“It’s
becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
By Julie ManganisStaff writer
PEABODY — A longtime state Trial Court officer charged
with hindering a police investigation into the beating of a disabled man tried
yesterday to get a judge to continue the case without a finding.
But Judge Stacey Fortes-White refused, saying that on the
evidence before her she would find David Vitale, 53, of Methuen guilty and
place him on two years of supervised probation.
So Vitale withdrew his admission in the case during a
hearing yesterday in Peabody District Court and is trying a new tack: His
attorney filed motions seeking to suppress the misleading statements he
allegedly gave to Newburyport police on the night of Sept. 16.
Vitale's grounds: He was under the influence of drugs and
alcohol, to such an extent that he was unable to fully understand what he was
doing when he spoke to police.
Vitale and another longtime Trial Court employee, Ipswich
District Court assistant clerk magistrate Alison Desmond, 54, of Newburyport,
were charged in December with witness intimidation, a charge that includes
misleading investigators.
The two, who had worked together at the old Ipswich
District Court and in Newburyport District Court, attended a "numbers
game" at the Newburyport Elks Club, where they were joined by two other
men, Vitale's nephew Ryan Nimblett and another man, Robert Barron, according to
Newburyport police.
Later that night, Vitale, Nimblett and Barron were
involved in a confrontation with a cab driver near Desmond's condo on Storey
Avenue, police said. Nimblett and Barron fled the scene as police arrived, and
in their efforts to escape attacked a 32-year-old, developmentally disabled
grocery store worker walking nearby. The men demanded his cellphone, then threw
him into a car windshield and threatened to shoot him when he told them he
didn't have one, police said.
Vitale claimed he didn't know the other men, and told
officers that he had never been to Newburyport before that night.
In fact, Vitale had worked at the Newburyport courthouse
for several years before being transferred to Lowell District Court.
Desmond claimed she didn't know any of the men, despite
having signed them into the Elks Club. She later acknowledged that she knew
Vitale and provided a statement to police about Nimblett.
Both were suspended from their jobs as a result of the
case.
Yesterday was the second time that Vitale had tried to
enter an admission to sufficient facts in the case on the condition that the
case be continued without a finding — a disposition that would ultimately lead
to the charges being dismissed after a year. That, in turn, would protect his
pension and benefits.
In April, another judge rejected his proposal.
Prosecutor Janelle Amadon yesterday asked Fortes-White to
impose a suspended six-month jail term and two years of probation, with
conditions that include 150 hours of community service.
Fortes-White, who was specially assigned to hear the case
because she usually sits in Lynn District Court, where neither Vitale nor
Desmond have worked, opted for a two-year term of probation, as well as the 150
hours of community service.
Under Massachusetts law, a defendant who is unhappy with
the sentence a judge proposes during a change-of-plea hearing can withdraw that
plea and ask for a trial.
Vitale and his lawyer did just that, filing motions that
will now be heard on Aug. 1.
Nimblett remains in default in the case.
The other suspect, Robert Barron, will be back in court
Aug. 1.