Angel Gomez Gonzalez, the Springfield man accused of assaulting George Kraniotakis, 81, of Provincetown, owner of George’s Pizza, was arraigned in Orleans District Court on Oct. 9 on charges of assault and battery, a misdemeanor, and assault and battery on a person over 60 causing serious bodily injury, a felony. That same day, he appeared at a pretrial conference for three separate misdemeanors related to the case.
Provincetown police arrested Gomez on June 27 after Officer Simon Saliba and Seasonal Officer Madison Bentz responded to a 911 call from George’s, a no-fuss town staple. There, Kraniotakis told them he’d been punched in the head.
Kraniotakis said a rowdy group had walked in with their own beers and began yelling and disturbing other patrons. Kraniotakis asked them to leave. They did — but not before one of the group struck him, knocking him to the ground.
Eyewitnesses told officers Bentz and Saliba that the group had headed toward MacMillan Pier, where police found two men fighting. One was Andrew Chartier, a George’s employee who’d seen the attack and, he said, was determined to bring the perpetrator to justice.
The other man, who had bitten Chartier’s arm during the tussle, said his name was “Angel Carraballo.” Security camera footage later confirmed that he was Kraniotakis’s assailant.
Police brought “Carraballo” to the station for booking. When officers prepared to fingerprint him, he complained that his hand was injured and refused to place it on the scanner.
“Gomez started getting nervous,” wrote Saliba, “as if he was hiding something.”
A medical evaluation revealed no problem with the hand or any of its digits. The fingerprinting resumed and found that “Carraballo” was, in fact, Gomez Gonzalez, who, because of a string of firearms and drug charges, was under supervised probation in Hampden County.
Gomez’s assault left Kraniotakis with a perforated eardrum and temporary severe hearing loss in one ear, police were told by Ross Johnston, a Hyannis otolaryngologist. Doctors told police the injury would likely heal, though it would place Kraniotakis at risk of future damage.
Gomez was released after posting $2,500 bail. He next appears in court on Nov. 20, for three separate pretrial conferences.
Meth and Money, in Provincetown
When Police Det. Meredith Lobur entered Joseph Hitchman’s house with a search warrant on Oct. 19, she found Hitchman, 40, reclined in an armchair, a stash of methamphetamine, and $3,000 cash, in a safe bolted to his bed frame.
Officers seized approximately 3.5 grams of methamphetamine in a blue case, shards of the drug in a clear case, and pills in a clear plastic bag. Upstairs, they found two baggies of meth. In a bathroom, Lobur discovered a drug hide tucked inside a bottle of Clorox bleach.
Hitchman was charged with knowingly possessing methamphetamine, a class B substance, with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense it — a felony. He was arraigned on Oct. 20 and posted $5,000 bail.
That same afternoon, the bail was revoked. Records revealed that Hitchman is currently on pretrial probation, charged with hiding or harboring a child. He had been released after a March 6, 2019, hearing on condition that he not be arrested for a new crime.
Hitchman also has a history of convictions and defaults in California, as well as warrants from that state for the distribution of methamphetamine.
Musk and RBG, on Commercial Street
As officers escorted Tressa Mackin, 32, into the Provincetown Police Dept.’s holding area, she began to “scream out, in happiness and joy,” wrote Sgt. Glenn Enos in his police report.
“That’s a spaceship,” Mackin said, “and it’s my new home!”
Enos had been in Lopes Square, in the midst of an Oct. 4 overtime bike shift for mask enforcement and education, when Mackin, metal tripod in hand, began approaching strangers to tell them about her husband: Elon Musk.
She began dancing in the street. Then, wrote Enos, she hung her tripod upside-down from a street sign by two of its three legs. Enos asked her to take it down. She refused. He asked again. She refused, again, more forcefully. He asked her a third time. With a choice expletive, she informed him, “I answer to no man.”
Enos threw the tripod to the ground; Mackin began to scream.
“That is my antenna,” she told him. “I am trying to summon my legal team and my friends.”
Enos grabbed Mackin’s right arm and tried to get her into handcuffs. As she pulled out of his grip, her bare foot made contact, twice, with his left thigh. Then she ran east on Commercial Street.
Enos pursued her on his bike. At the Freeman Street Landing, between the Squealing Pig and Lands End Marine Supply, he caught up to her and forced her hands behind her back.
Mackin screamed for help from “her husband, Elon Musk,” and “her judge, RBG.” She insisted that Enos address her as royalty, then changed her tune: “I am Jackie O,” she told him.
During her booking process, as Mackin sang a song about islands and streams, Police Sgt. Kevan Spoor asked Mackin if she’d consumed alcohol or drugs. She responded in the affirmative.
Enos charged Mackin with disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. He also deemed her two barefooted strikes to his thigh sufficiently aggressive to charge her with assault and battery on a police officer. Mackin was arraigned on Oct. 20. Released on personal recognizance, she’ll next appear in court on Nov. 20 for a pretrial conference.
Mackin has two prior appearances in Orleans District Court. In July 2019, Truro police charged her with negligent operation of a motor vehicle and operation under the influence of liquor. Those charges were both dismissed — the first upon the recommendation of the probation department, and the second upon the request of the Commonwealth. In January 2018, she was charged with the unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle; that, too, was dismissed.
