MetroWestress's Blog

Come to FRAMINGHAM, Fox25 Morning News, where you can choose between two very diverse zip codes:

In the 01701 zip code you'll find a beautifully maintained Town Green surrounded by some of the most interesting historic homes in the state.  You'll find happy, wealthy citizens who will welcome you and share the best bagels around, excellent pizza and grinders, treats from the famous Ken's Steak House, and all kinds of other neat surprises.  You can learn about the very rural sections of Framingham and hear stories about how quaint and gorgeous this part of town is.

If "real life" is more up your alley you can venture to our south-side zip code, 01702.  There you can meet one of the more than 100 Level 2 or Level 3 Sex Offenders who live in that zip code; you can learn about a number of far-away countries from the illegal immigrants who originated in them; you can learn first-hand about prison life from one of the many ex-cons who were encouraged to move to Framingham upon their release from prison; you can witness drug deals, domestic violence, car theft, assault and battery, vandalism, shoplifting, and drug use.  You can view the effect of overcrowding on a typical house and you can film many examples of blighted and abandoned properties in the once-vibrant downtown area.

Come to FRAMINGHAM, Fox25.  I dare you.

There's an interesting case unfolding out in Colorado.  A guy named Timothy Masters may be getting a new murder trial because DNA evidence found at the murder scene was shown to not be his.  There are a lot of other reasons that you can research on the Internet.  I'm simply too pressed for time to list all the details of the case here.  I encourage you to read up on it.  It's a real travesty of justice.

There are a lot of odd things with this case, including the fact that another possible suspect -- Dr. Richard Hammond -- was never investigated fully and then committed suicide when he was investigated for some horrible voyeurism/pornography crimes.

I knew Dr. Rich Hammond personally because we both worked out at Healthworks, a gym in Fort Collins.  Um, I was a lot younger then!   All of us gym rats (along with Hammond's patients and coworkers) were all very shocked when Rich Hammond was arrested for his voyeurism and pornography crimes and many of us from the gym attended his funeral after he committed suicide a week or so later.

I recently learned he may have been the one who killed Ms. Peggy Hettrick -- the person for whose murder a guy named Tim Masters has been serving prison time -- and  I am shocked and disgusted  that anyone in the Fort Collins Police Department allowed all the evidence collected in the Hammond case to be destroyed.

I knew Hammond for years at the gym.  Do I think Hammond could have killed Hettrick? I ABSOLUTELY DO THINK HE COULD HAVE COMMITTED THE CRIME. He was a master at deceiving people while hiding the sickest of secrets, and he was definitely strong enough and skilled enough to have killed and mutilated Peggy Hettrick and then dumped her body out in a field behind his house. I am just speechless that the police -- who knew way more about Hammond's sickness than any of us casual friends ever knew -- would ignore him as a possible suspect.

I remember how surprised we all were that Rich went to the LaQuinta Inn in Denver and killed himself before any of his pornography charges had been processed by the courts, but such a seemingly quick decision to commit suicide makes sense if Rich knew that it would be only a matter of time before he'd be linked to Peggy Hettrick's murder. Rich Hammond knew himself far better than anyone else, so perhaps he just cut to the chase when he gave himself his cyanide IV.

What a mess. I hope Lt. Jim Broderick and all the other incompetent (or corrupt) members of the Fort Collins Police Department lose their jobs for how badly they botched the cases that came together and ruined so many innocent lives.

I have followed the GARY ZEROLA cases with interest because I have family who have attended Suffolk and i wonder what criteria they use to admit students to their school, given that they not only admitted Gary Zerola to law school but also pardoned him when he cheated there.

I can't help but wonder what would have happened if he had been punished for cheating in school when he was a law student.  He should have been expelled but, instead, he was pardoned by the Dean of the school (Fenton, I believe) and his bad behavior was swept under the rug.

As a result of never facing consequences for cheating in law school, Gary Zerola graduated and hyped himself into a Public Relations frenzy, becoming the "bon vivant" and socialite who made a sport of dating (and allegedly date-raping) underage girls.

I can't help but think that if he'd been dealt with as a bad student he would have never made it to his position of power, and a bunch of women would have not been victimized by this slick, sick puppy.

He escaped conviction in this week's trial but he still faces trials in two more incidents:  an alleged rape that took place in 2004 and another sexual assault in Miami that he allegedly committed in October 2007 when he violated the conditions of his bail set in a Massachusetts sex assault case.

Does Gary Zerola just have bad luck to be wrongly accused of sexual assault by three separate women in two separate states, or is Gary Zerola a serial rapist?

Talk amongst yourselves.

I understand that a strike by Amtrak workers may paralyze all trains in and out of South Station by January 30th and I heard that the head of the MBTA, Dan G., just took off for a vacation.

Did you notice that he FLEW to his vacation destination?  He didn't take a train, he flew on a plane.  Suspicious?  You tell me.  But I'll tell you what -- when the head of the MBTA chooses to fly to his vacation, rather than take a train, then something's fishy to me.

I'll be interested in watching this, and as the time approaches I will be making contingency plans for getting in and out of South Station.  I commute to my job in Boston and if the station shuts down then I don't know what I'll do -- I suppose I'd have to drive to a Green Line station, take some Dramamine, and ride into town on a subway car.

Ugh.  I'm nauseated at the mere thought of riding on the Green Line.