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JONATHAN MELLE's STAND AGAINST NUCIFORO
Written on September 27, 2004
My story about Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr., (Luciforo), which I hope to tell for years upon years, decades upon decades, and I hope someday will be told for eternity, is that during the Spring of 1998 he secretly tried to have me arrested by the Pittsfield Police without Nuciforo telling either me or my father, with whom he had communicated with at that time on an almost weekly basis. Nuciforo lied to the police by telling them that I was threatening him.
At the North Adams, Massachusetts, Fall Foliage Parade, it was Nuciforo (with his then-legislative aide Sara Hathaway at his side) who confronted me in a hostile manner in the Fall of 1997. Luckily, I had my cousin and Uncle, the latter of whom was visiting North Adams from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., at my two sides and after he sized the three (3) of us up (even though I looked down at the ground in panic), he with Hathaway quickly walked away from us in fear for himself (as my family members protected me against Nuciforo by stepping in front of me. I felt like I was the President with Secret Service protection). I could not believe what had taken place. Here, the Berkshire State Senator was marching in a parade with many potential witnesses, and he tried to get in my face without cause.
At this point in the story, I think it is important to note that my dad, Bob Melle of Becket, was elected to the then Berkshire County Commission along side with then Berkshire County Commissioners William “Smitty” Pignatelli of Lenox and Ronald Kitterman of Pittsfield. My dad and I, among others, took a stand against then Governor William F. Weld’s ultimately successful proposal to abolish Berkshire County Government and for the state to take over its functions under the premise that centralization in big government or big business makes for a bigger economy of scale, reduces waste and increases economic efficiency. Nuciforo, as state Senator, concurred with then Governor Weld’s arguments that economic efficiency under the model of corporate governance is the end all of big government initiatives and that an abolished rural county government under the administrative prowess of the state would serve the People best as a “1-800” number to the citizens instead of actual human beings and representatives. Indeed, centralized bureaucracy won the day under Bill Weld, Andrea Nuciforo and other top-down state government officials. My dad and I, together and respectively, had a more organic view of government. We believed that we are a government “Of the People, By the People and For the People.” We believed that this process needed to include a lot more input by Berkshire County residents and the thirty-two (32) cities and towns. My dad and I wanted more representation, not less, and we did not want government in any way, shape or form that represented “bureaucracy” in the form of a “1-800” number in the name of corporate styled economic efficiency model. I still believe in the position that my dad and I took. Now, back to the story at hand…
Earlier that summer in August of 1997, I attended a promotional ceremony at the Berkshire County Court-House for now Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) Justice Francis X. Spina, who is a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts (like my dad and I and many other proud Pittsfield natives). My dad and I were socializing with the public after the ceremony, and Nuciforo looked over at me with a stare that would have intimidated the President himself, nonetheless myself.
But little did Nuciforo know during those times that I have the deepest love of my country and devotion to God, and Nuciforo also did not know that I do know and believe that I am an American Citizen with U.S. Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties and that I will always speak my good conscience as long as I live: GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!
At the time, Nuciforo thought that there were coercive ways that he could intimidate me. But because of my strong beliefs in the USA (my country), Freedom and Liberty, I would not respond in kind to his intimidation. Therefore, Nuciforo decided that he would get to me through the system. Nuciforo decided to bad mouth me to other politicians, namely U.S. Congressman John Olver, State Senator Stan Rosenberg, State Representatives Dan Bosley and Peter Larkin, among others, including North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, who told me that people said that I am “flaky” and that I did not have what it takes to make it in the real world (I still think Mayor Barrett is a good man, however). Most importantly, Nuciforo tried to get to me through the system via false reports to the police, which I understand made him look real bad to the police.
Nuciforo tries to act cocky around me when I see him at events. But what Nuciforo may not yet realize is that I do indeed love my country and I believe in God. No amount of coercion, ostracism, money or false morality will change my views, beliefs or actions. I know who I am and whom I support.
I attended Dawn Taylor Thompson’s two (2) political events in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on Thursday, September 23rd, 2004. I was impressed by her advocacy for public safety and the guest speaker’s similar comments. As a long-term vocal critic of state Senator Andrea F. Nuciforo II, I must disagree with the UNETHICAL eight (8) year Boston corporate banking lawyer/lobbyist’s – under the false pretense of a Berkshire Senator — negating criticisms of his opponent’s efficacious advocacy for public safety and likewise criticism of Nuciforo’s poor record on these life and death issues.
Dawn’s accurate criticisms of Nuciforo’s sole opposition to the all felon DNA Database in the Spring and Summer of 2003 must be put in the framework of a human perspective on the issue. A young 16-year old woman named Molly Bish was brutally raped and murdered in late June 2000. Her grieving parents went to Beacon Hill in the name of their late daughter and other victimized youth to ask lawmakers to put into law the proper public safety apparatuses to catch rapist, murders and perpetrators of violence against our youth, especially young woman.
In the midst of the Bish family’s requests for legal reforms for public safety, there was an inhumane state Senator from nowhere else than Pittsfield, Massachusetts who stood up against their every request. This person was none other than Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. While other lawmakers rushed to the Bish family’s side, including Pittsfield State Rep. Peter Larkin and newly elected Lenox State Rep. “Smitty” Pignatelli, Nuciforo decided to make a stand for “civil liberties” without apologies or any empathy whatsoever to the Bish family.
On public safety, I do know and believe that she would have taken a human look at the issues the Bish family was fighting for last year. Dawn would have told Molly Bish’s parents, siblings and community members that she cares about their situation and is sorry that such a crime took place against a 16-year old girl with her whole life still ahead of her. Dawn may have taken alternative points of view different from the Bish’s, but I know Dawn and I know she would have done so with compassion and for the public good.
While I agree with Nuciforo that we live in the age of a FASCIST U.S. Attorney General (John Ashcroft) who has nullified the U.S. Constitution in terms of the First Amendment’s Freedoms of Speech and Religion and also the Double Jeopardy clause in the same Bill of Rights, I personally have been a victim of Nuciforo’s own authoritarian actions (and so has my father).
Given the situations that I have been through with Nuciforo and the unspoken ones only I know that my father has been through with him where I will say both our rights and civil liberties were respectively nullified via Nuciforo’s intimidation and corruption of the system against my dad and I during the same time period, I see Nuciforo as disingenuous, malicious and unfair.
Artificial and banal politicians such as Nuciforo and states such as the former-U.S.S.R. do not last forever. Alluding to John Ashcroft is a point where I am in concurrence with Nuciforo, but that is where we meet and diverge. For Nuciforo is just as fake as Ashcroft, and the more and more the People see authoritarian politicians and states that corrupt other people and systems, the weaker and weaker those bad guys and evil states become.
I believe that someday that Stan Rosenberg and I will have a beer together. That Denis Guyer and I will work for forward looking reforms together. That Mayor Barrett and I will celebrate North Adams together. But I know that that day will come when Nuciforo is a private citizen and no longer exercises his all-or-nothing corrupting influence for his own UNETHICAL personal gain.
When the time is right, I will work to solidly oppose Nuciforo and other corrupt politicians and immoral states like him. I will work in an ETHICAL way with the People, News Media and Politicians for the good goals of truth, justice and the American way! My work will not be for my own personal gain, but as a member of team that collectively works under Liberty and God for the common good of humanity.
-Jonathan A. Melle
~Former lifelong resident of Berkshire County, Massachusetts~
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The following are just some of many issues where Nuciforo is a power-hungry, vindictive and mean-spirited politician: (a) In the Spring of 1998, Nuciforo set up secret plans with the Pittsfield Police Department to try to have me arrested if I stopped by his Pittsfield District Office, (b) Nuciforo tried to ruin both my dad’s 31-year career as a probation officer and also his brief position as a County Commissioner, during the same time period as when he tried to put me in jail, in the same secretive manner, (c) Nuciforo mean-mugged me by getting in my face while two family members had to step in front of me to ward him off during the 1997 North Adams Fall Foliage Parade, (d) Nuciforo has given me many very mean looks for speaking out against his corruption as a State Senator, (e) Nuciforo has political henchmen who have either directly or indirectly harassed me for speaking out against his corruption as a State Senator, which include Sheriff Carmen C. Massimiano, Jr., Dalton State Representative Denis "Gold-Digger" Guyer, and Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds Mary O’Brien. These Berkshire career politicians do Nuciforo’s dirty work in order to keep him in office, (f) Nuciforo serves as a private corporate Attorney for a private Boston Law Firm representing big financial companies, especially big banks and insurance companies, while at the same time he sets public policies for these companies as Senate Chairman of the Finance Committee regulating these corporate entities, (g) Nuciforo collected well over $100,000 in campaign contributions from these big insurance and other financial companies in one-year, (h) Nuciforo is poised to run for U.S. Congress very soon with all of his political corruption.
-Jonathan Melle
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10/31/2008
I am a former lifelong resident of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, who was and still is the victim of "Luciforo's" many years of layered bullying and persecution of me. In the Spring of 1998, "Luciforo" tried to jail me while at the same time launching multiple "ethics" complaints against my dad. Fortunately for both my father and I, "Luciforo" was unsuccessful in jailing me and ruining my dad's career and life. "Ha ha ha"...the joke is on you, Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. -- you no good son of a "blank"! - Jonathan Melle
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www.jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/andrea-nuciforo-jonathan-melle-month-of.html
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"10 reasons to vote against Nuciforo"
Written in December of 2003
The following is a top ten list why the voters of Berkshire County should vote the current state Senator out of political office:
10. In 2003, Nuciforo had the 2nd worst voting record in the Massachusetts Senate, missing 96 roll call votes with a 77-percent attendance record.
9. Nuciforo is a Democrat in name only. In the 2002 gubernatorial election, Nuciforo was a weak supporter of Shannon O’Brien and told BCC students vote for the third party candidates.
8. Similar to his colleague, state Rep. Larkin, Nuciforo openly admitted he resides and spends more time out of Berkshire County than within, which leads to…
7. A great majority of Nuciforo’s campaign contributions comes from out of his legislative district, leaving the impression that his real constituency are special interests in the Boston Metropolitan region, which leads to…
6. While two out of three Berkshire County voters endorsed Clean Elections several years ago, Nuciforo overruled the voters and worked to abolish this reformist campaign finance voluntary program.
5. Nuciforo abolished Berkshire County government in the FY99 state budget, but not before Commissioners Tom Stokes, Bob Melle and Ron Kitterman worked on behalf of Cheshire residents to purchase and save their reservoir/lake from weed infestation and the plight of a negligent private owner. At the same time period, Nuciforo placed the Gem of the County into a state accounting agency, leaving Pontoosuc Lake to waste for over two years.
4. Nuciforo failed to sell the Berkshire Economic Development Authority to any one of the 31 municipalities outside of Pittsfield. Instead of selling the Berkshires to outside developers, Nuciforo was left to amending the program to cover only Pittsfield; hence PEDA.
3. Nuciforo voted for leadership payraises this year while local aid, education and public works funding, and lottery money for good causes were all slashed.
2. Nuciforo was the only state Senator to vote against an all felon DNA database, despite the fact that the measure now covers such violent crimes as drugging with the intent to rape and assault and battery on a child to inflict bodily injury.*
1. Nuciforo is part of the problem on Beacon Hill. Berkshire County is not being represented in our state government by sincere and grassroots delegates. For the past couple of years we have experienced painful cuts to our communities while our state Legislators have received indefensible payraises and aristocratic treatment.
- Jonathan A. Melle
www.berkshireeagle.blogspot.com/2005/05/topic-state-senator-andrea-f-nuciforo.html
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My stand against State Senator Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr.’s inhumane stand against the All Felon DNA Database…
Three years ago on June 27, 2000, Molly Bish, then 16, was reported missing from her lifeguard post in Warren. She was recently positively identified as a murder victim. Unfortunately, her murderer was not found. John and Magdalen Bish, Molly Bish's parents, showed true courage when they went to the Statehouse this month to lobby for a bill to require DNA samples from all felons so that the Commonwealth would have the capacity to apprehend such violent criminals. All but three state Senators listened to the Bish family's case for a DNA database. The three state Senators who opposed the DNA database are state Senators Robert Creedon Jr., D-Brockton, Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, and Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr., D-Pittsfield.
I oppose state Senator Nuciforo's cold and pitiless position against a[n all Felon] DNA database. Senator Nuciforo argued that the [all Felon] DNA database would violate the civil liberties of nonviolent criminals. However, Senator Nuciforo supported omitting the following felonies, including, but not limited to, drugging with the intent to rape, assault and battery on a child with bodily injury, and all drug and gun felonies.
This is the delegate that Berkshire County has sent to Beacon Hill since the 1996 election. A politician so removed from everyday life that he would classify child abuse and other felonies as "nonviolent" crimes under the false pretenses of protecting the civil liberties of "nonviolent" felons. It is time that we organize and oppose legislators like Senator Nuciforo so that we can protect our youth in Molly Bish's name.
Note: This bill was signed into law last year by Gov. Romney and only opposed by Nuciforo in the final state Senate vote.
-Jonathan A. Melle
Note: Originally sent in late-June, 2003.
~The author is a fomer-Lifelong resident of Berkshire County, MA. AND, Nuciforo tried to have the author arrested by the Pittsfield Police Department in the Spring of 1998. Nuciforo falsely told the Pittsfield Police Department that I was threatening him. Nuciforo violated my civil liberties! There is more about this corrupt leader's actions against me in another blog heading within this blog web site.~
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July 31, 2009
Re: CLIFF NILAN
Cliff Nilan called my parents yesterday (Thursday afternoon, July 30th, 2009) and left a message. I apprised my Dad of Mr Nilan's telephone call and voice message. I asked my Dad to discuss with Cliff Nilan why "Luciforo" is planning a run for US Congress when they talk again. My Dad told me that while Mr Nilan is best friends with one of "Luciforo's" political henchmen, Berkshire Sheriff Carmen C Massimiano Jr, (both "Luciforo" & Massimiano tried to jail me after trying to fire my Dad from his state job during the Spring 1998 when I was 22 years of age), Mr Nilan does not always agree with Massimiano. I then discussed Mr Nilan with my mom today (7/31/2009) and she told me that if one does not fall in line for Pittsfield's "Good Old Boys", then one can never achieve success in our native community. Mr Nilan is beholden to Massimiano & company, and while he has been a friend to our family, he may also be a "mole". I dislike the Pittsfield Politicians with whom Cliff Nilan associates and is friends with because they tried to ruin my family and make me a prisoner to be bullied. I was never more filled with fear than when "Luciforo" tried to jail me after failing to get my Dad fired from his state job. I knew what was coming, but thanks to a few good men, it did not come to pass. After I moved from the Berkshires to Southern New Hampshire, Massimiano told me that he knew that I know what they tried to do to me and to not to feel safe now that I moved to NH. I asked my Dad why Massimiano has been so loyal to "Luciforo", and he responded that they may be related. I have never seen or experienced anything quite as mean-spirited and conspiratorial as what "Luciforo" did to my family. "Luciforo" has layered his bullying of me since the Spring 1996 and during the summer of 2005 he had Denis E Guyer deploy the entrapment by publicly telling everyone that all Jonathan Melle ever did was stalk a Jewish Woman from Otis and that I belong in a psychiatric institution, among other half truths against me. For over 13 years of my adult life, or since I was 20 going on 21 years old, I have been living in a Twilight Zone episode conducted by "Luciforo" and carried on by many different people who did his bidding. Of course I have psychiatric conditions! Of course I am unable to function normally in society! My God! I have been going through many years of being messed with, being threatened, harassed, conspired against, dealing with bully after bully, watching my family and I be subjected to persecution after persecution, and never knowing exactly what is going to come next. I don't really know what Cliff Nilan wants by calling my parents over and over again over the years. I don't know if he is part of "Luciforo's" conspiracy. I don't know whether or not Mr Nilan is purely a friend of my family. I hope you may understand my view on the issue.
Sincerely,
Jonathan A. Melle
E-mail: jonathan_a_melle@yahoo.com
www.jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com
www.frankguinta.blogspot.com
www.aldermanpetersullivan.blogspot.com
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September 23, 2004
Dawn Taylor Thompson blasted "Luciforo's" public record of abandoning duty to public safety
Pittsfield, Massachusetts -- At a Thursday press conference, Dawn Taylor Thompson blasted the voting record of Berkshire State Senator Andrea "Luciforo" with regard to child and public safety. Thompson was joined by Helen Boehm, a renowned child safety advocate board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, co-founded by John Walsh (America's Most Wanted).
The following votes highlight Senator "Luciforo's" poor voting record with regard to Child & Public Safety:
4/10/2001 - S-4 "Petition of the Senate committee on Ways & Means. Relating to allowing victims of violent crimes to testify at parole board hearings" - Senator "Luciforo" vote to NOT ALLOW victims of violent crimes to testify at parole board hearings of their attackers.
11/5/2003 - S-345 "Petition of Cheryl A. Jacques, Reed V. Hillman, et al. Relating to enhancing the state DNA database." - Senator "Luciforo" vote to NOT REQUIRE convicted felons to provide DNA samples to the state DNA Database. This bipartisan bill was authored by Senator Cheryl Jacques (D) and Represenative Reed Hillman (R) and was advocated by John & Magi Bish of Warren, whose daughter, Molly, was murdered in June 2000. Her killer has never been identified and the Bishes lobbied lawmakers to expand the DNA database to make it easier to track down criminals.
6/23/04 - S-593 "Petition of Bradley H. Jones, Jr., et al. Relating to the dissemination of criminal offender record information to the operators of camps for children" - Senator "Luciforo" voted to ALLOW camps to hire employees before their criminal offender record information (CORI) checks are completed and received. The stipulation is that the employees will not be in unsupervised contact with children. However, if the employee is a sex offender, they are not likely to abide by that stipulation, thus putting the children of the camp in danger. The Senator's vote looks to be one that was influenced by contributions made to his campaign from directors and mangers of camps. According to reports filed with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Public Finance that include contributions dating from January 1, 200- to August 27, 2004, Senator "Luciforo" collected approximately $6,000 from 19 donors that are directly affiliated with camps.
Attached to this [press] release is the text and recorded vote of each of the referenced bills.
"It is an outrage that Senator Nuciforo would vote directly against the best interests of Massachusetts residents. These votes do not just affect Western Massachusetts, but the state as a whole," said Thompson. "We are fortunate that in two of these cases, most senators had enough sense to pass the legislation for the DNA database and right for victims to testify at parole harings against their attackers. However, the bill to allow camps to employ before CORI checks are completed was passed, and our children are now being placed in harms way. Our representatives and senators have a duty to make laws that protect not harm, and some, including my opponent, have abandoned that duty," stated Dawn Taylor Thompson, 2004 Republican Party candidate for Berkshire State Senator.
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Petition of the Senate committee on Ways & Means. Relating to allowing victims of violent crimes to testify at parole board hearings. (31 Ayes, 8 Nays, 1 Present).
Petition of Cheryl A. Jacques, Reed V. Hillman, et al. Relating to enhancing the state DNA database. (36 Ayes, 1 Nays, 2 Absent).
Petition of Bradley H. Jones, Jr., et al. Relating to the dissemination of criminal offender record information to the operators of camps for children. (24 Ayes, 15 Nays, 1 Present, 1 Absent).
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"Dawn Taylor-Thompson wants Senator Nuciforo’s job"
By Larry Kratka, WUPE Radio News, September 16, 2004
Democratic State Senator Andrea Nuciforo Jr. is being challenged for his job this year by a newcomer to politics. Dawn Taylor-Thompson of Richmond, a Republican, says State Senator Nuciforo is simply not doing his job of representing the voters of western Massachusetts.
Thompson told the Berkshire News Network yesterday that she fully supports the purchasing of prescription drugs from Canada but many Democrats don’t.
Thompson said you would think democrats would be supporting the purchase of prescription drugs from Canada but they're not. Thompson also agreed to debate Senator Nuciforo on the Berkshire News Network talk show Up-Front on Monday October 18th, answering questions from a group of network reporters.
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www.iberkshires.com/story/15516/Dawn-Taylor-Thompson-wants-Senator-Nuciforo-s-job.html
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(Images)
http://thetranscript.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=10285385&event=16236&CategoryID=2930&picnum=5&move=F#Image
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July 22, 2015
No one is perfect. Everyone has flaws. We should stop bullies like Andrea F. Nuciforo, Junior. We should speak out about bullies so they do not have anywhere to hide to keep hurting people. I am proud of myself for my stand against Luciforo!
- Jonathan Melle
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Re: Nuciforo nightmares!
May 18, 2020
To commemorate the forthcoming 22nd anniversary on May 20th, 2020, when then Pittsfield (Mass.) State Senator Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. tried to jail me when I was 22 years old on May 20th, 1998, I present his list of lowlights:
I first met Nuciforo when I was 20 years old in the Spring of 1996 when I attended a Democratic Party candidate forum in Dalton (Mass.). My dad, Bob Melle, was running for Berkshire County Commissioner and he and other candidates spoke to the voters.
Ever since that otherwise beautiful Spring day 24 years ago, Nuciforo conspiratorially had people associated with his fourth-rate political network bully, harass, and threaten me without Nuciforo leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints/DNA. I was the bait for Nuciforo to hurt my dad in Pittsfield politics.
From the Fall of 1997 – Spring of 1998, Nuciforo filed multiple state “ethics” complaints against my dad to try to get my dad fired from his state government job at the Pittsfield courthouse and force my dad to resign from his elected position on the Berkshire County Commission. Fortunately, my dad wasn’t fired and forced to resign.
As I previously mentioned, on May 20, 1998, Nuciforo made false allegations against me to the Pittsfield Police Department to try to get me arrested and jailed. Nuciforo told the PPD that I was making “veiled threats” against him and that I was agitated with him for trying to abolish Berkshire County Government. Nuciforo told the police that if entered his local legislative office in Pittsfield, his staff would immediately call the police. Fortunately, my dad found out about it, and I wasn’t arrested and/or jailed.
In the Summer of 1998, Nuciforo along with North Adams State Representative Daniel Bosley abolished Berkshire County Government effective July 1, 2000, by attaching a rider to the fiscal year 1999 Massachusetts State Budget. Their sloppy work left Pontoosuc Lake in both Pittsfield and Lanesborough to choke with weed for two years in a state accounting agency.
When I graduated from U Mass Amherst with a Master of Public Administration degree in the Spring of 1999, Nuciforo used his political clout to blacklist me from getting a job in Western Massachusetts. In the Fall of 1999, I enlisted in the U.S. Army where I served Honorably for 1 year and 9 months in Germany. I am now a 100% service connected disabled Veteran.
When I came home from my military service in Germany, I found a job at a bank in Pittsfield, but my branch manager was a Dalton politician who was an ally of Nuciforo. My job at the bank was terminated after a little over 8 months. I felt my branch manager discriminated against me, but he denied his misconduct, while I admitted to my misconduct.
I walked around Pittsfield (Mass.) for over one year of my adult life from the Spring of 2002 – the beginning of Summer 2003 unsuccessfully looking for a job. I felt Nuciforo blacklisted me from employment.
I the early Spring of 2004, I moved to southern New Hampshire to live with my family after they relocated to Amherst, NH. Over one year later, Nuciforo had his bullies spread vicious rumors against me to the people in the Pittsfield area. No one admits to it, but my name was slandered all over the town I grew up in.
After serving one decade in the Massachusetts State Senate, Nuciforo stepped down after getting in trouble for being in bed with Boston area big banks and insurance companies. Nuciforo used his political clout to strong-arm two woman – named former Pittsfield Mayor Sara Hathaway and Registrar of Deeds staff member Sharon Henault – out of the 2006 state “election” for Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds. Nuciforo used his sinecure to plot a failed 2012 run for U.S. Congress that he lost by 40 percentage points to U.S. Congressman Richard Neal.
Nuciforo worked at his law offices in Pittsfield and Boston where he served as legal counsel for the same Boston area big banks and insurance companies he unethically served as a State Senator. A few later, Nuciforo invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into a marijuana dispensary in Pittsfield, and then another one in East Boston.
In closing, after 24 years of being conspiratorially bullied, harassed, and threatened by Nuciforo without him leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints/DNA, not one person has had the decency to apologize or own up to their criminal behavior. I am happy that my dad’s political and courthouse careers went well in the end, but I certainly am left damaged by it all.
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
P.S. There are more email letters about this to come tomorrow and again on Wednesday, 5/20/2020.
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May 19, 2020
Re: Nuciforo was vindictive and very hypocritical
In the Fall of 2004, Nuciforo said at a political debate against Republican candidate for Berkshire based State Senator that he has been known to file a few state “ethics” complaints against state and local public officials and workers. I was told that Nuciforo even chuckled about it.
After I was apprised of his underhanded and vindictive remark, I thought to myself that Nuciforo’s retaliatory uses of state “ethics” complaints as political retribution were hypocritical given his corrupt public record in the Massachusetts State Senate and government.
Nuciforo always ran for public office as a Democrat, but even his hometown newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle, said that he was really a fiscal conservative who is pro-business. During most of his decade in the State Senate, Nuciforo was an unethical double dipper who did the bidding of Boston area big banks and insurance companies. Nuciforo served two roles in the State Senate from 1999 –2006 where he took in many thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the Boston area’s financial lobbyists.
Nuciforo chaired the State Senate Finance Committee, while he served as legal counsel for a corporate law firm called “Berman and Dowell” in Boston that served Boston area’s big banks and insurance companies. In 2006, Nuciforo got into trouble for his double dipping, and he had to step down from Beacon Hill politics.
What Nuciforo did next was unbelievable. In 2006, he strong-armed two woman political candidates out of a state government “election” for Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds. I couldn’t believe Nuciforo was not in jail for his aforementioned illegal double dipping, but then he was getting away with a sexist power grab for a sinecure.
In January of 2007, Deval Patrick was sworn in as the first African-American Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Boston Globe published a new article that Nuciforo petitioned Governor Patrick to appoint him to the state government position of Commissioner of Insurance. Again, I couldn’t believe it.
Nuciforo had to step down from being a State Senator for his double dipping with Boston area Insurance companies, and now he wanted the then new governor to appoint him to be Commissioner of Insurance within weeks of him being sworn in as the Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds after he used his political clout to strong-arm two women candidates out of the race less than a year earlier.
Nuciforo said that he liked to file retaliatory state “ethics” complaints against unsuspecting state and local government officials and workers, while he himself was always in bed with Boston area big banks and insurance companies. He also said he was always registered as a Democrat, but he was really a fiscal conservative who favored big banks and insurance companies. Nuciforo was vindictive and very hypocritical during his 16 year run in Massachusetts State government politics.
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
P.S. There will be a final email letter about Nuciforo’s abuses of political power tomorrow on Wednesday, 5/20/2020.
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May 20, 2020
Re: Nuciforo tried to jail me 22 years ago today
Every May the 20th, I mark the date of May 20, 1998 when I was 22 years old, as the day when then Pittsfield State Senator Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior made false accusations to the Pittsfield Police Department that I made “veiled threats” against him because he was sponsoring legislation to abolish Berkshire County government. My father, Bob Melle, was one of three elected Berkshire County Commissioners.
I have been a mental health outpatient for over 22 years now. Over the decades and years since the Spring of 1998, I have explained to my mental health providers that I am a persecuted person. My mental health providers have replied to me that “You believe that you are a persecuted person.”
The thing is that Nuciforo has been conspiratorially and politically bullying (my dad and) me since the Spring of 1996 when I was 20 years old. I first met candidate for Berkshire State Senator Andrea Nuciforo, Jr. then at a Democratic Party candidate forum in Dalton (Mass.) where my dad spoke, as well as Congressman John Olver. Ever since that otherwise beautiful Spring day 24 years ago, Nuciforo conspiratorially had people connected to his political network bully and threaten to physically assault me without Nuciforo leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints/DNA.
To understand Nuciforo, one has to understand Pittsfield politics. Pittsfield is ran by the Good Old Boys club, which is made up of multigenerational and interrelated politically incestuous families. Nuciforo is the dark, inbred Prince of Pittsfield politics. His late father, Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Senior, was a Pittsfield State Senator and then a Probate and Family Court Judge. His late Aunt, Anne Everest Wojtkowski, was Pittsfield’s first woman Mayor and a career science Professor at Berkshire Community College. His Uncle, Tom Wojtowski, was a career Pittsfield State Representative. Nuciforo followed in his late father’s footsteps and served one decade as a Pittsfield State Senator. He went on to serve one six year term as Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds, where he plotted a failed campaign for U.S. Congress he lost by 40 points to Congressman Richard Neal of Springfield. Nuciforo is now a legal drug dealer of recreational and medical marijuana in Pittsfield and East Boston.
When I talked to people when I lived in Pittsfield many years ago about Nuciforo, most of them said that they did not like him, but that they feared him. Pittsfield residents told me that if they spoke out about how corrupt and mean-spirited Nuciforo was in politics, then they would lose their job(s). When Nuciforo campaigned for U.S. Congress, even the Springfield Republican newspaper Editorial said he was mean-spirited.
When I was 20 during the Spring of 1996, I returned home to Berkshire County from my semester at American University in Washington, D.C. My dad once was a Pittsfield School Committee member who served with Nuciforo’s late Aunt Anne Wojtkowski in the 1970’s. My dad was even friends with Nuciforo’s late father when they worked together in the Pittsfield Courthouse. For whatever reason, Nuciforo disliked my dad and he used me as bait to try to ruin my dad’s career at the Pittsfield Courthouse and his elected position on the County Commission.
I grew up in Pittsfield, but that Spring (1996), my parents bought a home in rural Becket. I worked at a State Park with a then young woman. We developed a friendship, but her father was one of Nuciforo’s bullies. The Becket man also worked with Professor Anne Wojtkowski at BCC as an Environmental Science Professor. The woman’s father always viciously pointed his finger at me and made a scary face and then verbally assaulted me with mean-spirited insults, including against my mother. He even threatened to physically assault and batter me. At the end of the Summer of 1996, the then young woman told me she wanted to pursue a relationship with me after our Summer jobs at the State Park ended. She sent me a love note and Valentine’s Day card. But, her father hated me and continued to threaten to physically assault me. I did not understand why at that time in my life. I never hurt her and I tried the best I could to deal with the situation without hurting anybody.
In the Fall of 1997, I went to graduate school at U Mass Amherst to study public administration. Amherst State Senator Stan Rosenberg had two interns in my academic program. They were also mean-spirited and bullies, one of whom acted similar to the Becket man who was threatening me. I did not understand why at the time, but as time progressed I saw what was happening to my dad in toxic Pittsfield politics.
From the Fall of 1997 – Spring of 1998, Nuciforo filed multiple Massachusetts state “ethics” complaints against my dad to try to get my father fired from his state government job at the Pittsfield Courthouse and force him to resign his elected position on the Berkshire County Commission. Then, when I returned to Berkshire County from U Mass Amherst graduate school in the Spring of 1998, Nuciforo tried to jail me to send me to his close political ally then Berkshire County Sheriff Carmen Massimiano’s Pittsfield jail. That Summer of 1998, Nuciforo, with the assistance of then North Adams State Representative Daniel Bosley, successfully abolished Berkshire County government by attaching their bill as a rider to the fiscal year 1999 Massachusetts State budget. Please note that Pontoosuc Lake sat weed infested in a state accounting agency for two whole years as a result of Nuciforo and “Bureaucrat” Bosley’s sloppy legislation.
However, it did not end there. I graduated from U Mass Amherst with a Master of Public Administration degree in the Spring of 1999. I returned home to Berkshire County, and I found out the hard way that Nuciforo used his political clout to blacklist me from finding a job. In October of 1999, I enlisted in the U.S. Army where I served Honorably for 1 year and 9 months in Germany. I received a mental health Honorable Discharge. I am now a 100% service connected disabled Veteran for a psychiatric condition.
On the day I turned 30 in the Summer of 2005, I had been living in Southern New Hampshire for over one year. There was a Massachusetts State Democratic Party convention at Bousquet in Pittsfield. I received news that then Dalton State Representative named Denis E. Guyer, who was married at that time to multi-millionaire Allison Crane of the two century old Crane and Company in Dalton, publicly stated to the audience that “all Jonathan Melle ever did was stalk a Jewish woman from Otis”. (She was married during the Summer of 2002). She was the woman I worked with during the Summer of 1996, whose father was one of Nuciforo’s bullies. I was told that Denis Guyer publicly told people that my mental health problems started with my “love of a Jewish woman who I would do anything for”. I was told that Denis Guyer said, “Jonathan Melle belongs in a psychiatric institution”.
In 2011, I chatted with Denis Guyer on my then Facebook account. Denis Guyer denied that he said those things, and that he has political enemies in Pittsfield like I do. We agreed to stop berating each other after over five years of verbal conflict over the blogs. Denis Guyer is an Air Force Veteran. He and Allison Crane had divorced, and Denis Guyer remarried. People told me that Denis Guyer is a good man and for me to lay off of him. I do not know who said what, but it was explained to me that vicious rumors were spread against me all over Pittsfield, and that I should be careful if I ever go back to the town I grew up in because I have enemies there. I haven’t been back since 2005, or for over +14-years.
Like the Becket man and Stan Rosenberg’s legislative interns and Carmen Massimiano, I felt that Denis Guyer was another one of Nuciforo’s bullies who hurt my dad and me. Nuciforo and all of his bullies never once apologized to me for their hurtful actions. No one admits to being a bully when I inquire about these horrible events over the past 24 years of my adult life, but these terrible things did happen to me.
In closing, I feel fortunate that my dad was able to survive Nuciforo’s “ethics” complaints, that I did not get jailed by Nuciforo, that I survived Nuciforo’s conspiratorial bullying and threats, and that I know what happened, and that I can still write about it now.
In Truth!
Jonathan Alan Melle
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Enclosed: My Blog pages against Nuciforo!
https://jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/andrea-nuciforo-jonathan-melle-month-of.html
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https://luciforo.blogspot.com/2009/07/jonathan-melles-stand-against-luciforo.html
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September 4, 2020
Re: What about happened to me, Berkshire Eagle?
Hello Dirty Bird (The Berkshire Eagle),
I feel bad that Alex Morse was a target of homophobic dirty politics in the recent 2020 Democratic Primary for U.S. Congress against career politician Richard Neal. The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) is right to question how this horrible conspiracy played out similar to "the October Surprise" in a presidential election.
I guess I do not count! The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) never publishes my letters. For over 24 years, I was the target of Nuciforo's conspiratorial bullying since I first met Nuciforo when I was 20 years old during the Spring of 1996; I am now 45 years old. I have explained the "Hell" Nuciforo's network put me through for most of my adult life. Please read my blog pages about it.
https://jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/andrea-nuciforo-jonathan-melle-month-of.html
-and-
https://luciforo.blogspot.com/2009/07/jonathan-melles-stand-against-luciforo.html
In closing, Alex Morse had to deal with homophobic dirty politics for a short period of time, while it has been the nightmarish story of the last over 24 years of my adult life.
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
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Our Opinion: "Massachusetts Democratic Party has some questions to answer"
The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle), Editorial, September 4, 2020
"This is exactly what turns people away from politics."
That statement came from Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse during a debate with U.S. Rep. Richard Neal as they battled for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. While the primary is now over, some bitterness that originated in the final stretch lingers beyond the finish line from a scandal that leaves more questions than answers about the Massachusetts Democratic Party's involvement.
In a convoluted plot that reached its zenith near the primary's conclusion, members of the University of Massachusetts Amherst chapter of the College Democrats sought to implicate Mayor Morse and "sink his campaign" with allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct, according to the group's internal communications.
The explosive story was initially spurred on by a letter from the College Democrats of Massachusetts that publicly accused Mayor Morse of ill-defined improprieties, which was first published in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. It was later revealed that this letter was crafted with the aid of attorney Jim Roosevelt after state party officials referred the scheming students to the Democratic Party-linked lawyer for free legal counsel.
The state party has some explaining to do. Is it normal for the state party to receive these sorts of complaints against Democratic primary candidates and refer them not to police nor other authorities but instead to pro bono legal counsel? If so, is it usual for that attorney to be a high-powered state party affiliate like Mr. Roosevelt? Were members of party leadership that referred the scheming students to Mr. Roosevelt aware of the unsubstantiated nature and political motivations of the allegations? Did the state party's participation violate its own neutrality rules that bar interference in primaries?
So far, the party has only anemically addressed this mess. When the connection to party leadership was brought to light, they announced an internal probe into the origins of the College Democrats letter — a move that essentially entails the Massachusetts Democratic Party investigating itself. While we hope this probe addresses the above questions, an independent investigation, as Mayor Morse has called for, would be a more reassuring step for constituents who want answers.
No evidence has surfaced that links Rep. Neal to the College Democrats' smear effort, and the incumbent has broadly denounced the specter of homophobia that looms over this sort of salacious scrutiny of a gay candidate's dating life. It might behoove the congressman to join his former opponent in publicly pressuring the state Democrats for more transparency on the party's involvement. Further, it behooves all of us to learn an overdue lesson — that it's unequivocally wrong to hurl baseless and vague accusations as political artillery — and refrain from pointing conspiratorial fingers at the incumbent in absence of any proof.
Whatever the ground truth, it's certainly not a good look for the state party, and slow-playing transparency hasn't helped those optics. More alarmingly, sources within the state party recently told The Intercept that the party's executive director told leaders of the College Democrats to delete records of communication between the students and party leadership.
What we do know is that vague and unsubstantiated allegations derailed a congressional primary, unfairly forcing the challenger to talk about his dating life when voters preferred to hear both candidates discuss issues facing the district.
Last week, student leaders of the UMass Amherst chapter of the College Democrats apologized to Mayor Morse, acknowledging that their letter played into "homophobic stereotypes" in its attempt to malign him. It is shameful, especially in a supposedly progressive bastion like Massachusetts, that this sort of harmful innuendo continues to be weaponized against queer political figures.
Now, it's the state party's turn for accountability. Was its leadership duped into unwittingly amplifying a politically motivated hit-job hatched by a handful of overly ambitious college students? Or did they knowingly facilitate the lowest kind of realpolitik in a bid to put a finger on the scales of a decisive primary for the 1st District?
This race, its candidates and the voters deserved far better than this. What they deserve now is timely transparency from the Massachusetts Democratic Party. We hope the investigation's conclusion gets as much ink as the initial allegations.
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September 13, 2020
I went through a lot worse than Barry Clairmont when and many years after my dad, Bob, was a politician (a Berkshire County Commissioner from Becket) in Pittsfield politics (Spring of 1996 - mid-2000). I believe it is part of the reason I am officially disabled. I never want to go through being persecuted by corrupt and mean-spirited state and local politicians ever again in my life. I am still coping with what happened. There is nothing I can do about it in a Court of Law. However, I still write email letters and blog about it all all of these years/decades later. All I can say to Barry Clairmont is that Pittsfield politics is toxic. My brother tells me that it is the same everywhere else, but I reply to my brother that he is probably right, but Pittsfield politics has it in spades!
- Jonathan Melle
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https://planetvalenti.com/2020/09/planet-exclusive-full-text-of-clairmonts-lawsuit-against-mazzeo/
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https://jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/andrea-nuciforo-jonathan-melle-month-of.html
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https://luciforo.blogspot.com/2009/07/jonathan-melles-stand-against-luciforo.html
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September 28, 2020
Re: Paranoid Schizophrenia
In my mental health group today, we discussed the mental health topic of Paranoid Schizophrenia, which is delusional and twisted thinking where one believes things that are untrue with false beliefs and unrealistic fears. I said that I was thought by people in my life in my early-20's from the Spring of 1996 - Summer of 2000 (and years beyond 2000) when my dad, Bob, was a politician who campaigned and served as a Berkshire County Commissioner. I explained that I, now 45-years-old in the Fall of 2020, was the victim of being a politician's son in Berkshire County many years ago. I was persecuted by the conspiratorial Nuciforo network back then where I was bullied, threatened, and faced years of abuses. Nuciforo conspiratorially had many people associated with his then political network hurt me for many years of my then young adult life without Nuciforo leaving behind his own fingerprints/DNA. Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints to multiple Massachusetts State Government Agencies against my dad from the Fall of 1997 - Spring of 1998. On May 20, 1998, when I was 22-years-old and halfway through my graduate school program at UMass Amherst, Nuciforo set up secretive plans with the Pittsfield Police Department to have me arrested without telling my dad, who he was in weekly contact with at that time. My dad found out about it, and he told me to stay away from Nuciforo. On my 30th birthday on July 23, 2005, Nuciforo's network allegedly had then Dalton State Representative Denis E. Guyer, who denied it, spread vicious rumors against me in Pittsfield over one year after I relocated to Southern New Hampshire to live with my family that "All Jonathan Melle ever did was stalk a Jewish Woman from Otis" and that "Jonathan Melle belongs in a psychiatric institution". After over 24 years of Nuciforo's mean-spirited and vindictive political mudslinging and bullying, no one ever once apologized to me for hurting me. Who, other than me, had to endure all of this while being seen as a paranoid schizophrenic as a then young man when everything that happened to me really did occur? I am a 100 percent service connected disabled U.S. Army Veteran for a psychiatric condition, and I recognize I live a life as a person who is treated for mental illness, but I am not delusional about my negative experiences with Nuciforo's Pittsfield politics! It all really did happen, and I am writing the truth.
- Jonathan A. Melle
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October 21, 2020
Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior is spreading his "dead skunk odor" of marijuana around Pittsfield's working class neighborhoods from his Dalton Avenue marijuana growing operations. Local Pittsfield residents have written letters to the editor of "The Dirty Bird" (Berkshire Eagle) for over a year that Nuciforo's Berkshire Roots pot business is consistently producing a strong smell that affects the people who live near there.
They don't call him "Luciforo" for nothing! Nuciforo's political family dominated Pittsfield politics for generations. Nuciforo's late-father was a Pittsfield State Senator and a Probate Court Judge. Nuciforo's late-aunt was Pittsfield's first woman mayor and a career professor at Berkshire Community College. Nuciforo's uncle was a Pittsfield State Representative. Nuciforo and his Wojtkowski side of his family are still very involved and invested in Pittsfield politics.
Nuciforo used his political connections from his decade as a Pittsfield State Senator to Boston's Statehouse to start his marijuana empire after he became a fringe politician for trying to oust Congressman John W. Olver and then Congressman Richard E. Neal. The Boston Globe and other newspapers wrote that Nuciforo used his political connections and deep pockets in Boston to open his Berkshire Roots marijuana dispensary in East Boston.
Nuciforo's political career is the textbook case for corruption. Nuciforo had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate in 2006 because he was in bed with Boston's big banks and insurance companies. Nuciforo illegally served as both Chairman of the State Senate Finance Committee and a Corporate Attorney for the law firm named Berman and Dowell in Boston. The Boston Globe said he was an illegal double dipper from 1999 - 2006. The Boston Globe reported in early-2007 that Nuciforo lobbied the then newly elected Governor Deval Patrick to name him Commissioner of Insurance. This was after Nuciforo strong-armed two women candidates out of the 2006 state government so-called "election" for Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds.
My personal experience with "Luciforo" started when I first met him in the Spring of 1996 when I was 20 years old when he first ran for Berkshire-based State Senator and my dad ran for Berkshire County Commissioner back in the days when there were still county governments in Western Massachusetts. Ever since I first met "Luciforo", he had people associated with his mean-spirited "Nuciforo network" conspiratorially bully and threaten me without "Luciforo" leaving behind his own fingerprints and DNA.
From the Fall of 1997 - Spring of 1998, "Luciforo" filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad to multiple Massachusetts state government agencies to try to get my dad fired from my dad's then state government job at the Pittsfield Courthouse and force my dad to resign from his elected post on the Berkshire County Commissioner. During the Spring of 1998, Nuciforo made false complaints to the Pittsfield Police Department that I was threatening him, but the truth was that Nuciforo was bullying and threatening me. My dad found out about it, and my dad told me to stay away from Nuciforo. Nuciforo, along with the assistance of Daniel "Bureaucrat" Bosley (who is now a Boston Statehouse lobbyist), succeeded in abolishing Berkshire County Government through a budget rider attached to the fiscal year 1999 state budget.
When I lived in Pittsfield, I gathered nomination signatures in early-2004 to try to challenge Nuciforo in the state government election for State Senator. When I talked to people in Pittsfield, many local residents feared him and said that if they signed my nomination papers, they would lose their respective jobs. That is how powerful and intimidating Nuciforo and his family's political network was (and still is) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Also, Berkshire area State Representatives Smitty Pignatelli, Peter Larkin (who is also now a Boston Statehouse lobbyist), and Dan Bosley all declined to sign my nomination papers. I dropped out of the race, and moved to southern New Hampshire to live with my family who all relocated there.
I followed Nuciforo's careers in politics, law, him serving Boston's big banks and insurance companies, and his over three year old marijuana business over the years. In short, Nuciforo used his family's political domination over Pittsfield to enrich himself by royally screwing over anyone who stood in his way, including me, to cash in on state government, law, double dipping with Boston's financial district, and growing, distributing and selling pot.
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
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January 28, 2021
Hello Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) Editors,
I believe that I have been through for decades what Alex Morse went through last year (2020). My dad was a Berkshire County Commissioner (candidate Spring 1996; elected Fall 1996; served 1997 - mid-2000). When my dad was a candidate in the Spring of 1996, I was 20 years old. Ever since then (Spring of 1996), Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior, who served as a Pittsfield State Senator from 1997 -2006, and his political network from Pittsfield to Boston conspiratorially had people bully me, and file state "ethics" complaints against my dad, and they even try to jail me. I have been the subject of vicious rumors over the years, too. When I lived in the Pittsfield area until the early-Spring of 2004, I was blacklisted from employment. They screwed with me, and screwed me over every chance they had. I was told that when my name is mentioned in Pittsfield, they mockingly laugh at me.
I am 45.5 years old now, and I hope I am now mature enough to finally cope with it all. Then I read Dirty Bird (Eagle) editorials and letters to the editor about what "PAC-Man" Richie Neal and the state Democratic Party leaders in Boston did during their smear campaign against Alex Morse, who is a young man and a homosexual. All I can say is that I have been through it, too, and politics is conspiratorial and mean-spirited to those who stand in the way of the establishment politicians. You cannot tell me that Congressman Richie Neal had nothing to do with the conspiratorial orchestrated smear campaign against his challenger Alex Morse in 2020. You cannot tell me that what the Nuciforo network did to me and my dad decades ago was not conspiratorial and mean-spirited. Establishment politicians play with peoples' lives like we are pieces on their Chess boards. I feel like I when I was a young man in my early-20s, I was manipulated and abused for many years of my adult life because my dad was a politician who Nuciforo wanted to hurt in Pittsfield politics to further his own political career.
There have been books (Kafka) and TV shows (Twilight Zone) and the like about politics and bureaucracy being conspiratorial and mean-spirited so that evil and power hungry establishment politicians can divide and conquer to enrich themselves while exploiting others. No one is going to stand up to Richard E. Neal and the state Democratic Party leaders in Boston, who are all still in power, because they fear the kind of retribution and abuse that I went through, that my dad went through, and now what Alex Morse recently went through.
Richard Neal raises millions of dollars from K Street's corporate lobbyist firms each and every year. The state Democratic Party leaders in Boston raise millions of dollars from special interests each and every year, too. They are all still in power after their homophobic smear campaign against Alex Morse in 2020. They rule by money, retribution, fear, and being mean-spirited to intimidate anyone from standing up to them.
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
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"Institutional bigotry in the state Democratic Party"
The Berkshire Eagle, January 28, 2021
To the editor: The Massachusetts Democratic Party keeps reminding us that its leadership, particularly Democratic State Committee Chairman Gus Bickford and DSC attorney Jim Roosevelt, needs to go.
A number of factions within our state Democratic party have been trying for months to remove Bickford and Roosevelt after their involvement in the homophobic smear campaign against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse became public knowledge.
For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Bickford counseled Alex Morse to wait his turn rather than challenge Rep. Richard Neal during the 2020 Democratic Primary in Massachusetts. Thereafter, the UMass Amherst College Democrats said that Roosevelt advised them to leak a letter to the press claiming that Morse, who is openly gay and taught a course on government at the school as an adjunct professor, had made students at the university “uncomfortable” and barring him from future group events. The UMass College Dems subsequently publicly apologized to Morse.
Nevertheless, the leaked letter emerged in mid-August just as mail-in voting for the 1st Congressional District primary was getting underway. The latest chapter of this sorry tale occurred earlier this month, during a meeting of Democratic State Committee members in Cambridge.
On Jan. 13, the Ward 3 Democratic Committee in that city submitted a resolution calling for the removal of Gus Bickford from his leadership role in the Democratic State Committee and a vote of no confidence in his leadership. Using parliamentary tactics, Bickford’s supporters, including Cambridge resident Jim Roosevelt, submitted an alternative resolution at the last minute that omitted any mention of Bickford and the DSC’s wrongdoing. During the vote tally during the Zoom meeting, George Goverman, a protege of Bickford’s and Roosevelt’s and a lifetime member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee called Dan Totten, a representative of Cambridge’s Ward 3, a homophobic slur.
It is long past time for Berkshire County’s Democratic State Committee members, including Sherwood Guernsey, Lee Harrison, state Sen. Adam Hinds and Pittsfield City Councilor Helen Moon, to go on the record here. Silence is no longer an option.
Steve Dew, Williamstown
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January 30, 2021
Hello again, Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) Editors,
The Massachusetts State Democratic Party's orchestrated homophobic smear campaign against Alex Morse's challenge of over 3 decade long career "K Street PAC-Man" Richie Neal did not have the Congressman's fingerprints/DNA on it, but it was very conspiratorial and mean-spirited that was meant to sink the Morse campaign in favor of the career politician incumbent.
As I recently wrote, I believe I went through a similar painful experience in Pittsfield politics at the hands of Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior beginning during the Spring of 1996 when I was all of 20 years old when my dad was a Democratic Party candidate for Berkshire County Commissioner, who served in that now abolished elected office from 1997 - mid-2000. For many years of my adult life, I have been the target of conspiratorial and mean-spirited political bullying from Pittsfield through Boston without Nuciforo and other establishment politicians leaving behind their own fingerprints/DNA.
I am 45.5-years old now in late-January of 2021, and I still have negative feelings against state and local politicians from Pittsfield through Boston because they were very hurtful and retaliatory against my dad and me. In closing, it is always the same powerful political establishment people playing the same dirty and nasty games against the little guys who stand up to the political establishment where the powerbroker politicians never leave behind their own fingerprints/DNA, but we all know they were the ones behind it all.
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
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Our Opinion: "Cleanup time for Mass Dems"
The Berkshire Eagle, Editorial, January 29, 2021
The Massachusetts Democrats’ link to a student group’s smear against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse raised serious concerns about the state party’s behavior amid an important election for the 1st Congressional District.
An internal report demanded by some party members has corroborated those concerns, and now begs the question of what the state party will do to repair and maintain its integrity.
Less than a month before last year’s Democratic primary in which Mr. Morse was challenging incumbent Rep. Richard Neal, the race was rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Morse. The accusations were leveled by students within the University of Massachusetts Amherst chapter of the College Democrats of Massachusetts. Reporting by The Intercept soon revealed, however, that the allegations were part of a year-old plan hatched by the student group to “sink his campaign.” There has been no evidence linking Rep. Neal or his campaign to the students’ plot or the allegations.
Follow-up reporting by both The Intercept and The Berkshire Eagle subsequently revealed the involvement of Massachusetts Democratic Party leadership in conversation with the student group about dissemination of a letter written by the College Democrats detailing their unsupported allegations that the student group then sent to several news media outlets as well as Mr. Morse.
The letter had its drafters’ desired effect, roiling the race just ahead of the first debate and weeks before Election Day. It was only afterward that the UMass Amherst Democrats apologized to Mr. Morse, an openly gay man, for directing the campaign’s spotlight onto his sex life based on salacious and baseless accusations. Furthermore, an internal investigation at UMass Amherst, where Mr. Morse was an adjunct professor, determined that he did not, despite the letter’s intimations, violate university policy regarding teacher-student relations.
Unresolved issues remain, however, within Massachusetts Democratic Party leadership, as pointed out by an internal report from attorney Cheryl Jacques, a former Democratic state senator. The mountain of evidence in the report is damning. State party leadership helped along the letter that sought to malign a congressional candidate against the advice of an attorney they consulted, who suggested the letter’s claims were shaky at best. Party officials referred the College Democrats to party-connected lawyer Jim Roosevelt for counsel, who made some minor edits to their letter. Ms. Jacques noted in her report that two College Democrats corroborated each other’s account that Mr. Roosevelt then told the students to leak the letter. Mr. Roosevelt denies this. Eventually the letter was leaked to several media outlets.
The internal report also found that state party leadership was dishonest about ongoing contact with the College Democrats in the wake of the letter’s release and the ensuing news media firestorm. Party leadership lied when it claimed “no further involvement” with the College Democrats once the students were referred to legal counsel. Democratic State Committee Executive Victoria Martinez also lied when she publicly denied instructing students to destroy evidence of communications with the state party.
Furthermore, Ms. Jacques’ report suggests that Democratic State Committee Chairman Gus Bickford violated the party’s own bylaws in communications with the students: “Gus’s admission ... indicates to me that he was encouraging the students to talk to the reporter on the record and to do so prior to the election,” read the internal report’s key findings. “I conclude that Gus’s actions violated DSC Bylaw section 2(d) which prohibits staff of the DSC from participating in a contested Democratic Primary campaign.”
While Mr. Bickford handily won reelection as party chairman shortly after the internal report’s commission, some within the party understandably seek a reckoning. State party officials would hopefully agree that their own rules exist for a reason. They should see that those who break them — even their most powerful members — are held responsible.
If Mr. Bickford has any respect for the integrity of his party as a democratic institution, he should resign.
Further, the party’s leadership should acknowledge its significant missteps here and demonstrate what they’re doing to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
A contentious election season has just reminded us how important — and delicate — some of our democratic frameworks are. They require vigilant protection, and that means holding accountable those at the top. That’s as true at the state level as it is at the federal level.
The Massachusetts Democrats’ party leadership owe a lot more to the constituents they lied to and the democratic process they apparently helped to undermine.
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May 20, 2021
Re: Nuciforo tried to jail me 23 years ago today
On May 20th, 1998, then Pittsfield (Massachusetts) State Senator Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior (aka Luciforo) set up secretive plans with the Pittsfield Police Department to have me arrested if I stopped by his state legislative district office on North Street to protest his role in abolishing Berkshire County Government. Nuciforo falsely alleged to the police that I was making veiled threats against him and that I was agitated and upset with him for opposing my dad, who was a Berkshire County Commissioner, on county government. Prior to Nuciforo's plans to jail me, Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad, Bob Melle, to multiple Massachusetts state agencies. Nuciforo tried to get my dad fired from his state government job as an Assistant Chief Probation Officer in the Pittsfield District Court and force my dad to resign his elected position as a Berkshire County Commissioner. Fortunately, Nuciforo did not succeed in putting me in jail. Fortunately, Nuciforo did not succeed in getting my dad fired and forcing him to resign.
Since I first met Nuciforo in the Spring of 1996 - when I was only 20 years old - at a political candidate forum in Dalton (Massachusetts) where both he and my dad spoke as political candidates, Nuciforo conspiratorially had many people associated with his political network bully and threaten me on his behalf for many years of my young adult life without Nuciforo leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints/DNA. Nuciforo had his network of political operatives spread false and vicious rumors against me throughout the years in the Pittsfield area. Nuciforo blacklisted me from receiving employment in the Pittsfield area when I was a young man. I find it interesting that Nuciforo used to brag about filing state "ethics" complaints against people he didn't like when Nuciforo himself had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate because he was illegally double dipping as Chair of the State Senate Finance Committee in Boston and also working as a corporate Attorney for Boston's big banks and insurance companies for the Boston law firm Berman and Dowell. After Nuciforo had to leave his decade-long post in the Massachusetts State Senate, he anointed himself to the 6-year-long sinecure as Pittsfield's Registrar of Deeds by strong arming two women candidates named Sharon Henault and former Pittsfield Mayor Sara Hathaway out the 2006 state government "election". In early-2007, the Boston Globe reported that Nuciforo wanted the then newly elected Governor of Massachusetts named Deval Patrick to appoint him to the post of Commissioner of Insurance, despite his illegal double dipping with Boston's insurance companies. Nuciforo was passed over for that post. Nuciforo used his anointed sinecure at the Pittsfield Registry of Deeds to plot a failed run for U.S. Congress in 2012 against "PAC Man" Richie Neal. Nuciforo lost that election by 40 points.
Nuciforo comes from a political family who goes back many years in Pittsfield politics. Nuciforo's late father was a Pittsfield State Senator and then a Pittsfield Probate Court Judge. Nuciforo's late aunt was the first woman Mayor of Pittsfield and a longtime career professor at Berkshire Community College. Nuciforo uncle was a career Pittsfield State Representative on Beacon Hill. Nuciforo now owns Berkshire Roots, which is marijuana business in Pittsfield with an outlet in East Boston. Nuciforo still practices law in both Pittsfield and Boston. In closing, Nuciforo is a mean-spirited and vindictive little man who used his political connections to hurt people, such as my father and myself, while being a corrupt political insider who unethically enriched himself in government and practicing law.
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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September 27, 2022
I am not looking for attention for its own sake. I experienced unusual events in my life in Berkshire County when I was a young man during and after my dad, Bob's, political activism there since the Spring of 1996 when he began his successful campaign for Berkshire County Commissioner that he began when I was only 20 years old back then.
I know all about Pittsfield politics, which I still follow from my perch in Amherst, New Hampshire, as a middle-aged man who is now 47 years old. I still root for Pittsfield and Berkshire County all of these years later, but I believe the corrupt and greedy political establishment there is only about power and the Almighty Dollar for their own gains. I guess it is the same everywhere. I like that blogger Dan Valenti fights for the little guy who he calls the fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family who proudly lives by the rules in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
My last name Melle comes from the small commune of Melle, Piedmont, Italy, but I have never visited there, as my great-great grandfather Michael emigrated to Pittsfield in the 1880s; he passed away in Pittsfield in 1937. I am sad that Italy will soon have a neo-fascist government for the first time since the end of WW2. Italy's national debt is excessively high, and Italy's bonds are almost worthless to investors. The U.S. and Europe are both predicted to be in a brutal recession in 2023, which will rival 2008 and 2002's brutal recessions. I hope that history will NOT repeat itself 100 years apart so that democracy, the rule of law, and Human Rights will all stand strong in the 21st century.
It is time for the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites to invest in the people and the communities the common people live in again so that political extremism won't have fertile ground to grow again like the cancer that it has been and continues to be in government both in the U.S.A. and overseas.
Jonathan A. Melle
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George C. Whaling and Karen C. Gomula sold property at 4 Southbrook Lane, Pittsfield [Massachusetts], to Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr., trustee, EEM NT, $950,000.
Source: Berkshire County Real Estate Transactions for August 21 - 25, 2023, by Jeannie Maschino, September 09, 2023.
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