Stephanie Barry

Springfield

News Reporter at The Republican (Springfield, MA)

Sometimes I'm a breaking news reporter. Sometimes an investigative reporter. Sometimes features. But always a reporter. Republican/MassLive.com

Articles

Feds reviewing Springfield Police consent decree after Trump executive order

1 week ago | masslive.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — Federal officials are reexamining the four-year consent decree directing reforms at the Springfield Police Department after an executive order by President Donald J. Trump signaled the mandates are no longer a priority. Five years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice released a scathing review of the department’s narcotics unit, which concluded officers routinely and unnecessarily roughed up suspects.
Longmeadow family files $1.1 million civil lawsuit over 2022 deadly crash

1 week ago | masslive.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — A Longmeadow family has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the driver of the car that grievously injured their daughter and killed another high school classmate in a late-night crash. Shea Hamel, a victim of the crash, and her parents filed suit in Hampden Superior Court on Monday. The crux of the complaint focuses on a party at Zachary Elfman’s home for Longmeadow High School cross-country athletes just before their graduation in 2022. The gathering preceded the collision.
Longmeadow family files $1.1 million civil lawsuit over 2022 deadly crash

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — A Longmeadow family has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the driver of the car that grievously injured their daughter and killed another high school classmate in a late-night crash. Shea Hamel, a victim of the crash, and her parents filed suit in Hampden Superior Court on Monday. The crux of the complaint focuses on a party at Zachary Elfman’s home for Longmeadow High School cross-country athletes just before their graduation in 2022. The gathering preceded the collision.
Murder or manslaughter? Jurors must decide in trial of Jordan Cabrera

1 week ago | masslive.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — On a March evening in 2023, Jordan Cabrera emerged from a fistfight with a romantic rival outside his son’s basketball practice battered and bruised. By all accounts, Cabrera lost. His body wasn’t the only thing that suffered bruises, a Hampden County assistant district attorney told jurors in a murder trial that kicked off Tuesday morning.
Registered sex offender from Holyoke charged with possessing child pornography

1 week ago | masslive.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — A Holyoke man who is a registered sex offender has been charged in federal court with possession of child sexual abuse material. Justin Ouimette, 34, had already been convicted in Hampden Superior Court of child porn possession and is a Level One registered sex offender, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley announced Monday. He is serving a one-year jail sentence for violating his probation from the previous conviction, authorities say.
Jordan Cabrera headed for trial in 2023 murder case

2 weeks ago | masslive.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — More than two years after Jahvante “Pukki” Perez was shot dead in a parking lot after a children’s basketball practice, his alleged killer is going to trial in Hampden Superior Court. Jordan Cabrera, of Chicopee, will stand trial on May 6 for first-degree murder. Prosecutors argue Cabrera shot Perez seven times in the chest and extremities — twice when Perez, 25, was already on the ground.
Teacher no longer at West Springfield school after ex-students bring allegations of sexually charged exchanges

2 weeks ago | masslive.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — At 17, she told a trusted teacher at Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative that she just wanted a father. Hers had died in the waters of the Connecticut River in 2013, according to published reports. She was a small child then. Her mother had her own struggles, and the girl ended up in foster care. Kenneth Strout, a kindly information technology teacher, offered to be a father figure to her, according to records filed in Springfield District Court.
Owners of iconic Mohawk Trail restaurant sue state over toxic chemicals threatening their health and business

2 weeks ago | masslive.com | Stephanie Barry

CLARKSBURG — Forty-three years later, John Morris still remembers hearing a thunderous boom and watching a fireball roll through the parking lot of his family home and business, prompting him and his parents to escape up a wooded hillside. It was 1982, and a Cumberland Farms truck carrying 12,000 gallons of gasoline had crashed into a guardrail on the hairpin turn outside the Golden Eagle gift shop and restaurant on the Mohawk Trail. “I’m still terrified of fire to this day.
Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuit against Heriberto Flores, founder of troubled NE Farmworkers Council

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — A judge ruled in favor of a plaintiff suing former nonprofit founder Heriberto “Herbie” Flores and his corporate allies over alleged “self-dealing” that depleted resources from heat assistance and scholarship programs. Cecelio “Chico” Rivera, longtime treasurer on the boards of three charities founded to lift up the region’s Latino residents, in 2023 filed a complaint against Flores and other individual board members of four different nonprofits.
Judge dismisses suit filed by former Ludlow teacher fired for outing ‘genderqueer’ student to parents

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Stephanie Barry

SPRINGFIELD — A federal judge dismissed a suit Friday from a teacher who was fired for outing a queer student to their parents, potentially closing another chapter in a long-running case over gender policies at a Ludlow middle school. Bonnie A. Manchester filed a $10 million lawsuit against former school officials and the town after she was fired from her job at Paul R. Baird Middle School in 2021.