Last week, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog discussed cases involving assaults of various natures. Some involved drugs. Some involved the ultimate assault… homicide.
This week, we begin with assault of a different kind. Here, no person was assaulted.
It was a wall.
No, it was not a drunk driving case, where an inebriated driver believed that the traffic laws allowed “Straight On Red”…even if straight ahead was a stone wall.
This was just a regular corridor wall. Inside, not outside.
Eric B., 18, of Newton (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was charged with the assault. The violence allegedly took place after he allegedly punched holes into the corridor wall at the city’s new alternative high school. He apparently chose the alternative of manhandling the wall instead of the people he was really mad at.
You see, the Defendant had had an argument with a student. He was then asked to leave the school and the police were contacted. He left. For awhile. Then, he returned, temper a-blazing.
Entering the school, the Defendant allegedly opened the office door with such force, the door knob punctured a hole in the wall, said police. He was then told to leave again. Before doing so, he began to pound out a new exit in the wall with his fists.
Then he went home where he was finally confronted by the Newton Police who awarded his boxing prowess with the Commonwealth’s Bracelets Of Shame and charges for destruction of property and intimidating a witness.
Attorney Sam’s Take:
As we have discussed in the past, intimidation of a witness is a very broad statute and can cover a number of scenarios. Here, it is unlikely that it refers to the opposite or adjoining walls, but probably to whoever was the lucky observer to the Defendant’s return to the school.
Obviously, assault is to a living being as destruction of property is to an inanimate object.
Once again, we have a situation where a student has let his temper get the best of him.
Perhaps in the “old days”, we took into account pressures and judgment impairments of youth. Not any more, though. Now, the police are called in as quickly as if the offending party were a grown man.
In this case, the Defendant has been unlucky enough to have made it to adulthood as far as the courts are concerned. Therefore, there will be no juvenile proceeding where the main interest is in helping the youth. Instead, he is just like any other adult defendant. Because of his age, however, he faces great risk to his future in terms of an adult criminal record. Perhaps he has an experienced attorney who will seek out the possibilities of working out the matter so that such a criminal record does not come into being…or , perhaps is able to resolve the matter so that any such record may be sealed in short order.
Maybe.
When it is your or your child’s turn…will you?
Should you find yourself facing such a sensitive scenario and wish to discuss it with me, please feel free to contact me at 617-492-3000.
To find the original story upon which this story is based, please go to http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/newton/2010/02/newton_student_arrested_after.html