A manslaughter case involving a fatal overdose from the powerful drug fentanyl has been moved from Dukes County superior court to Barnstable, after a motion was allowed by a superior court judge.
Dukes County Superior Court is set to convene its fall session on Oct. 7, with three pending criminal matters and a civil case brought by neighbors of the Harbor View Hotel on the docket.
One of the best known traditions of the old Kelley House at Edgartown was its semi-annual entertainment of the Justice of the Superior Court and his suite on the occasion of the sittings of the court in and for the County of Dukes County at Edgartown. The sittings used to fall in April and September, and many stories are still told of Bill Kelley and how, on occasion, he took the judge on a tour of Chappaquiddick while the court stood in recess.
For many years the house opened in time for the spring sitting and closed after the fall sitting.
A tentative trial date of Oct. 9 has been set for Jason R. Willoughby, 34, of Vineyard Haven, who was indicted by a Dukes County grand jury last October.
Alexander W. Carlson was sentenced to four to five years in state prison Monday in a drug trafficking case involving fentanyl. Mr. Carlson pleaded guilty in Dukes County superior court to a second offense of possession with intent to distribute a class B drug.
For the first time in 42 years, Joseph E. Sollitto Jr. descended the steps of the Edgartown courthouse as something other than the clerk of the superior court.
Jason Willoughby, 33, of Vineyard Haven was indicted by a Dukes County grand jury last week on felony charges in a case that involves a fatal overdose from the powerful drug fentanyl.