OCTOBER 5, 2019 3
By Emily Sweeney
GLOBE STAFF
When gas explosions rocked
the Merrimack Valley last year,
Altagracia Baldera was one of
many North Andover residents
who lost power and had to
leave her home. So she went to
her sister’s house in Lawrence
and brought Virgo, her Peking-
ese Shih Tzu mix, with her.
Being in a different house
must have made Virgo anxious
because at some point while
they were there, he got outside
and never returned.
“The dog slipped out the
door,” Ellen Bistany, an animal
control officer for the city of
Lawrence, said Friday.
Baldera reported Virgo as
missing, and she and her family
searched for him without suc-
cess. Posters were shared on so-
cial media and the website
http://www.missingdogsmass.com,
but nothing came of it — Virgo
was still nowhere to be found.
“Nothing, nothing,” Bistany
said. “He never turned up.”
It wasn’t until Sept. 30 —
more than a year after Virgo
went missing — that the Law-
rence animal control division
received a report that some
boys found a little dog wander-
ing around Newbury Street in
Lawrence.
The animal control division
picked up the dog. It turned out
the dog had a microchip, but
the owner’s contact informa-
tion on it was outdated. So
Lawrence animal control offi-
cers got in touch with the
MSPCA — where Virgo received
his microchip — and they were
able to get the information they
needed to track down Baldera.
And on Tuesday, Baldera
was finally reunited with her
beloved 14-year-old pet.
“She was so happy,” Bistany
said.
Rob Halpin, a spokesman
for the MSPCA, said Virgo’s sto-
ry highlights the importance of
microchipping pets.“We’re grateful that Virgo is
home with his family, and his
story underscores why micro-
chipping our pets is the most
important step we can take to
ensure we find them should
they become lost,” Halpin said
in an e-mail.
Pet owners can purchase a
microchip for $15 at MSPCA lo-
cations in Boston and Meth-
uen, and in Centerville on Cape
Cod, he said.
Bistany said Virgo was
found about three streets away
from Baldera’s sister’s house.
It’s not clear where he had been
for the past year, but he ap-
peared to be in good health.
“He needed a haircut,” Bista-ny said. “Otherwise, for his age,
he seems pretty good.”
Bistany was glad that the
kids who found the dog noti-
fied the appropriate authori-
ties.
“They were smart enough to
do that,” she said. “I give them
credit.”
Bistany said Baldera got Vir-
go when he was a very young
puppy, and she was happy to
see them reunited after so long.
“It’s amazing,” Bistany said.
“Now he can live the rest of his
life back at home.”Emily Sweeney can be reached
at [email protected]. Follow
her on Twitter @emilysweeney.Ayear
later, dog
and owner
reunited
ELLEN BISTANY
Virgo, a Pekingese Shih Tzu mix, was reunited with his owner, Altagracia Baldera, Tuesday.By Victoria McGrane
GLOBE STAFF
The debate over debates
continues in the Massachusetts
Democratic Senate primary.
Representative Joseph P.
Kennedy III agreed Friday to
participate in a debate focused
on climate change, but his
campaign wants the forum to
take place early next year “to
ensure maximum voter impact
and participation,” as opposed
to next month, as Senator Ed-
ward J. Markey originally pro-
posed. But Markey still wants
to debate next month.
Team Kennedy also said
they wanted to see the climate
debate happen as part of a se-
ries of six debates held across
the state, proposing that the
other five forums be “issue-in-
clusive,” rather than limited to
a single topic.
“Given the timing of im-
peachment proceedings and
the winter holidays, we believe
these debates should start in
early 2020 to ensure maximum
voter impact and participation.
To try and rush debates at a
moment when voters’ atten-
tion is elsewhere is a back-
handed way to limit participa-
tion in these essential forums,”
Kennedy campaign manager
Nick Clemons said in a state-
ment.
Markey first pitched the
idea of holding a climate-only
debate in November. He float-
ed that plan the same morning
Kennedy officially launched
his campaign. The move was
widelyreadasagambitby
Markey to capitalize on his
profile as a leading warrior in
the fight against global warm-
ing, and to give Markey a cud-
gel, stamped with his signature
issue, to hold over Kennedy’s
head.
The other two Democratic
candidates, labor lawyer Shan-
non Liss-Riordan and busi-nessman Steve Pemberton,
quickly agreed to the debate, a
fact that Markey’s campaign
used to needle Kennedy. The
Environmental League of Mas-
sachusetts offered to host,
which Markey and the other
two candidates accepted.
Markey’s campaign has ties
with the group. The head of
the league’s political arm is
Clare Kelly, who was executive
director of the Massachusetts
Democratic Party when Mar-
key’s top campaign strategist,
John E. Walsh, served as the
party’s chairman.
Kennedy’s campaign said
the climate debate should take
place “on the ground” in a
Massachusetts community al-
ready experiencing the harsh
effects of unaddressed climate
change.
“We are committed to work-
ing with the other campaigns
to find an appropriate host and
location,” Clemons said, reject-ing the notion of having the
Environmental League of Mas-
sachusetts be the host.
On Friday afternoon, Mar-
key, Liss-Riordan, and Pember-
ton released a joint statement.
It said: “The threat climate
change poses to our planet, ev-
ery aspect of our lives, and our
very survival must be met with
urgency. The voters of Massa-
chusetts, who show us every
day how concerned they are
about fighting climate change,
deserve a chance to hear where
all the U.S. Senate candidates
stand on this issue.”
They added that they “have
agreed to participate in a cli-
mate change debate on No-
vember 10th, and we are still
hopeful that Congressman
Kennedy will join us.”Victoria McGrane can be
reached at
[email protected].
Follow her on Twitter @vgmac.Kennedy agrees to debate on climate change
By Shelley Murphy
GLOBE STAFF
Two decades ago, FBI agents
began targeting Carmello Mer-
lino, suspecting that the Dor-
chester repair shop owner with
Mafia ties could lead them to
masterpieces stolen from the Is-
abella Stewart Gardner Muse-
um during a brazen 1990 heist.
Efforts to recover the art-
work were unsuccessful, but
the agents foiled a plot by Mer-
lino and his crew to rob an Eas-
ton armored car depot in 1999.
They arrested two of Merlino’s
accomplices on their way to the
depot in a car loaded with guns
and a hand grenade.
Merlino died in prison in
2005, taking any secrets he may
have known about the where-
abouts of the stolen paintings
with him.
But on Thursday, one of
Merlino’s accomplices in the at-
tempted armored car depot
robbery was back in federal
court in Boston, before the
same judge who had sentenced
him to nearly 52 years in prison
for that crime.
Only this time, Stephen Ros-
setti, now 60, walked out of
courtafreeman.
“Mr. Rossetti, it’s been a long
time,” US District Judge Rich-
ard Stearns said as he took the
bench Thursday for a resen-
tencing hearing. “Twenty years
later, we’re in the same place.”
Rossetti’s initial sentence in-
cluded a mandatory 30 years in
prison because he was designat-
ed an armed career criminal.
Combined with his sentence for
the attempted robbery, that
made him ineligible for release
until 2044.
But, after a string of Su-
preme Court rulings involving
federal sentencing guidelines,
Stearns vacated Rossetti’s sen-
tence last year after concluding
that he no longer qualified as
an armed career criminal.
“As far as I’m concerned, Mr.
Rossetti, you’ve served enough
time,” Stearns said. He noted
that Rossetti had already served
20 years, well beyond what cur-
rent guidelines call for.
“I sincerely regret my crimi-
nal past,” Rossetti told the
judge before he was sentenced,
as his son and a handful of oth-
er relatives and friends looked
on. “Allow me to be a good citi-
zen.”
Assistant US Attorney David
Tobin had urged Stearns to
send Rossetti back to prison for
10 more years, arguing that he
had led “a life of crime” before
plotting to rob the armored car
depot. He described Rossetti as
“the armorer” who brought a
hand grenade and other weap-
ons for the attack.
“We believe he continues to
pose a threat to society, it’s just
that simple,” Tobin said.Rossetti, who is from East
Boston, had previously been
convicted of a variety of crimes,
including an armored car rob-
bery.
But Judith Mizner, a veteran
criminal defense lawyer who
represents Rossetti, said he had
not been cited with a single dis-
ciplinary infraction during his
years in federal prison, which
she described as remarkable.
Federal prisons she noted, “are
not the easiest places in the
world to stay out of trouble.”
She refuted the prosecutor’s
claim that Rossetti posed a
threat and said he had partici-
pated in more than 40 educa-
tional programs during his time
in prison. His parents and wife
died while he was incarcerated.
It took several hours for the
Bureau of Prisons to process
Rossetti’s release, but just be-
fore sunset, he strolled out of
the courthouse and into a
gleaming Seaport District that
didn’t even exist when he went
away.
Only one of Rossetti’s code-
fendants, David Turner, re-
mains in prison. After his ar-
rest, Turner claimed FBI agents
told him they suspected he and
Merlino were involved in the
Gardner theft and offered to let
him “walk” if he helped retrieve
the stolen artwork. Turner said
he told them he had no infor-
mation about the heist.
In the early morning hours
of March 18, 1990, two thieves
dressed as police officers talked
their way into the Gardner mu-
seum, tied up the guards, and
fled with $500 million worth of
artwork.
In recent years, the govern-
ment quietly reduced Turner’s
prison term by seven years, for
reasons that remain under seal,
raising questions about wheth-
er he had agreed to help author-
ities try to recover the artwork.
He is scheduled to be released
in March 2025.
None of the stolen artwork
has been recovered, despite a
$10 million reward the muse-
um is offering for its safe re-
turn.
Rossetti, a close associate of
former Mafia boss Francis “Ca-
dillac Frank” Salemme, was in
state prison when the Gardner
museum was robbed. One of his
attorneys, Steven Boozang, said
Rossetti would never cooperate
against anybody, but would
have readily turned over the
stolen paintings if he knew
where they were.
“He would have gladly given
those up to their rightful own-
ers and went on with his life,”
Boozang said.Shelley Murphy can be reached
at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter
@shelleymurph.Prisoner released,
but Gardner heist
no closer to solution
By Steve Annear
GLOBE STAFF
Here we are talking about
fall in Massachusetts, and all
some people up in Maine can
think about is winter, winter,
winter.
On Friday, the folks at Sun-
day River celebrated a sure sign
of the impending ski season, af-
ter the resort captured surveil-
lance video of a light snow fall-
ing from the sky, the first of the
season.
The snow’s early-morning
arrival, which they shared foot-
age of on social media and Vim-
eo, had people energized, to say
the least.
“Yeeeee-hawwww!” employ-
ees of Sunday River said. “#le-
titsnow.”
On its website, Sunday River
said the snow squall led to
around an inch of snow accu-
mulating on the ground. The
video was taken from a live
camera stationed at the resort’s
mid-mountain Peak Lodge.
“Even when we just get adusting, there is palpable ener-
gy around Sunday River after
the first snow,” said Dana Bul-
len, the resort’s president and
general manager, in a state-
ment.
The sight in the sky was
worth whooping and hollering
about for the company, for obvi-
ous reasons.
Sunday River, located in Ne-
wry, Maine, approximately
three hours from Boston, typi-
cally opens for the skiing and
snowboarding season in just a
few weeks’ time, around Hal-
loween, according to their web-
site.
Last season people hit the
slopes on Oct. 19. However, the
exact opening for the 2019-
2020 season “is yet to be deter-
mined and will depend on
weather patterns moving for-
ward,” the resort said Friday.Steve Annear can be reached at
[email protected].
Follow him on Twitter
@steveannear.Early snowfall delights
Maine ski resort owners
LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF
On a recent day in Chinatown, shadows and light played on pedestrians and buildings as the sun began to set.AFTERNOONRAYS