Articles Posted in Assault and Battery

Good morning! It’s Tuesday of a new week, and you know what that means… time for the weekly snow storm!

As I’m sure you have noticed, we have been getting a lot of snow lately. This takes effect in terms of criminal justice in various ways. Let’s look at two particular areas which could bring law enforcement to your front door.

Eric Megna, 18, hereinafter, the “Defendant”, is still paying for something that happened even before we knew the winter was going to be full of hazards. He has recently been indicted for his alleged connection to an automobile accident back in October. Of course, the Defendant is said to have taken the bad situation of the accident and making it worse. He is also charged with leaving the scene. A 58-year-old man on a bicycle was struck in that accident.

We have often discussed the fact that when partying comes to the attention of law enforcement, the party-givers and party-goers need to be the ones to back down lest they find themselves wearing the mantle of “criminal defendant” in court.

I do not think that Jamie Martis, 20, , Dale Harding, 26 or Joshua Foote, 22 have been readers of this blog. You see, Somerville police officers came to what was described as a “wild party” early Sunday morning. In the end, approximately 25 to 30 police officers responded to the house party…and they were not among the invited guests.

It was just after midnight on Sunday when the Somerville officers first came to 6 Myrtle Street. There had been a report of a loud party. The officers poke with Harding and told him that he had to turn the music down and move about 30 people who were in the back yard inside.

Douglas Bergeron, 32, is from Malden and is hereinafter referred to as the “Defendant”. His Massachusetts criminal justice troubles have already gone from bad to worse.

First came an unfortunate bus ride he allegedly took on the night of October 13th. According to the Commonwealth, the Defendant did not have enough money on his Charlie Card. Whatever the reason, the Defendant is said to have assaulted the MBTA bus driver. The bus, in motion, then crashed into a legally parked car near 946 Broadway Street.

The chain reaction involved two other vehicles according to authorities.

They say that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. If what the Commonwealth is saying about a certain Lynn elementary school teacher, we may have new support for that proposition.

49-yeare-old Kimberly Ann English, (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is not teaching her class today. Instead, she is being held without bail on charges that she drove her car into her ex-husband’s girlfriend Tuesday night in Swampscott.

The Defendant was arraigned today at Lynn District Court. Her charges include violation of a restraining order, aggravated assault and battery with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and leaving the scene of a crash, according to Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett’s office.

A few words of alleged wisdom to our younger readers and those who love them.

School is not quite over yet! Parties are for good times spent with friends! Stabbing people in throwing bricks at them do not qualify as fun times!

They qualify as felonies, such as Massachusetts assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and potentially assault with intent to commit murder.

This past weekend, it would appear that these words were forgotten. It took place in Springfield at a high school graduation party.

Things apparently were fine until some uninvited guests decided to attend. Their attendance included the stabbing of two guests as well as hitting the host in the head with a brick.

You may have thought that this would be enough to get someone in trouble under normal circumstances. You would be correct. However, this was not normal circumstances. This house is owned by a retired Springfield police officer. He has vowed that the culprits would be captured.
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34-year-old Aisling Brady McCarthy (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is one of the latest Massachusetts assault or murder defendants who are female.

The Defendant is also the second Irish nanny to be charged in Middlesex County in a high-profile murder case involving the death of a baby in her care. Last week, she was indicted on that matter.

Authorities say that a Middlesex County grand jury indicted the Defendant on charges of murder and assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury. They say she’s accused of “violently injuring” the child.

The baby was hospitalized with severe head injuries in January on her first birthday and died two days later. The Defendant had previously pleaded not guilty to assault and battery on a child. At the time, she was jailed on $500,000 bail while authorities awaited the baby’s autopsy results. Apparently, those results are in…along with and indictment to move the matter up to superior court.

Attorney Sam’s Take On Female Defendants

Last week we began the topic of female defendants and the new movement to reach out to young females to prevent such crime. We discussed one young lady who had been arrested for the stabbing of an apparent romantic rival with a butcher knife. We touched upon another 15-year-old girl who had been accused of being part of a mob who beet up an MBTA driver in Dorchester. Yet another such a case involved three girls who attacked a mutual former friend.
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It is a surprise to no one that Massachusetts crime can happen to anyone. Anyone can be a victim…male or female. The assumption used to be, however, that males are more likely to be perpetrators of those crime than females.

There is now a movement to concentrate on the realization that plenty of Massachusetts females becomecriminal defendants, including in Massachusetts assault crimes, as well.

Yesterday, we dealt with one such case. One young lady repeatedly stabbed another young lady in Dorchester with a butcher knife. What the young man the two had in common did at the time is at issue.

A 15-year-old Hyde Park girl who was arrested last month after police alleged that she was among a mob who beat up an MBTA driver at a bus stop on Columbia Road in Dorchester.

Charlestown police tell about another group of girls. According to the authorities, the girls were all friends. Key word : “were”.

One not-so-fine evening in February, three of them attacked a fourth. They punched her, pulled her hair, and as she lay defenseless, prosecutors said, one of the girls, 17-year-old Samantha Owen, stole $30 from the girl’s purse.
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“You always hurt the one you love”is an old saying. These days, perhaps the words “or kill” should be added.

Earlier last week, we were alerted to the fact that Angeleek Barros, 21, (hereinafter the “Victim”) who was pushing a baby stroller down the street was repeatedly stabbed several times in Dorchester. As days went on, we heard that the Victim’s ex- boyfreind’s new girlfriend was the attacker. And so, Samia Jones , 17, and hereinafter, the “Girlfriend”, was arrested for the Massachusetts armed assault with intent to murder. The week went on and another arrest took place. It was the arrest of 19-year-old Daquan Sparks (hereinafter,the “Boyfreind”) was arrested for his alleged part in the assault.

The Boston Police charged that Boyfriend lured the mother of one of his children to Savin Hill Monday and held her while Girfriend stabbed her multiple times in a brazen daytime attack.

Law enforcement alleges that Boyfreind had children with both Girlfreind and Victim. They say that he called the Victim and asked her to meet him in Savin Hill so he could give her shoes for their baby.. When Victim pushed her baby in a stroller down a street, police say that Boyfriend grabbed and restrained her, while Girlfriend stabbed her.

Seems simple, if macabre, enough, right?

Well, not so fast.

Now, Victim has released a statement of her own. She is now saying that she never told police detectives that Boyfriend restrained her while Girlfreind stabbed her repeatedly with a butcher’s knife.

Uh-oh.

Prosecutors had already released the news that she DID tell them that. However, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer O’keefe announced in court during Friday’s arraignment that Victim now denies that Boyfriend held her during the stabbing. Instead, Victim apparently is saying that he was present, but did not restrain her.
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Well, this week’s news in Massachusetts is not great for young children.

For example, in New Bedford today, a 23-year-old gentleman was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to an upgraded charge of murder in the death of his girlfriend’s infant daughter. He had previously been arraigned overcharges including assault and child endangerment. Now, however, the child has passed away and so the new charge is murder.

According to the Commonwealth, the nine-month-year-old child died from “blunt force trauma to the head” on January 24 when the defendant was alone with her.

Court documents say the defendant told police he was angry when the child became ‘fussy” . he admitted that his way of dealing with that anger was to cause the infant to hit her head twice on the floor. the baby was found to have a large blood clot on her brain.

Meanwhile, a Peabody man faced the final act in his pending child abuse case. Richard Elias was sentenced to up to four years in prison after pleading guilty to shaking and head-butting his 7-week-old daughter. The child’s Infraction was apparently that she would not stop crying while he drank beer and played video games.

Authorities say that the abuse took place in October 2011 while his wife was at a Halloween party. the couple took child to the hospital the next day. Doctors determined her injuries included swelling and bleeding in the brain and retinas.

According to the Salem news, Elias’ lawyer blamed the abuse on his client’s post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a tour of duty in Iraq with the Army in 2007.
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It is every parent’s nightmare and it harkens back to a similar high-profile homicide trial from years ago. That one was in Middlesex County as well.

This time it is Medford where dwelt a 34-year-old nanny, Aisling McCarthy Brady (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). Now, she stands accused of assault and is likely to see homicide charges herself. The proposed victim is a 1-year-old girl who was under her care. The girl has since died.

According to the Commonwealth, the Defendant attacked the baby on the baby’s first birthday early last week. The baby died two days later. Prosecutors allege that the baby suffered “massive brain swelling” as a result of being assaulted by the Defendant. The child was then rushed to Children’s Hospital Boston, where she was pronounced dead.

In court today at the Defendant’s arraignment, the Commonwealth described how it contends the baby’s injuries came about. It described the baby as a “healthy, normal, well-baby” who woke around 8 a.m. and was cared for by her mother and the Defendant.

The mother is said to have left the home around 9:30 a.m., leaving the infant in the sole care of the Defendant. The child napped from about 10 a.m. to about 1:15 p.m., the prosecutor said. At 4:42pm, the Defendant called 911 and asked for medical help.

“It is very clear the only person who had contact with this child at the time of the injuries [on Jan. 14] was the defendant,” argued the prosecutor.

Defense counsel, however, argued that there was more to the story. She argued that, in recent weeks, the baby had been traveling overseas which included stops in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. “Who knows what could have happened?” defense counsel argued. The defense went on to say that when the child returned to the United States, she was diagnosed as suffering from malnutrition.
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