investigators have traveled to Puerto Rico talking to Ernesto's family, looking for Giovanni. But there has been no trace of him.

  News reports shortly after Giovanni disappeared talked about a bloody mop and cleaner found in Ernesto's apartment. The test results have come back and it was NOT a match to Giovanni.

   Ernesto does not own a car. I'm told he gets around on foot or by bicycle. Dumpsters, graveyards, ponds, warehouses within walking distance and beyond have been searched with cadaver dogs, and it has all yielded nothing.

   Now, Ernesto tells police that Daisy has her dates wrong. That what she is remembering is a previous weekend visit. This goes against what the witnesses have told police.

   And Daisy's memory is clear. She told me that on Friday, August 15th, as she approached Ernesto's apartment, she called him on his cell and he answered. She parked her car across the street from the apartment, and Ernesto walked across the street to talk to her.

   Daisy told me Ernesto looked very tired. She asked if he was OK, and she asked if he wanted to call the weekend visit off. He said no. And he asked about the cane Daisy was using. Daisy explained her back hurt, but otherwise she was OK.

   The talk, Daisy said, went back and forth for a few more minutes. Then finally, she got Giovanni out of the back seat of her car. She told him to call anytime if he needed too, and the two said goodbye.

   Daisy told me she sat in her car and watched as Ernesto and Giovanni walked into the apartment building together. It was the last she ever saw her son. And he never called her that weekend.

   Even at four minutes in length, my New England's Unsolved was too short to get all of this information across. But if you missed it when it aired Saturday night, please check it out here on myfoxboston.com.

   I've found wherever I go, people are concerned for Giovanni. Essex County DA Jonathan Blodgett, state and local police, federal authorities are all concerned too. And despite the frustrations of this case, they are not giving up.

   If you know where Giovanni Gonzalez is, if you saw Giovanni the weekend of August 15-17, if you saw Ernesto Gonzalez alone that weekend, please call Lynn Police at 781-595-2000.

   Thanks for your interest in this case.

   Bob Ward

That was fast.

We broke the story about the locker room thefts at Walpole's Iorio Ice Arena at Monday night at 10 p.m.

The very next morning, Walpole Police got a phone call from one of the guys caught on surveillance video saying he was turning himself in.

At about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 21-year-old Jeffrey Rubino of Haverhill, walked into Walpole Police HQ and surrendered. He'll be in court first thing Wednesday morning.

It turns out that when our story ran at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., a lot of people recognized Rubino. I'm told friends and family called Rubino, told him they saw his picture on FOX25, and he decided he had no choice but to give himself up.

Police say it was Jeffrey Rubino who hit the locker rooms at Iorio last Friday during the Chowder Cup Tournament, which attracted players from across the US and Canada. The hockey bags of fifteen players were hit, and about two thousand dollars in cash was taken, according to police.

The arena has installed high tech state of the art security cameras and they have caught four young men in the act of ripping off hockey players over the last month. The pictures are crystal clear. And if the other three suspects are still in the area, it won't be long before they get caught too.

Iorio Arena has been getting hit nearly every weekend for a year. And rink officials tell me as much as one hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff has been stolen over that time. Folks over at Iorio are ecstatic over news that there's been one arrest.

Check out the video below:

And if you recognize any of the other three suspects, please call Walpole Police at (508) 668-1212.

Thanks for your support.

Bob Ward