Edward Popper
Former Merrimack College Dean Edward Popper of Andover was indicted in September on 37 counts of disseminating child pornography.
Popper, 63, of 120 Dascomb Road, was arrested Aug. 13 at his home following an investigation that began with online conversations he had with a woman in Pennsylvania who turned out to be a child abuse investigator.
Popper admitted to investigators he possessed 1,000 still and moving images of child pornography on his computer according to reports in the case. He faces up to 10 to 20 years in prison on each of the 37 counts.
He served as dean of the Girard School of Business and International Commerce at the North Andover campus for five years before leaving in 2005.
James Stokes
A Boston Superior Court judge ordered Lawrence's James Stokes to undergo mental health treatment, perform 100 hours of community service and be on probation for two years for lying about being a Marine veteran and a Purple Heart recipient.
Stokes, 63, was arrested on Jan. 9 by FBI agents. He resigned from the School Committee less than a week after being elected, due to the mounting pressure from city officials and veterans.
This was the first time he had been elected to office, after running unsuccessfully five times before.
Johnny Jimenez
Army National Guard Sgt. Johnny Jimenez of Lawrence was riding his motorcycle Yamaha R1 Sept. 7 when he was struck by a car driven by Robert Lechleider, whom police said was high on drugs.
Jimenez had returned home from a three months tour of duty in Iraq in June, when the accident occurred. He suffered a fractured spine and broken pelvis.
Lechleider of North Andover was arrested at the scene and charged with driving while under the influence of Ecstasy.
Joseph Salvo
Methuen's school department business administrator, Joseph Salvo, resigned abruptly Jan. 15 and became the focus of a police inquiry.
Salvo said he left because of health reasons. On Feb. 14, officers seized 2,800 pages of documentation showing every expenditure and purchase made or signed for by Salvo during his 41âÑ2-year tenure with the school district.
But to this day, the police have released few details of the investigation and no charges have been filed.
After Salvo left, Superintendent Jeanne Whitten hired consultant Frank Colvario to run the business office for an average of 25 hours per week at a rate of $100 an hour. Colvario's contract runs until June 30.
Charles Yardley Chittick
He became a Phillips Academy legend for fighting classmate and future movie star Humphrey Bogart, and had another brush with fame when he turned down a job offer from Thomas Edison.
But in June, Phillips honored Charles Yardley Chittick, 1071âÑ2, for simply outlasting everyone else.
The oldest alumnus of the Andover preparatory school, known to friends as "Yardley," got to lead an alumni parade as the only surviving member of the Class of 1918, and the school pardoned him for sneaking out past curfew.
Sadly, he did not make it to 108, passing away on July 18 from injuries suffered in a fall at the Pleasant View Retirement Community in Concord, N.H.
Max Gabriello
Perfecto's Caffe owner Max Gabriello made waves nationwide when he cooked up the idea of hosting a presidential cookie poll, selling frosted gingerbread likenesses of Barack Obama and John McCain and tallying up the results.
The North Andover resident just wanted to put a smile on people's faces during a heated election.
But an Eagle-Tribune story led to national attention for his 4-inch cookie candidates, and Gabriello received calls from as far as Canada, Georgia and Washington, D.C., for the political junk food.
At the height of the cookies' popularity, he was selling 50 dozen a day at his stores in Andover, North Andover, Peabody and Tewksbury.
And his poll ended up being right on the money, with Obama scoring a sweet victory.
Alfred Perry
A year and a half after leaving the North Andover School Committee, former Chairman Alfred Perry is facing both a civil lawsuit from the town and a long list of criminal charges for allegedly defrauding clients of his insurance agency out of more than $28,000.
Over the summer, North Andover filed a suit against Perry, 56, to recoup more than $4,700 in unpaid COBRA health insurance payments that built up last year after he left the committee.
Perry was later arrested in early October and arraigned on six counts of embezzlement by a broker, six counts of larceny over $250, six counts of misdemeanor insurance fraud by an insurance agent or broker, forgery of a check and uttering a false document.
The charges arise from a police investigation of Perry's now defunct Internet Insurance Agency, based on complaints from six customers who said they were cheated out of $28,295, which he used for gas, credit cards and a telephone.
Perry will be in Lawrence District Court in January for a pretrial hearing on his criminal charges.
Baby JoJo
For more than 30 years, friends and family of Joseph "JoJo" Demers, 3, believed the Lawrence boy died as he slept on a neighbor's couch.
This year, his mother, Darlene Demers Levasseur, learned JoJo may have actually been beaten to death.
Levasseur, now a 50-year-old Hampstead, N.H., resident, this year went public with her story, hoping to push authorities to dig deeper into her son's death.
Officially, JoJo Demers' death remains under investigation by District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office. To date, no suspect or person of interest has been publicly identified.
Thomas Minichiello Jr.
Thomas Minichiello Jr., a prominent and well-known local businessman with a long record of political and community service in Haverhill and Groveland, was charged with beating, restraining and attempting to rape a 27-year-old woman in a Marlborough hotel last April.
The woman told police that Minichiello, 55, of Groveland lured her to the Courtyard Marriott in Marlborough with the promise of a job with a fitness company he owns. Police say he touched the woman inappropriately several times and beat and dragged her back to his hotel room after she tried to flee. The woman escaped the second time she fled the room, running naked to the front desk for help, police said.
Minichiello was charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older, assault with intent to rape, intimidating a witness and assault and battery.
Prosecutors have since withdrawn two counts of felony indecent assault and battery against Minichiello due to "insufficient evidence." Prosecutors also dropped a rape charge, leaving Minichiello facing misdemeanor charges of assault and battery and intimidating a witness.
Tim Coco
Haverhill businessman Tim Coco has spent the past 16 months trying to get his husband, Genesio Oliveira Jr., permission to return to the United States.
Oliveira, who married Coco in 2005, voluntarily went back to Brazil in August 2007 when he could not get the government to recognize him as a documented alien.
Ever since, Coco, backed by a group of Merrimack Valley supporters, has been pushing to get humanitarian parole or other clearance for Oliveira to return to the United States.
In August 2008, a candlelight vigil was held at the couple's home marking their year apart.
Andrea Traficanti
It's been nearly two years since public works employee Andrea Traficanti of Haverhill has worked at Lawrence City Hall.
Citing stress and a hostile work environment, Traficanti has collected more than $75,000 in workers' compensation pay. Late in 2008, she filed for permanent disability with the state's Department of Industrial Accidents.
City leaders came back swinging, however, saying they have evidence Traficanti is and always was capable of working and they want the money back.
A decision from the DIA is expected in 2009.
James Donahue
In his first year on the Haverhill City Council, James Donahue was a frequent blogger to The Eagle-Tribune who used a variety of names in messages criticizing other city leaders and supporting Donahue's ideas.
He was censured by his fellow councilors for the blogging practice. He said he sometimes used names other than his own when blogging, but that his supporters had access to his computer and also used it to write blog messages.
Baseball star Carlos Pena
He is the first baseman for the Tampa Rays, who beat the Red Sox to become American League champions and go to the World Series.
He is a graduate of Haverhill High whose parents still live in Haverhill. The city plans a celebration in his honor sometime in 2009.
