And he was successful. Two days
later in the April 9 edition, The Somerville News published an admiring
story crediting Craven as an "NBA bigwig" – he said he was the director
of player development for the Seattle SuperSonics – still in touch with
his local roots.

In an interview that lasted more than 90
minutes, Craven told elaborate lies about relationships he claimed to
have with Sonics players, coaches and management. In fact, Craven
admitted to the News this week that he has never met any of the
SuperSonics players he claimed to be mentoring.

As a lawyer for
the SuperSonics said, "The Somerville News has been duped by a
publicity hungry local citizen." The News should have fact-checked
Craven's claims and regrets the error.

However, News staffers
were not the only ones suckered by Craven's trickery. This week Craven
admitted he lied to dozens of people in the city – including his wife
and his brothers – about his NBA job..

When he came into the
News office in April, he was wearing a SuperSonics jumpsuit. He passed
out team t-shirts to friends and family. After the story was posted on
TheSomervilleNews.com Craven said he went online and anonymously wrote
50 comments under the story lauding himself as "an asset to the
community" and "a hunk."

When a reporter interviewed him for this story the question that kept popping up was, "why?"

"I don't know why I did it. I keep coming up with question marks when I think about it," Craven said.

The
lies started in June when he flew to Seattle to meet someone he met on
the Internet. He told people who asked that he was going out for a job
interview and after three more trips out West claimed he had been
hired. While he was in Seattle, Craven said he did catch a few
SuperSonics practice sessions that were open to the public and even
went to a few games.

"I got a good sense of the team and how they played together," he said.

Craven
said he tried to contact SuperSonics General Manager Sam Presti
repeatedly while he was in Seattle to try and get a job with the team
(in the April interview with the News Craven said he had a longtime
personal relationship with Presti. In a letter from the SuperSonics the
team said he had "no relationship whatsoever" with him), but never made
a connection.

"I just wanted to scout and work for the team so bad I think I started to believe I did," he said.

One
person who believed Craven worked for the SuperSonics said he would
often call after games, claiming to be with the team. "I started to get
into basketball. I thought I had met someone who worked in the NBA.
Little did I know he was just your average sociopath," said the person,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

And the lies didn't
stop there. Craven admitted to the News that he had also used other
people's names when he met strangers. He said he told people he was
Jeff Turner – a 6 foot 9 inch former NBA player who even die hard
basketball fans strain to remember. Craven himself is 6 foot 8 and said
Turner's obscurity was one reason he used the name.

"He talked
about his career with the Nets and the Magic. He spoke at length about
covering Larry Bird and playing on the same team as Shaq," said a woman
who knew Craven as Jeff Turner.

As bizarre as it was, Craven
seemed to be getting away with his many ruses. He first told people in
Somerville he had an interview with Seattle last June. And, in addition
to telling people he was Turner, he also told strangers he was Todd
Lichti – another unremarkable, tall, white, former NBA journeyman.

But
it seems it was his thirst for attention – and his trip to the News
office – that finally did him in. The woman who knew him only as Jeff
Turner googled Turner's name and saw a picture that didn't match the
man she knew.

The woman then called the police who, she said,
contacted Craven "to tell him he was a weirdo" but could not charge him
with any specific crime. When she found out his real name, the woman
searched the internet for Ron Craven and found the News article and the
dozens of glowing comments posted under it.

From that moment,
Craven's days pretending to be director of player development for the
Seattle SuperSonics were numbered. The real Jeff Turner filed a
complaint with the NBA's security division. The Sonics released a
letter unequivocally stating Craven has no relationship with the team.
Reporters in Seattle are retracing his steps in that city.

(May 2008)

This
summer represents something of a milestone for me. I've now been in
Somerville longer than I lived in California, where I am "from." So,
I'm thinking about the differences between there and here.

Just
about every year when December arrives, I think that I must be
self-destructive to live here. Decades ago, I stopped having the
flashbacks and anxiety attacks associated with post-traumatic stress
disorder. But depression is one of its legacies that I must regularly
deal with. For some reason, the dark of Somerville's winter gets it
going.

This last winter was really bad. By evening, I'd feel so
down that I didn't even have the energy to heat up frozen dinners. I'd
just crawl under the quilt with one and lick it.

Then, just
after income tax return day, everything changes. Spring has the impact
of a religious experience. The waxing sunshine and the explosion of new
life make my spirits soar, and I wonder how I could live anywhere else.

Californians
are often caricatured in the minds of New Englanders. It's true that
almost every nut cult in the history of the universe has at least one
adherent in Los Angeles County.

But for the most part,
Californians want and care about the same things that you do. They care
about their children's health and wellbeing. They want to be paid
fairly for working hard. They don't want to be continually stressed
about money. They would like the streets to be clean and for things to
get fixed when they break. They want government to be honest and
effective. They would prefer to breathe clean air and live a long time.

Californians
are more comfortable than Somervillians are in expressing warm
feelings. They are more welcoming, but relationships don't have the
depth and endurance of those here.

Somervillians are more
comfortable expressing negative feelings. They are less welcoming, but
relationships are stronger and loyalties are tighter. Many people I
know in Somerville have friendships that go back to high school, while
I haven't spoken to anyone that I went to high school with for over
forty years.

Personally, I would prefer to live among people who
easily express both positive and negative feelings. Having to conceal
either one makes me feel lonely. But we must deal with the world as we
find it.

One of the reasons that we find the differences in our
world that I have described comes from how and why the people who came
from Europe expanded across this continent. They formed communities
along the East Coast. As within all communities, conflict was
inevitable. The frontier provided a means of escape for those who were
unable to work through the conflicts, or to live with their outcomes.
It offered a new life to those who had messed up their old one, and
opportunity to those who didn't see much opportunity where they were.

As
a group, those who went West were the least integrated into their old
communities, with the least skills in resolving conflicts, building
relationships, and sustaining community. The other side of the West's
celebration of individualism is its yearning for community.

In
community, you are known, and you must find a way to live with those
you have offended. Oddly enough, if you aren't obligated to continually
interact with others, it's easier to be warm toward them. The
consequences of their indifference, or their antagonism to your
overtures, are greatly reduced. There are always others to interact
with.

But strength, trust, and endurance in relationships don't
come from what we have in common. They come from how we deal with our
differences, how we resolve our conflicts.

When the web of
relationships is not strong enough to sustain community, it's easier to
attribute imagined evils to public figures, because you don't know
them. I often disagree strongly with Mayor Curtatone. (See my next
column, for example.) But I can't pretend that he is some cartoon-like
villain, or that his policy choices are willfully malign, because I
know him and find much to like about him.

There are other
differences between here and California. On average, drivers here are
much worse. I attribute this to the relatively lax enforcement of
traffic laws here and the fact that New England cities weren't built to
accommodate the automobile. Within a few years, we will come to
appreciate the latter.

California has rarely experienced the
government corruption that regularly makes news in Massachusetts, and,
per unit of service, government is more costly here. I see this as the
consequence of one party controlling government so long that it becomes
complacent.

Yet for all of the dissatisfactions that I might
express about Somerville, its people are the best. They are honest,
hardworking, loyal, realistic, and funny. We can argue heatedly and
still remember that we like each other.

As I just wrote that, I
remembered one night in the aldermanic chamber after a hearing on
Assembly Square. Steve Post and I were yelling at each other at the top
of our lungs. At some point, I looked at him and felt foolish. I
quietly said, "I'm just so disappointed." The soul of compassion, he
replied, "yeah. I know."

(April 2008)

A prominent Somerville attorney and landowner will receive probation for his role in the death of a 22- year-old Tufts student.

Francis
D. Privitera struck Boryana Damyanova on Nov. 22, 2005, on Broadway
near Wallace Street, pushing her into an oncoming truck which killed
her. His recent court appearances, in which he faced a charge of
negligent motor vehicle homicide, were marked by reversals of
agreements and feuding with lawyers and the press.

On Thursday,
less than three weeks before he was scheduled to go on trial, Privitera
agreed to be placed on pre-trial probation and lose his license for
five years. The agreement allows Privitera to not only avoid jail time
but it also does not require him to change his plea from not guilty or
to admit to any facts in the case.

Authorities said Damyanova
was in a well-lit crosswalk talking on her cell phone when Privitera
struck her. At the time of the collision it was raining but prosecutors
alleged if Privitera had been "reasonably attentive" he would have had
enough time and distance to avoid striking her.

Damyanova
"landed on [Privitera's] windshield" and rolled off his car into
another lane where she was struck by the left rear tire of a Dodge pick
up truck, authorities said. Investigators concluded speed and alcohol
were not involved in the collision. Privitera said he was driving 13
miles per hour when he struck Damyanova.

"I got out of the car and I thought she was going to jump up and be okay," he told The Somerville News.

Thursday's
agreement comes after a month of Privitera rejecting similar deals. On
March 4, after Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain, Judge Maurice
Flynn and Privitera's own attorney, J. Albert Johnson, stated
repeatedly that Privitera would receive a sentence of pre-trial
probation and lose his driver's license for five years, Flynn banged
his gavel, left the courtroom and the clerk read the agreement into the
record.

However, Privitera stood, a look of dismay on his face
and said, "Whoa, whoa. Loss of license? What about emergencies?" to
Johnson (whose past clients include Captain Ernest Medina, Patty
Hearst, Pam Smart, Zsa Zsa Gabor and F. Lee Bailey).

Leaving the
courtroom, as his son Phillip placed his coat on his shoulders,
Privitera continued to express alarm at the outcome. "What if my wife
is sick?" he said to Johnson.

Minutes later Privitera walked back into the courtroom and called the deal off.

At
his next court appearance Privitera approached a reporter to complain
about press coverage of the incident ("I read your article six times,
it was devastating. Now everybody is paying attention to me"), draw a
sketch detailing traffic movement the night of the accident, and make
the case for his innocence ("If [Damyanova] hadn't been walking across
the street negligently talking on her cell phone, none of this would
have happened").

At one point he reached into his pocket and
handed a reporter a packet of news articles lauding his charitable
contributions, including one with the headline of "I've Come a Long
Way: Privitera Tells Why He Enjoys Giving Back."

Privitera told The Somerville News he paid the Damyanova family $4 million to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from the accident.

Calling
a five-year loss of his driver's license a "death sentence," Privitera,
who came to his court appearances with a driver, said he needed to
drive his wife to the doctor's twice a month and church twice a week.

The
agreement reached Thursday allows Privitera to petition the Registry of
Motor Vehicles for a hardship license but the D.A.'s office will not
make any recommendation to the RMV, said Jessica Venezia the
spokeswoman for the office.

Privitera could not be reached for comment before deadline.

Privitera
is well known in Somerville as an attorney and landowner. He is
originally from Hale Street in Boston's West End and came to the city
in 1948. He owns blocks of land in Somerville, including 422 Mystic
Ave., 59 Union Square, 88 Beacon Street and 9 Davis Square.

He
was an assistant city solicitor under former Mayor Lawrence F. Bretta
from 1962 to November 1966 when he took over as head of the city's
legal department for a year. He also founded this newspaper in 1968 and
was its first publisher.

A packet submitted to the court by his
lawyer (Privitera was represented by at least six different attorneys
during the case), features pictures of him smiling alongside the likes
of former President Bill Clinton and singer Tony Bennett and glowing
accounts of his philanthropy.

One citation from the Elizabeth
Peabody House hails Privitera as "a captain of industry" and "a radiant
star in the theater of law, commerce and industry." Privitera told The
Somerville News he had contributed approximately $5 million to various
charities in his lifetime.

Damyanova was an exchange student from Hungary, who had come to Tufts to study international relations.