Editor's note: The Daily News Web site gets viewed tens of thousands of times per day and is linked to from around the world. Based purely on page views reported by Google Analytics, here are our Top 10 most read stories of 2009, according to statistics from our Web site, newburyportnews.com.
1 — Man gets 2 years in jail for chase
Published July 28
A Haverhill man who was Tasered twice by Amesbury police, then led them on a high-speed chase into Haverhill, was sent to jail for two years.
Police caught up to William A. Deguio, 46, who was driving a stolen car, on Interstate 495. He pulled over, but refused to give his registration and license, then he revved his car and reached for the gear shift. Police fired two Taser shots into him, but they had no effect. He entered Haverhill in excess of 110 mph before he struck a vehicle and a police cruiser on Winter Street. Then he began to run.
Police caught up to him, pepper-sprayed him and handcuffed him.
2 — Priest apologizes to choir and congregation for outburst
Published: Dec. 21
At the request of his parishioners, the Rev. James Carroll, who presides over the Masses at St. Mary's Church in Rowley, made a public apology to the congregation and specifically to its choir members at the Dec. 13 Mass.
The week prior, Carroll had an outburst directed at the choir, sternly reprimanding the group for what he felt was singing at an inappropriate time. However, choir members said they had been singing at the correct time, and Carroll had erred.
Several choir members and general members of the congregation left mid-Mass due to the actions of the priest, and a public apology was sought. Carroll apologized for his outburst, indicating difficulties with medication and health issues, and asked for the forgiveness and support of the parish.
3 — Teen has patent for projector invention — and more pending
Published: June 1
Whoever said, "Anything that can be invented, has been invented," never met 13-year-old David Baker of West Newbury.
Son of Richard Baker and Leisa Mingo of Middle Street, David received a patent for his Light Beam Delivery System design — technology he invented that miniaturizes a projector to the size of a pen. The patent is related to a family of patent applications that David has filed over the last three years, including two pending in the United States and another foreign patent application.
The seventh-grader, who is homeschooled by his mom, plays the baritone for the Pentucket Regional Middle School Concert Band and is a member of the Triton Regional High School CodeBandits robotics team. He helped the team build a robot to compete in the First Robotics competition in March in Boston.
Most Saturdays David heads to the MIT Edgerton Center to build small robots and other electronic devices. He is working on a RepRap 3-D printer that he hopes will help build parts for the Projector Pen.
4 — Man brings officers apology coffees, gets arrested next day
Published: Aug. 13
William Thomson came into the Salisbury police station with an unusual gesture — coffees to apologize for the wild behavior he exhibited 12 years ago when he was arrested. But police said within a day he was under arrest again, and he unleashed the same kind of ruckus on the police station that he had apologized for.
Thomson, 55, of Everett, was arrested after Salisbury police found his car, a 1994 green Buick sedan, with the motor running, along the side of Lafayette Road with Thomson passed out in the front seat.
"I yelled in an attempt to get his attention," the officer's report said. "With this not working, I began to shake his left arm. After doing this for five seconds, he opened his eyes and sat up yelling, 'Hey, what are you doing?'"
According to police, the officer grabbed the beer can as well as another open can on the driver's side floorboard, at which Thomson yelled, "Hey, that's not fair."
Thomson smelled of alcohol, and his speech was slurred. When asked where he was, Thomson stated he was on Revere Beach. After resisting arrest and swinging wildly at police, Thomson was forcefully placed into the police cruiser. Once police began the booking process at the station, Thomson became increasingly angry and volatile, swearing and screaming nonstop at police. He smashed the Breathalyzer machine and tried to make the toilet overflow in his cell.
As Salisbury police were investigating the incident, they realized Thomson was the same man who had come into the station a day earlier and brought three large coffees for officers.
"He told dispatcher Monica Carnes he wanted to apologize for what happened 12 years ago," the report stated. "Records show he was charged by Salisbury police in 1997 for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and malicious destruction of property over $250 and spent five days in jail. William exhibited the same behavior then and needed to be pepper sprayed. He destroyed the toilet apparatus while being held."
5 — New theory emerges in boat crash
Published: June 30
For days after the deadly nighttime boating accident that claimed the life of Seth Coellner, 36, of Kensington, N.H., investigators struggled to piece together what had happened.
One witness claimed the boaters attempted to jump over the rocky jetties, which family members called "ridiculous."
When the 36-foot boat was eventually found, it had extensive damage to its bow area, indicating it likely collided with the jetty on that foggy night. Investigators doubted that there was any attempt made to jump the jetty.
6 — Woman charged with fraud, accused of embezzling $450K
Published: Oct. 9
A Salisbury woman faced federal charges that she used her position as chief financial officer of White Magic carpet supply company to embezzle more than $450,000 from her Salisbury employer.
Victoria A. Jordan, 32, was charged with 15 counts of wire fraud. Federal authorities alleged that during a nearly four-year period, Jordan inflated her $52,000 salary and other compensations, placing her husband, who wasn't an employee, on the company's payroll; cashing checks drawn on company accounts; making unauthorized purchases of personal items with company credit cards; and using company funds without permission to pay for a life insurance policy, personal cell phones, individual retirement account deposits and fraudulent mileage reimbursements.
She pleaded guilty to the charges in December and will be sentenced in March. Jordan faces up to 20 years in jail and $250,000 for each count.
7 — Drug ring's operations uncovered
Published: May 2
A family vacation cottage on Salisbury Beach and a prefabricated house in Salem, N.H., were the two main distribution points for a drug ring that funneled oxycodone through New Hampshire, Massachusetts and southern Maine, according to federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors said John S. Denisco, 31, of Salem and Matthew Chase, 27, of Seabrook were recipients of several of 13 shipments that brought thousands of oxycodone pills to the state between 2007 and their arrest on April 14. Chase also spent time at his family's vacation home on Salisbury Beach, "where (he) also distributed a high volume of oxycodone tablets in the Salisbury, Mass., and Seabrook, N.H., area," wrote Edward Bals, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to information in federal indictments, investigators spent a year and a half working their way inside what they called "Operation Pill Cash" before dismantling it.
8 — I-95 truck crash closes highway
Published: July 7
Traffic in greater Newburyport came to an abrupt halt following a tanker crash on Interstate 95 that closed the highway for hours and left hundreds of people stranded on the highway.
The accident sent a total of 10 people to the hospital.
A preliminary investigation by Trooper David Martinelle indicated a 2001 Ford Expedition operated by Salma Aguilar, 32, of Everett, veered into the southbound lanes and into the path of a Freightliner tanker. The tanker rolled over, spilling 9,000 gallons of fuel and causing the highway to be closed. Aguilar was charged with reckless endangerment.
9 — Police make huge marijuana bust in city's industrial park
Published: Dec. 8
For the second time in three years, Newburyport police broke up a multimillion-dollar marijuana trafficking operation in the city's industrial park.
The raid netted $3.4 million worth of marijuana.
Newburyport and state police received word a tractor-trailer truck carrying 840 pounds of high-grade marijuana had been intercepted at the Canadian border in Vermont and was headed to Newburyport. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed all but 200 pounds of the load, and with a cooperating driver, allowed the tractor-trailer to continue to Newburyport, according to police reports.
The trailer continued to its destination — a warehouse at 5 Perkins Way at the southernmost edge of the industrial park, where two men were charged with marijuana trafficking and conspiracy to violate drug laws.
10 — Charges dismissed in rape case
Published: March 5
Felony rape charges brought against a Hampton Falls, N.H., man were dropped in a multiple-victim case charging him with using popular Internet dating sites to lure women to his home, then drugging and raping them.
The move "disappointed" the police chief who brought the charges. The chief said more than two dozen women had stepped forward with complaints against the man.
County prosecutors decided not to prosecute because they felt the case had problems, which they did not elaborate on.
"This is the problem with sex crimes and the reason women don't come forward," Chief Robert Dirsa said at the time. "The system does not do justice to women in these cases. There are a whole number of issues that can come up."
