Word: inquest
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...Senator Edward Kennedy: manslaughter, perjury or "driving to endanger," a traffic offense that is generally combined with other charges, notably drunken driving. Citing a ruling by the state's Supreme Judicial Court, the judge denied the jurors' request for a look at the transcript of the January inquest into the accident. District Attorney Edmund Dinis, who had access to both the transcript and the report on the proceedings by Presiding Justice James Boyle, told the jurors there was not enough evidence to indict Kennedy on any of the charges. The jurors themselves made no move to call anyone...
...case is resolved, however, as far as the courts are concerned. Dinis' statement that no further action is planned clears the way for the release of the inquest transcript and Justice Boyle's report. All that stood in the way of the release was resolution of the kind of dispute that typifies courthouse politics in Massachusetts. Freelance Court Stenographer Sidney Lipman, following a well-established Bay State practice, made arrangements to offer the 764-page transcript for sale at $1.05 a page, or $802.20 a copy. He has sued to halt its publication by the court...
Rumors about further legal action against Kennedy began to fly when Justice James Boyle filed the inquest transcript and his own report last February. Promptly impounded, the documents were brought to Boston, where Superior Court Chief Justice G. Joseph Tauro ordered them locked in an office safe. The next day Kennedy's lawyer, Edward Hanify, asked to see the transcript of his client's testimony. Before this first request could be acted upon, however, Hanify filed a second petition, whose contents are unknown because he asked that it be impounded. The second petition apparently concerned Boyle...
Accusatory Proceeding. The inquest rules specified that no documents were to be released to the public if a possibility existed of further proceedings against any of those involved in the accident. Thus Hanify's concern and the delays in printing the transcript led many to surmise that Boyle had recommended a grand jury inquiry. Further action was delayed by the absence of Dinis, who was vacationing in Portugal...
Returning early in March, Dinis was ushered into the room where the inquest records were kept and shown Boyle's report. Twenty minutes later, he emerged looking disturbed and promising to return. He has yet to go back, but last week he wrote Justice Tauro and requested that the Kennedy case go before a special session of the grand jury that will convene next week...