Boston Judge Raymond Dougan may be the city’s most lenient judge, a prosecutor's nightmare whose decisions are appealed by district attorneys far more often than any other judge in the municipal court system, reports the Boston Globe. Appeals courts overturn his decisions the most, too, more than once including stern warnings that he should follow the law instead of his personal feelings.
The 20-year-veteran judge's reputation is so well established that one defendant predicted to police that he would go free after he went before “Judge Let Me Go'' Dougan. A Globe review of cases decided by Dougan shows a pattern of rejecting police testimony while extending second chances to criminals whose rap sheets go on for pages. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley is mounting an extraordinary campaign to remove Dougan from criminal trials.