Professor found guilty of staging own shooting

By Scott Malone

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A judge on Friday found a former professor at the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology guilty of shooting himself and trying to shift blame to his son as part of a long-running family feud.

The case revolved around a night in December 2005 when John J. Donovan, who taught business for three decades at the famed U.S. science and technology university, called police to allege that two men with Russian accents had shot him as he sat in his minivan.

As police investigated the case, they found some evidence that seemed to contradict that claim.

Donovan, who had a bullet wound in his side when police found him, said he survived the attack because a large metal belt buckle had deflected some of the shots. The belt bore bullet marks but a doctor who examined him did not find injuries that would have been expected if Donovan been wearing it while it was hit, prosecutors said.

"We take these allegations and go where the facts lead us," state Attorney General Martha Coakley said.

Donovan, now 65, was found guilty of filing a false police report. He had pleaded innocent and denied shooting himself.

Prosecutors said he shot himself and planned to pin the attack on his oldest son, James Donovan. The Donovan family has been entangled in a dispute over real estate for years.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman ordered the elder Donovan to serve two years' probation, stay away from his children and pay a $500 fine.  Continued...