New England Sun-Times

For a father, custody can difficult to win, even though the courts do not discriminate against dads. Whether you are a father going for  full custody  or  joint custody , you should be prepared for an difficult  child custody battle , especially if the child's mother is also filing for custody. Consider the following tips to help a father get custody: FatherhoodAdvocate.org 1.  Pay Child Support Payments A father who wants custody of a child should continue to make regular  child support  payments.  If a father has an informal arrangement with the child’s mother, he should maintain records such as check receipts or a written letter from the child’s mother as to the  child support arrangements  and what's been given thus far. If a father is struggling with child support payments, request a  modification , but if a father is able to make the payments, he should ensure he has a good track record of making payments. 2....

"It's always difficult and disheartening when someone you knew as a child grows up and chooses a life of crime," Chapman and his wife said. The 35-year-old stepdaughter of reality TV star Duane Chapman, better known as "Dog the Bounty Hunter," was arrested Sunday for allegedly  robbing a bank in downtown Honolulu . Nicole Gillespie reportedly entered Territorial Savings Bank around 8 a.m. on Sept. 3 and handed a teller a note demanding money before fleeing on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. She was  charged Monday with second-degree robbery  and her bail was set at $40,000, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Surveillance image of suspect Nicole Gillespie. Gillespie is Chapman’s stepdaughter  from a two-year marriage to Tawny Marie , according to the New York Daily News. In a statement Monday, Chapman and his current wife, Beth Chapman, said they had not seen "Nickie" in over 10 years and that watching her on CrimeS...

BOSTON - An MBTA transit police officer has been reassigned to administrative duty after a very tense situation on an MBTA bus Friday. Passengers captured video of a confrontation between the officer and a woman and it's been circling the internet. The woman is accused of stealing from a vendor at Dudley Square station. When the mobile phone video begins,things are already heated. >> Link to Video (Warning, STRONG Language) MBTA Transit Police said the officer was trying to get a woman accused of stealing off the bus, but she wasn't cooperating. They said she began assaulting the officer. In the video, passengers call out to the woman to calm down. The officer grabbed his gun and pulled it on the woman. Transit Police wouldn't comment on the officer's decision to remove his gun from its holster. The officer eventually put the gun back and did not fire it.  The struggle continued until other officers arrive and help remove the woman from the bus. The...

Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins has agreed to pay a $2,500 fine for improperly flashing his official identification at eight Roxbury stores two years ago and asking the shop owners to take down campaign signs for an opponent. In a settlement with the State Ethics Commission, Tompkins acknowledges he violated a conflict-of-interest law that prohibits state employees from using their office to secure anything of “substantial value” that is not available to other “similarly situated individuals.” “It is unreasonable to think that any shop owner in this situation would have felt comfortable denying what appeared to be an official request from a law enforcement official,” said Karen L. Nober, executive director of the ethics commission, in a statement. “Under these circumstances, the requests made by Sheriff Tompkins were an inherently coercive use of his official position to aid his candidacy, and therefore were prohibited by the confl...

A former Dorchester funeral home director was sentenced to three to five years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to allegations that he improperly disposed of bodies, putting them in self-storage units. Joseph O'Donnell Joseph V. O’Donnell was indicted last year after authorities discovered what Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office alleged was a long-running scheme that sent the wrong remains to some families, left a dozen bodies in boxes and baskets, and cost others nearly $150,000 in advance burial fees that disappeared. “Desperation led me to make terrible decisions. I never wanted any of this happen,” said O’Donnell, who wore a brown sports jacket, a blue shirt, and a tie in court Wednesday. In addition to his prison time, O’Donnell will serve five years of probation. O’Donnell, 57, who had previously pleaded not guilty, said he changed his plea in order to avoid trial in the case charging him with improper disposal of human remains and larce...

In a decision hailed by civil rights advocates and supporters of marijuana legalization, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday that police cannot stop motorists solely because they suspect the vehicle’s occupants are in possession of the drug. The Supreme Judicial Court based its 5-2 ruling largely on a measure that voters approved in 2008 that reduced possession of an ounce or less of marijuana from a criminal offense to a civil violation punishable by a fine. “Permitting police to stop a vehicle based on reasonable suspicion that an occupant possesses marijuana does not serve [the] objectives” of the law change, Justice Margot Botsford wrote for the majority. Botsford wrote that allowing such stops “does not refocus police efforts on pursuing more serious crime,” another goal of changing the law. The ruling does not prevent police from issuing citations for marijuana possession if they stop a driver for a traffic infraction, such as speeding, and later notice marijuana i...