Man charged with entering governor's home wants GPS removed
Apr. 22—SWAMPSCOTT — The Danvers man charged with walking into Gov. Charlie Baker's home last October is trying to convince a judge that he never ordered him to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet after an advocacy group posted his bail.
Lane Forman, 59, who continues to live in the Tapley Manor senior housing complex on Holten Street, insists that the GPS "is no good for me," because it could cause him to trip, fall, and end up paralyzed.
Beyond that, he says there's no record of Judge Cesar Archilla ordering the bracelet as a condition of his release because 10 minutes of his bail hearing last October are missing from the official recording of the proceeding. "You never ordered it," he told the judge.
The condition is listed on the case docket sheet and on the probation conditions sheet.
"Why am I hearing this?" Archilla, now the presiding judge in Haverhill District Court, said during the hearing, which he attended via Zoom.
Forman tried to explain. "The FBI and the DEA needed me at Middleton Jail to take down a couple of major drug dealers," Forman said. He claimed he was also enlisted to help federal investigators make a case against a counterfeiter and a man selling AK-47 rifles with grenade launchers by putting him a cell with the suspects while agents eavesdropped through the heating ducts.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Archilla.
Moments later Archilla asked what happened to Forman's court-appointed standby counsel, Steve Reardon.
"I got rid of him," Forman told the judge.
"I went to the FBI in Chelsea and I met with special agent Ben Wallace over there, then I sent everything to my friend Joe Biden, to the White House," Forman said. He told the judge he got a call from the "criminal investigation" department last week.
Forman told the judge that "three doctors" have warned him that the GPS is dangerous to him.
He went on to tell the judge that his friends on the Boston Celtics arranged for him to meet with their team doctor, who recommended specialists to conduct neck surgery on him either in New York or Los Angeles. Forman said his first appointment is in Connecticut next month.
After about 20 minutes, Archilla agreed to listen to a recording of the October hearing once Forman obtains it from the clerk's office. Archilla set a hearing for next Wednesday afternoon.
Forman is charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering after allegedly walking into Baker's home on Oct. 7, apparently unnoticed by a state police security detail, and leaving documents there.
Forman has maintained that he is friends with the governor and that he was trying to provide information about substandard care received by his mother at a nursing home before her death.
He was held in custody at Middleton Jail for several weeks, until The Bail Fund, an advocacy group that seeks the abolition of pre-trial detention, posted his $5,000 cash bail in November.
Forman had several conditions imposed, including that he stay away from the governor and, at least according to the case file, that he wear the GPS bracelet.
The Danvers Housing Authority has started eviction proceedings against Forman, but the next hearing in that case is not until June.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@gloucestertimes.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis.
