Saugus boy allegedly denied cancer meds dies

SAUGUS - A 9-year-old Saugus boy whose mother is charged with reckless child endangerment for allegedly withholding her son's cancer medication has died.

A spokesman for the Essex district attorney's office says Jeremy Fraser died Monday.

According to an obituary in The Item, Jeremy Fraser died Monday at the Kaplan Family Hospice house in Danvers.

Jeremy was diagnosed in 2006. Prosecutors say his mother, Kristen Anne LaBrie, canceled at least a dozen appointments for chemotherapy treatment and did not fill at least half of the prescriptions her son was given. She has pleaded innocent.

The parents are estranged.

District attorney's spokesman Steve O'Connell says prosecutors have not ruled out new charges against the mother.

In Jeremy Fraser’s obituary in The Item, it says he was born in Salem and that he was the son of Eric Fraser of Saugus. The obit also says that Jeremy Fraser leaves a brother, an aunt and an uncle. There is no mention of his mother.

In a January interview with The Item Eric Fraser says LaBrie delayed a November court hearing because she spent several days in Miami to watch a New England Patriots game against the Miami Dolphins, which she allegedly wrote about on MySpace.

“When Jeremy was dying in Mass. General Hospital she went to Bermuda for a week,” Fraser said during that January interview. “Who does that when you’re kid’s in the hospital?”

LaBrie was charged after doctors suspected she stopped giving her son medication and contacted authorities.

“She didn’t pick up more than half of the prescriptions,” Fraser said. “When she realized she was going to be in trouble she picked up all of his prescriptions again.”

Fraser said he and LaBrie, who purportedly lost custody of another son who is now a teenager, had been estranged for several months when Jeremy was in his mother’s care. Fraser alleges LaBrie took out a restraining order for a bogus reason at the time.

Lynn Daily Item

$12.4m in grants puts focus on gang violence

Area gets state aid to keep teenagers away from trouble

Last month, with the state facing an emergency fiscal crisis, Governor Deval Patrick cut the state budget more than $1 billion. But Patrick promised he would not cut certain social service programs, and last week the governor kept his word, awarding $12.4 million in grants to combat youth and gang violence - with $550,000 going to Lynn, Beverly, Danvers, Essex, Marblehead, Melrose, Peabody, Saugus, and Swampscott.

In addition, Haverhill will share a $220,000 grant with Methuen. Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Revere, and Winthrop will share $822,000 with Cambridge, Medford, Quincy, and Somerville.

"The governor believes strongly in fighting crime at the street level, finding ways to try to keep teens out of trouble; to create safe spaces for kids to make good decisions," said Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. Harris said the state will spend $2 million more on the program than last year. "[Patrick] fought hard to keep this. That's how much he believes in this program."

The program, known as the Senator Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative, began two years ago and now reaches 39 communities throughout the state. The money is spent to help fund city and regional gang units, and also goes to nonprofits and municipal programs to support street workers, jobs programs, antigang awareness, and other outreach programs.

With gangs present in cities such as Lynn, Revere, and Haverhill and spreading to quieter suburbs, a strategic alliance between law enforcement and agencies that work to steer teens away from gangs is the best solution, said Lynn Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Santoro.

"This gives us an opportunity to work directly with the kids - and from a prevention perspective, as opposed to a suppression perspective," said Santoro.

Lynn is set to receive $350,000 - an increase of $95,000 from last year.

(Boston Globe-Full Story)

Life in prison for Lynn man in '07 murder

SALEM - A Salem Superior Court jury Thursday morning convicted Spassky "Anderson" Alcequiecz of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison for the stabbing death of a Lynn man in 2007. (Lynn Daily Item - Full Story)