Ross, ironically, went on to become Dostie’s fellow inmate at Framingham State Prison.
Sandra Dostie is seen with one of her defense lawyers Frank Antonucci, during her trial/NORTHAMPTON – Sandra A. Dostie’s defense lawyer betrayed her trust by discussing her case with a neighbor who included the information in a damning magazine story, according to a newly filed court document. The alleged breach of attorney/client privilege is the basis of the motion for a new trial sought by Framingham lawyer Sandra F. Bloomenthal on Dostie’s behalf.
The motion, received Wednesday at Hampshire Superior Court, asks the court to throw out the 1995 first-degree murder conviction that resulted in a life sentence for Dostie, now 42. The jury found that Dostie smothered her five-year-old stepson, Eric Dostie, with a pillow in their Easthampton home. Prosecutors said Dostie resented the child support her husband Steven Dostie was paying Eric’s mother and the care Sandra Dostie had to pride the sickly boy, who had hemophilia. The jury rejected Dostie’s story that two men had barged into the house, beat her and bound her with duct tape, and killed Eric.
Dostie was represented at trial by Springfield lawyer Frank E. Antonucci and Janice Healy of Conway. Healy subsequently took a job in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and now works as deputy district attorney under Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan.
According to the motion, Healy disclosed privileged information about Dostie to reporter Pippin Ross, her neighbor in Conway and a close friend. Ross went on to write a lengthy story about the case for Boston Magazine. The story is included in the motion as an exhibit. It states that Dostie’s defense team had contemplated changing her plea to not guilty by reason of temporary insanity and arguing that Dostie, who was pregnant at the time of the killing, was temporarily psychotic. Otherwise, it is unclear what information the article contains that did not come out at trial during testimony.
Also attached to the motion is a letter from Ross to Healy apologizing for the trouble the magazine story might cause her.
“... had I understood the ramifications you’re so convinced will befall you because of my piece,” Ross wrote, “I never would have written it in the style I did.”
Ross goes on to say, however, that Healy was not the “defense team” source to which she made reference and that Healy was not the sole source of her information.
“Believe me,” Ross wrote, “our relationship as neighbors and the mothers of two good friends suprecedes (sic) a juicey (sic) sentence or two. What seems so ironic in this situation is how we both somehow thought we were being helpful to each other.”
Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne said his office is reviewing the motion and cannot comment on it at present. Antonucci is out of the country and could not be reached. Ross did not respond to a request on her blog for an interview.
Ross, ironically, went on to become Dostie’s fellow inmate at Framingham State Prison. Although she enjoyed success as a reporter for the Amherst-based public radio station WFC-FM and as a freelance writer, Ross was beset by an alcohol addiction that brought her down. In 2005, she was convicted of operating under the influence of alcohol, fourth offense, and sentenced to a year in jail. She compounded her troubles by forging documents seeking her early release. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to forgery charges and conspiracy to escape from jail. As a result, the court tacked 2-4 onto her sentence and sent her to the state prison for women in Framingham.
Bloomenthal confirmed that Ross and Dostie talked while both were incarcerated in Framingham, but declined to disclose the nature of their discussions.
In 1997, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld Dostie’s first-degree murder conviction on appeal. As Bloomenthal explained it, her motion does not constitute another appeal but seeks a new trial on the basis of new evidence. The motion will be sent to Judge Constance M. Sweeney, who presided over the original trial, for consideration. Steven Dostie, Eric’s father, could not be reached for comment on the matter.