OUR PRESENTERS.
JUDGE BONNIE MACLEOD​
Hon. Bonnie H. MacLeod (Ret.) joined JAMS as a mediator and arbitrator after serving on the Massachusetts trial court for over 27 years, first in the District Court from 1989-2002 and then on the Superior Court from 2002-2016, where she served as a Regional Administrative Justice for civil business in Suffolk County. While on the Superior Court, she requested assignment to the session dedicated to the civil commitment of Sexually Dangerous Persons (SDP) and served many six-month rotations in that session.
Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge MacLeod spent 17 years in the public sector, where she served as the Chief of the Appeals Division in the Middlesex District Attorney's Office and thereafter as First Assistant Bar Counsel and Chief of the Litigation Division in the Office of Bar Counsel.
Judge MacLeod has been a member of the adjunct faculty at Boston College Law School, New England Law, Boston, Northeastern University Law School and Suffolk Law School.
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Judge MacLeod is a Holmes Life Fellow and past Trustee of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and a member of the Massachusetts, Boston, Hellenic and Women’s Bar Associations. She is the recipient of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Community Service Award as well as distinguished jurist awards from several bar associations. She has participated in many educational programs for the Flaschner Judicial Institute and the state and local bar associations. She currently serves on the House of Delegates and the Executive Management Board of the Massachusetts Bar Association.
Judge MacLeod is a graduate of Regis College and Suffolk University School of Law, where she was on the Law Review.
LEONARD A. BARD, PH.D.
Dr. Leonard Bard is a clinical and forensic psychologist who has been licensed to provide psychological services for the past 35 years. He is a graduate of the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at the University of Miami and received advanced forensic training at the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons and at Bridgewater State Hospital. He served as a “Qualified Examiner” for many years, conducting evaluations of sexual dangerousness for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Dr. Bard has also been retained by defense attorneys in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Virginia and Washington to conduct similar evaluations under various Sexually Dangerous Person (SDP) and Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) statutes. He has also been appointed by the federal courts in Massachusetts and North Carolina to conduct SDP evaluations of federal inmates under the Adam Walsh act. Dr. Bard has previously conducted "SDP" trainings for attorneys in both Massachusetts and New York, focusing on issues of diagnosis and risk assessment.
ERIC TENNEN, ESQ.
Eric Tennen joined the law firm of Swomley & Tennen in 2004 and became a partner in 2011. His work focuses on criminal defense and civil rights matters. Attorney Tennen has extensive experience as a trial litigator and appellate advocate.
Attorney Tennen specializes in issues related to sex offenses and collateral consequences, such as involuntary civil commitment and sex offender registration. He has won the release of many persons facing civil commitment as a sexually dangerous person and has successfully petitioned for the release of persons who were already involuntarily committed. He has also successfully represented clients before the Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB). Attorney Tennen has been on several continuing legal education panels as an expert in sex offender registration practice. He has worked alongside Attorney John Swomley in the successful defense of persons charged with serious felonies in both state and federal court.
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In addition to his work as a trial attorney, Attorney Tennen has extensive experience as an appellate advocate. Attorney Tennen began his career as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Justice John Mason of the Massachusetts Appeals Court and for the Honorable Chief Justice Michael Kruse at the High Court of American Samoa. He has successfully argued many cases in the Appellate Courts of Massachusetts. He has also authored several amicus briefs on behalf of various organizations.
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Attorney Tennen is one of few attorneys authorized to represent indigent defendants in District Court, Superior Court, and in post-conviction matters (appeals), as well as persons who are charged with murder, petitioned for involuntarily commitment, and those appearing before the Sex Offender Registry Board. He also represents Federal defendants through the Criminal Justice Act.
In 2011, he was awarded the Paul Liacos Mental Health Advocacy Award by the Committee for Public Counsel Services for zealous advocacy on behalf of indigent defendants. In 2007 and 2013, Attorney Tennen was recognized as “Massachusetts Rising Star.” Since 2015, he has been selected as a "Super Lawyer" as published in Boston Magazine.
He graduated from the University of Michigan, with distinction, in 1998. He graduated from Boston University School of Law, magna cum laude, in 2001. He received his LL.M. in Criminal Law from the University of Buffalo School of Law in 2004.
He frequently lectures in Massachusetts and beyond about issues related to sex offenders. He was a keynote address at the National Reform Sex Offender Laws conference in 2015 (click here for presentation); he spoke at the Massachusetts Juvenile Bar Association annual meeting in 2017; he recently gave a presentation at the Law and Psychiatry program and UMass Medical center; and he frequently speaks on legal education panels throughout Massachusetts.
DEBRA BEARD BADER, ESQ.
Debra Beard Bader, Esq. has practiced criminal defense for 30 years. She has defended former sex offenders in Sexually Dangerous Person (SDP) cases for nineteen years.
She served the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) as Attorney in Charge of the Public Counsel Division's SDP trial unit for nine years. She has tried and/or supervised/mentored more than 100 SDP cases. She has presented at Continuing Legal Education SDP trainings in MA and WI and was awarded the CPCS Paul J. Liacos Mental Health Advocacy Award for her SDP work.
Currently Attorney Beard Bader is in private practice mentoring and defending Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB), SDP, Juvenile Lifer parole, and appeals.
ANDREW HAIGNEY
Andrew founded Coach House Properties on the principle that, as an asset class, real estate deserves the same heightened standard of care and protection that investors get in other asset classes.
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Having lived in Boston’s Back Bay and Beacon Hill for most of his life, Andrew’s clients benefit from his deep knowledge of the Boston real estate market and the personalities of the many neighborhoods. Andrew works closely with individuals, fiduciaries, and institutions, with a primary focus on Boston luxury real estate.
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Before entering the real estate industry, Andrew spent 25 years in the investment industry where he routinely valued and negotiated complex securities transactions. Previously Andrew was President of the investment consulting firm Chittenden & Company, and Managing Director at Coach House Capital Corporation, an alternative asset private equity firm. Andrew spent the bulk of his career at Merrill Lynch where he was First Vice President for Institutional Equity Sales based in Boston.
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Andrew lives in the Back Bay with his wife and their two children.
CHRISTINA PATTS, LICSW
Christina Patts is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker practicing in Massachusetts. She received her Bachelors Degree in Sociology from Stonehill College in 2003 and her Masters of Social Work from Bridgewater State University in 2009.
Ms. Patts has been a vendor for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) since 2014, and has written release plans and testified at many section 12 and several section 9 Sexually Dangerous Person (SDP) trials. Ms. Patts has also been employed at a non-profit for fifteen years where she is an administrator and specializes in trauma focused family therapy.
ELIZABETH KELLEY, ESQ.
Elizabeth Kelley is a criminal defense lawyer with a nationwide practice focused on representing people with mental disabilities. Her family settled in the Palouse Country of Washington Territory in 1872, and she was born and raised in Spokane. She returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2012. Elizabeth co-chairs the Criminal Justice Advisory Panel of The Arc’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability. She is the editor of Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers published by the American Bar Association (ABA) in Fall, 2018 and Representing People with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers which will be published by the ABA in 2019. She is active in the ABA, serving on the Editorial Board Criminal Justice Section Magazine and Council of the Criminal Justice Section, as well as on the Commission for Disability Rights.
Elizabeth served three terms on the board of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), chaired its Mental Health as well as Membership Committees, and is a Life Member. She served on the Problem-Solving Courts Task Force and Body Camera Task Force. She traveled to Liberia in 2009 and 2014 as part of a delegation sponsored by the U.N. Commission on Drugs and Crime and NACDL to train that country’s criminal defense bar.
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Elizabeth lectures across the U.S. as well as abroad on representing persons with mental disabilities, and frequently provides legal commentary for radio and television. She hosts an internet radio show titled AuthorChatso which features in-depth interviews with writers about their recent works.
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In addition to serving as Vice President of The Spokane Symphony, Elizabeth serves on the board of The Arc of Spokane and has served on the board of The Museum of Arts and Culture (The MAC). She was appointed by Spokane City Council to the Police Ombudsman Commission. She has completed her 200 hour Yoga certification, and is currently working on her 500 hour certification through Semperviva Studio in Vancouver, BC.
MICHAEL NAM-KRANE, ESQ.​
Michael Nam-Krane, Esq. graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1995. Michael specializes in appellate practice and the civil collateral consequences of criminal convictions.
In 2007 Michael joined the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) to coordinate, educate and advise the hundreds of private appellate attorneys who represent clients in Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB) and sexually dangerous person litigation. In 2009 Michael reentered private practice
PAUL MACHADO, ESQ.
Paul Machado was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1983. He worked in a small general law office until he opened his own office in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1985.
Attorney Machado’s practice was varied with a concentration in criminal defense. In 2000 Attorney Machado began taking Sexually Dangerous Person (SDP) cases.
In 2003 Attorney Machado received the Public Service Award from the Massachusetts Bar Association, and in 2004 he received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS). These awards were related to his efforts to obtain increased compensation for Court Appointed Counsel.
In January, 2007 he began work as the Second Assistant at the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. In that role he supervised the District and Juvenile Courts.
In 2014 when the SDP Prosecutor retired, he prosecuted the SDP cases until the replacement was hired. During this time he tried two SDP cases, one before a Jury and one Jury waived.
In July, 2015 Attorney Machado went back into private practice and has continued to handle SDP cases.
WILLIAM CANAVAN
Bill assists men being released from civil commitment and those being discharged from other state and county correctional facilities with all their essential needs when returning to the community. Many of these men have served several years of incarceration and are homeless. Bill is uniquely qualified to assist because he too, spent more than three decades in prison.
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He started doing this work on a volunteer basis in August 2013. As a result the Boston Release Network was formed. It is comprised of men formerly convicted of a sex offense who know first-hand the difficulties encountered when returning to the community. A grant was received in November, 2016 by the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition that has enabled Bill to do this important work full-time. That grant expired and the Boston Release Network has now become a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation.
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Prior to starting his new job in November, 2016 Bill worked as a paralegal primarily on Sexually Dangerous Person (SDP) trials, assisting in all aspects of the trial.
JOSEPH J. PLAUD, PH.D.
Dr. Joseph J. Plaud is a clinical and forensic psychologist whose graduate training was primarily focused on behavioral assessment and therapy, with specific emphasis on working with forensic clinical populations. He received his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in psychology in 1987 from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with High Honors in Psychology. Dr. Plaud then enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Maine, in Orono, Maine, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in clinical psychology in 1993, after completing his clinical internship at the University of Mississippi and Jackson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in Jackson, Mississippi, serving as Chief Psychology Resident. Dr. Plaud then joined the clinical psychology faculty at the University of North Dakota in 1993, where he was actively involved in the training of clinical and experimental psychology graduate students in their Ph.D. programs, as well as pursuing his teaching and research activities in psychology, including behavior analysis, behavior modification and therapy, behavioral assessment, and sexual behavior.
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Returning to his native Massachusetts in early 1998, Dr. Plaud served as the Director of Research for the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, and was also appointed a Visiting Scholar of Human Development at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2001 he founded Applied Behavioral Consultants, LLC, and serves as its Executive Director. Dr. Plaud provides clinical and forensic psychological services within the United States and internationally involving clinical and forensic cases, lecturing widely in these areas of psychology and the law. Dr. Plaud is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
Additionally, Dr. Plaud has studied, written and lectured in the philosophical and historical foundations of psychology, with particular interests in the theoretical underpinnings of behaviorism, behavior analysis, and behavior therapy, and the accurate dissemination of behavior analysis in public forums. Dr. Plaud has published and lectured widely in the assessment and treatment of sexual offenders, and his opinion is frequently sought in forensic cases in state and federal courts across the United States.
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Dr. Plaud was honorably discharged from the United States Naval Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Medical Service Corps. He further served as a Trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Between 2002 and 2008 Dr. Plaud founded and administered an American history museum in Worcester, Massachusetts dedicated to the lives and legacies of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal. Among Dr. Plaud's many other personal, professional, and educational interests, he is currently pursuing graduate studies in sacred theology at Saint Joseph's College in Standish, Maine.
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Dr. Plaud and his wife Eve Plaud reside in the Dorchester Neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in an historic area known as the Polish Triangle. Their home is located where three Neighborhoods of Boston converge: Dorchester, South Boston, and Boston's South End.