Chez Chesler

• "There is no evidence that any officer on Lansdowne Street acted with any intent to commit a crime"
• police made a string of serious errors in the events leading up to her death, but that none of those mistakes rose to the level of criminal charges
• "Poor judgment, however, is not the standard for criminal charges."
• Police said some of the revelers were throwing bottles
• "The fact that the officers were placed in such a chaotic situation on Lansdowne Street was the result of poor crowd control planning by department commanders"
• "It's always easy to judge things in hindsight rather than from the eyes of the person who is living that moment out. No one could, obviously, suggest for a moment that Deputy Superintendent O'Toole or any officer present that night ever intended or thought for a moment that these consequences would ever come about," said Timothy Burke, attorney for Deputy Superintendent Robert O'Toole, who ordered officers who were not properly trained in use of the pepper-spray guns to use the weapons.
• "Officer Milien's decision to fire was negligent, but not wanton and reckless, a legal standard which must be met to support a charge of manslaughter," Conley said.

Milien's attorney, Thomas Drechsler, called Conley's report "a recognition that the officers were reacting to an extremely volatile and dangerous situation which presented a serious risk to public safety."

There is another case pending in Lawrence. Marine-of-the-year Sgt. Daniel Cotnoir fired a shotgun into the air in the early hours of August 13, 2005 after members of a noisy crowd leaving local nightclubs threw an empty bottle through his bedroom window. Nobody was killed, but two underaged drinkers were treated and released after being struck in the leg by fragments.

"It was never this man's intention, as he tells me, to hurt anyone," said his lawyer, Robert Kelley. "It was only his intention to fire a warning shot when he was placed in a threatening situation."

"I just thought he wanted to scare us to get away from the area," said [Stephanie] Tejeda [cousin of the shot 15-year-old], who attended Cotnoir's arraignment Monday in Lawrence District Court. "Who shoots at an open crowd?"

Update: Cotnoir was charged, and on June 29, 2006, acquitted.