All Rise Boston with Diane Godfrey

Clad in bright-red mesh basketball shorts and a red shirt, 39-year-old Mark Felix wasn’t exactly inconspicuous when he approached four young women at different times in Boston’s busy Downtown Crossing on the sunny afternoon of July 10, 2008. He supposedly wanted directions to the Back Bay neighborhood. When he had his target cornered, he exposed his erect penis that was sticking out of...

Ever wonder how someone becomes a judge? In Massachusetts, judges are appointed by the governor. Judge Robert C. Cosgrove, an associate justice of the MA Superior Court, discusses the steps in that process and divulges many details of the day-to-day work of a sitting judge.

Sherlock Holmes warned that “it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data … one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts”. That tendency to interpret information to support a pet theory or to support what we think we know is called “confirmation bias”, and it can be a major problem in police investigations when likely suspec...

In 1993, 19-year-old Sean Ellis was sentenced to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He served 22 years for the murder of Boston Police Detective John Mulligan, who was shot multiple times in the head as he slept in his private vehicle while parked in a drugstore lot in Roslindale MA. At the time of his murder he was on a paid detail. It was revealed after his death that Mulligan was part o...

Shannon ran for Suffolk County DA in 2018; she shares her insights on that important office as well as what it takes to break the cycle of repeat incarcerations for emerging adults. Having a strong commitment to equitable justice, she is now a Vice President at ideas42, a nonprofit that uses behavioral science to address complex social issues such as mass incarceration and racial disparities baked...

Not everyone who works in a prison is a correctional officer. Today, Diane’s brother-in-law Irl will share memories of his ten years in the California prison system as a teacher and education administrator. He’ll talk about what it’s like to walk the yards and tiers of a maximum-security facility as “free staff”, connecting with inmates who want to learn and assisting...

Marco Flores, age 27, is ten years into a 15-year prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter. Some people say he should never have been incarcerated. The inner demons that drove him to kill a trusted family friend sprang from a horrible breach of trust: he was sexually abused for years. When he found a picture of his young nephew siting on the abuser’s lap, he felt he had to act to protect his fam...

Digging the Hole Deeper

Sidebar:   5 Things You May Not Know About Court – Part I

Sidebar: 5 Crazy Things – Part I

Aviva Jeruchim, an esteemed criminal defense attorney practicing in Massachusetts, will share the challenges of preparing a case when your client is stuck behind bars, the unique relationship between lawyers and court staff, and insights into criminal procedure.   We will also discuss a case we both worked on, the 2017 self-defense case of Rogers Jordan, accused of murder when he shot his housekee...

The wealthy Boston suburb of Wellesley was shaken to its core by the grisly Halloween morning bludgeoning of Mabel Greineder. Dr. Dirk Greineder, her husband, quickly became the primary suspect. Tom Farmer, author of A Murder in Wellesley, and Bill W., a retired Massachusetts court officer, will discuss the 1999 murder and trial as well as Dr. Greineder’s claim of innocence more than twenty years...

A case of a sheared thumb, a Lalapalooza first step is a doozy and an unlikely hero in a courtroom emergency.

The sound of running, a scream, a loud bang. In July 2013, a tenant on the first floor of a triple-decker apartment building in Chelsea, MA, a working-class town next to Boston, was concerned. After hearing the unexplained noises above his head, he hadn’t seen his landlady, Hilda Devincenzo, for four days. When firefighters entered her apartment to check, they found the 88-year old woman had been...

The candid conversation continues about Diane’s thirty years of experience as a court reporter in state court in Massachusetts. Take your seat in the jury box to hear a unique viewpoint from a true courtroom insider.

Diane Godfrey speaks candidly with Jordan Rich about her thirty years of experience as a court reporter in state court in Massachusetts. Take your seat in the jury box to hear a unique viewpoint from a true courtroom insider.

Court reporter Diane Godfrey takes you on a wild ride through her 30 year career in courthouses throughout the Massachusetts Judicial System. A rare opportunity and unique perspective regaled from a fly on the wall. She felt it, she saw it, she heard it, she lived it, she typed it. She was there and is ready to dive deep into the depravity of the human condition. Diane has transcribed many trials...