Massachusetts State Police Trooper Struck in Hit-and-Run Crash Awakes from Coma

The trooper struck by a motorcyclist near Revere Beach in June was in a medically-induced coma and had been struggling to survive, a Suffolk County prosecutor said in court on Wednesday.

Lt. Donald Bossi is now awake, the district attorney’s office said Thursday, but appears to still have a long road of recovery ahead.

“A couple of times last week, they thought that he might die,” said Amelia Singh, assistant district attorney, in Lowell District Court on Wednesday.

Singh gave the details during a hearing for Akram El Moukhtari, the 18-year-old police say crashed a stolen motorcycle into Bossi on June 23 and fled from the scene.

Bossi was thrown 45 feet into the street from the impact of the crash, which happened on Revere Beach Boulevard just before 5 p.m. He was brought to Massachusetts General Hospital with serious injuries.

The lieutenant had been in stable condition at the hospital on June 24, state police reported, but was placed into a medically-induced coma at some point in the past two weeks.

Bossi was awake as of July 10, but remains in critical condition.

Colonel Geoffrey Noble said the crash “could have proven fatal” and was “senseless.” He and Bossi’s family expressed gratitude to those who helped the lieutenant at the scene and at the hospital.

Law enforcement announced on Thursday efforts to curb unsafe driving.

On July 8, state police conducted a traffic enforcement initiative along the North Shore and at Carson Beach in South Boston.

This targeted “speeding, aggressive driving and negligent operation which pose a significant community safety threat and resulted in two Trooper injuries in the same number of weeks,” a statement from the department read.

The initiative resulted in 105 citations issued on the North Shore and 103 at Carson Beach. There were also 14 and six arrests or summons made at each respective beach location, with 39 vehicles towed on the North Shore and five at Carson.

“Recognizing the impact of reckless behavior on the community and the lives of our recently injured Troopers, our leadership team developed a thoughtful plan that aligned with the Safer Communities Objective of our Department’s Excellence Initiative,” Noble said in a statement.

Stemming from the June 23 incident, El Moukhtari was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, receiving a stolen vehicle and leaving the scene of personal injury. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on a $50,000 bail during his arraignment in Chelsea District Court on June 24.

At his arraignment in June, El Moukhtari was appointed an attorney from the state’s public defender’s office, known as the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS).

But due to the ongoing bar advocate attorney work stoppage — or those with CPCS who represent people who can’t afford attorneys, known as indigent defendants — El Moukhtari’s case was brought for an emergency hearing before a judge on Wednesday.

That hearing was part of several recent proceedings under the Lavallee protocol, a rare court order issued last week for Suffolk and Middlesex County courtrooms in response to the bar advocate work stoppage. The stoppage has left over 1,700 people without lawyers as of July 9.

As per the Lavallee protocol, any defendant held without a lawyer for more than seven days is mandated to be released. Their charges are also eligible to be temporarily dismissed after 45 days.

After El Moukhtari’s arraignment with a lawyer, CPCS discovered there was a “conflict” in his case, Rebecca Jacobstein told the courtroom on Wednesday.

As chief of strategic litigation for the CPCS, Jacobstein said the office has recently represented a “material witness” listed in the police report, Jacobstein said, and was therefore no longer able to represent El Moukhtari.

However, Judge John Coffey ruled that CPCS had not made a “good faith” effort to secure representation for El Moukhtari. Jacobstein told reporters outside the courthouse that CPCS had done “all it can” to make every effort to find lawyers at the individual level for each unrepresented indigent defendant.

“It is not CPCS failing or not properly seeking counsel. It’s what ... [was] said in Carrasquillo: This is a government failure,” said attorney Adam Narris in the courtroom, as he represented the El Moukhtari and other Lavallee hearing defendants.

Public defenders — also known as bar advocates, who handle about 80% of indigent criminal cases in Massachusetts courtrooms — are seeking a $35 hourly rate increase from the current $65. There are roughly 2,600 bar advocates in the state.

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