A Nazi salute is printed on one of the vandalized headstones at the Jewish cemetery on McMahon Street, Monday, March 8, 2019, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Police now say 59 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts were defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, about twice as many as initially thought. (Jack Foley/The Herald News of Fall River via AP)
A Nazi salute is printed on one of the vandalized headstones at the Jewish cemetery on McMahon Street, Monday, March 8, 2019, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Police now say 59 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts were defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, about twice as many as initially thought. (Jack Foley/The Herald News of Fall River via AP) Credit: Jack Foley

Anti-Semitic graffiti worse than at first thought

FALL RIVER — Police now say 59 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts were defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, about twice as many as initially thought.

Fall River police said Thursday in a Facebook post that they came up with the higher number after a row-by-row inspection of Hebrew Cemetery. Of those 59, two were knocked over.

The stones were defaced with swastikas and phrases including “Expel the Jew” and “Hitler was right” in what appeared to be black marker. Police are treating it as a hate crime.

Rewards totaling $12,500 are being offered for information that leads to an arrest, including $10,000 given anonymously to Congregation Adas Israel, a city synagogue.

Suit: Police forced false confession in deadly fire

BOSTON — A man who says he was wrongfully imprisoned for more than three decades after being convicted of starting a 1982 Massachusetts fire that killed eight people is suing officers he says forced him to falsely confess.

Attorneys for Victor Rosario filed state and federal lawsuits on Thursday against the city of Lowell and several police officers.

A judge vacated Rosario’s murder and arson convictions in 2014, citing questions about whether his confession was voluntary. After the state’s highest court upheld the ruling in 2017, prosecutors said they would not retry him.

Rosario’s attorneys say investigating officers used “outright lies, coercion, threats, mistreatment and sleep deprivation” to force him to falsely confess.

Religious order will halt evictions at rooming house

BOSTON — A Roman Catholic religious order that owns a Boston rooming house for single women has agreed to stop eviction proceedings against some residents while the state investigates allegations of housing discrimination.

The state attorney general’s office in a letter to a lawyer for Our Lady’s Guild House and the property manager says it is looking into “unfair and discriminatory acts.” The building is owned by the Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general tells The Boston Globe that Guild House faces allegations of discrimination against older and disabled residents.

Housing advocates say Guild House wants to replace older residents with international students who can afford higher rents.

From Associated Press