Focus on retail theft at South Bay Mall results in 73 stay-away orders in last quarter of 2024

BOSTON, January 19, 2025 – As part of a multi-partner initiative targeting store-based crimes, Suffolk prosecutors over the last quarter of 2024 secured stay-away orders against 73 individuals charged with larceny and other offenses at stores in the South Bay Mall in Boston, District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced today.

The stay-away orders were requested for 116 defendants charged with shoplifting, larceny and other offenses at numerous South Bay Mall stores and arraigned September through December of last year.  The orders stay in effect while cases are pending and some remain in effect as part of sentencing.

Hayden’s office, the Boston Police department, and regional retailer groups and small business owners in 2024 launched the Safe Shopping Initiative, an effort to increase consumer safety and help store managers strategize responses to shoplifting and retail larcenies. The initiative formed amid increasing national and local frustrations around retail crime, along with concerns over the closure of several pharmacies serving minority communities in Boston.

Along with the stay-away orders, Hayden’s office secured referrals into drug-treatment programs for nine defendants while their cases were pending and an additional 16 drug-treatment provisions as part of case dispositions.

“Our overarching goal with this initiative is to make shopping spaces safe for consumers and workers and to help prevent any more store closures, which we know have a dramatic impact on residents, particularly our older residents.  But that doesn’t mean seeking incarceration for every offender.  In many cases, the effective path is to address the underlying reason for the conduct, which is very often addiction disorders,” Hayden said.

In a recent case, Hayden’s office on Monday obtained a stay-away order against Kevin Whyte, 39, of Taunton, who was arraigned on 11 outstanding warrants at South Boston BMC for shoplifting offenses at South Bay.  Whyte was ordered held on $500 bail and will return to court February 7. Whyte also faces outstanding warrants in courts outside Suffolk County.

Of the 45 cases disposed through December, 16 included drug-treatment provisions as part of sentencing, eight resulted in incarceration ranging from 10 days to one year, and 31 had the existing stay-away orders remain in effect.

Judges also ordered a total of $3038.80 in restitution payments to Target, a South Bay anchor store.

There were several violent incidents at South Bay Mall in 2023, including one where a large group of young people brawled and attacked police officers outside of the mall’s cinema complex.  Hayden said those incidents and South Bay’s high volume of shoplifting calls contributed to it becoming a target area for the safe shopping program.

“We and our initiative partners are concerned about all retail areas of the city but the troubling incidents at South Bay in the past made it an area of particular focus. Like so many efforts that yield positive results, communication and partnership among all affected groups are the crucial components,” Hayden said.

All charged individuals are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office serves the communities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop, Mass. The office handles over 20,000 cases a year. More than 160 attorneys in the office practice in nine district and municipal courts, Suffolk Superior Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court, and the Boston Juvenile Courts. The office employs some 300 people and offers a wide range of services and programs to serve anyone who comes in contact with the criminal justice system. This office is committed to educating the public about the services we provide, our commitment to crime prevention, and our dedication to keeping the residents of Suffolk County safe.

James Borghesani, Chief of Communications