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    COURT REPORT

    Gallery Owner Faces Forgery Charges

    Melissa Jerace is also being sued by former friends and associates in Florida

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Melissa Jerace, owner of the East End gallery Domingos En La Playa, faces two counts of forgery of a check and forgery of a deposit slip. The charges, victims say, fit a pattern of deceit going back to 2015.

    Court documents show that Jerace, 53, of Truro was summoned to Orleans District Court last year for an Aug. 10 arraignment on the forgery charges. Each count carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in state prison. Her attorney, Michael Pierce of West Barnstable, did not return a call seeking comment. Reached by phone, Jerace declined to comment.

    Melissa Jerace, left, with artist JD Raenbeau at Jerace’s Domingos En La Playa gallery at 368 Commercial St. in the summer of 2021. (Photo courtesy JD Raenbeau)

    New York artist JD Raenbeau said he has been waiting for $12,000 that Jerace owes him from his sold-out show at her gallery last summer. When he came to Provincetown in November for his honeymoon, he made a surprise visit to her gallery to confront her. He said she gave him a $9,000 check, which was returned for insufficient funds. He told the Independent he is not surprised that Jerace has ended up in criminal court.

    Neither is Lauren Powell, 37, who now lives in Los Angeles, where she owns the gallery Lauren Powell Projects. She told the Independent she had known Jerace for eight years, starting when they were both living in Florida.

    When Jerace moved to Cape Cod and opened her gallery here in 2020, Powell helped her gather works from artists who would be of interest in Provincetown. As curator of the gallery’s shows in 2021, Powell was to get a 20 percent commission on sales while Jerace would take 30 percent, Powell told the Independent. Powell said she is still waiting to be paid the $8,000 in commissions she earned.

    And then there is Lyn Plummer, an owner of Dol-Fin Development, and the landlord who rented Jerace the gallery space at 368 Commercial St. in 2020 and 2021.

    Plummer told the Independent by the time the lease agreement ended in 2021, Jerace owed her $26,000 in back rent. Jerace has since paid off that debt, but Plummer said collecting the money through a civil court process cost her $10,000 in attorney’s fees.

    The forgery charges originate from Jerace’s plan to stop Plummer from evicting her in June 2021. When pressed to pay $10,000 in back rent, Jerace told Plummer she would be getting a check from her mother to cover the rent, according to a Provincetown police report. She then texted Plummer a photograph of a check for $10,000 from her mother, Charlotte Jerace of Truro and Florida. The police later interviewed Charlotte in Florida and determined that Melissa Jerace had forged her mother’s signature on the check, the police report states.

    Jerace also sent a photograph of a deposit slip purporting to show that $10,000 had been placed in Plummer’s account at Seamen’s Bank. When Plummer saw that no money had actually been deposited, and a bank customer service representative told her that the deposit slip had been altered, Plummer went to the police, according to court records.

    The criminal case is continued until May 13.

    Raenbeau said his efforts to collect from Jerace had been long and fruitless. Trying to track her down online, he discovered additional cases filed against her in Florida. That’s when it dawned on him that “I am never going to get my money.”

    According to three separate lawsuits filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County, Fla., Jerace told investors, who included friends, business associates, and a former boyfriend, that she planned to open a luxury addiction treatment center, Casa de Luz, and an associated pharmaceutical business in Barbados.

    According to court documents, she borrowed a total of $955,000 for her startup businesses from three individuals and two couples. But she never repaid the loans.

    Also named in one of the Florida lawsuits is Nicholas Pollard, the senior vice president and managing director of Eastern Region Private Banking, part of U.S. Bank in Palm Beach, Fla. Pollard did not return a call for comment at his bank office on March 29. According to the lawsuit, Pollard signed a letter on behalf of the bank stating that Jerace had the funds to repay her loans.

    Court records show Jerace has been a licensed certified addiction professional in Florida since 2005. Powell said Jerace has a way of befriending people in the recovery community when they may be especially vulnerable.

    Editor’s note: Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article, published in print on March 31, incorrectly reported that Jerace had paid only part of the back rent on her Provincetown art gallery. She has paid the entire debt.

     

    EMERGENCIES

    Drunk Driver Hits Pedicab, Runs Down Passenger

    GHB is implicated in spate of overdoses over holiday weekend

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Police made seven arrests here between Thursday and Monday of July 4th weekend, and the rescue squad was kept busy as well. The incidents included a drunk driving crash in which three pedicab passengers had to be transported to the hospital and five GHB overdose calls.

    Provincetown police also seized large quantities of several types of drugs, which Chief Jim Golden said in a press statement “may be related to the seasonal increase in drug-related medical emergencies.”

    Close to 1 a.m. on Saturday, July 3, Chelsea Bianco, 30, of Somerset, drove into the back of a pedicab in front of 749 Commercial St. She did not brake before the impact, according to the police report. One passenger, Imran Chitalwalla, was ejected from the cab, and its operator, Mihail Todorov, told police he saw Bianco run over Chitalwalla’s leg after the initial impact with the cab and then begin to drive off.

    Bianco stopped her car 100 feet away when Todorov chased after her, yelling, according to his statement to police. Chitalwalla suffered a broken pelvis, while the other two passengers in the pedicab, Zohirul Sohag and Serge Rosiles, sustained concussions. All three were first-time visitors to Provincetown.

    First responders requested a Medflight helicopter but were unable to secure one due to overcast weather. Chitalwalla was taken to Cape Cod Hospital via ambulance, then transferred to Boston Medical Center.

    Meanwhile, Bianco failed multiple field sobriety tests, which were administered by Officers McCauley and Kacergis. At 2:35 a.m., Bianco’s chemical breath test showed a blood alcohol content of .094; the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle is .08. She faces one count of OUI causing serious bodily injury and one count of negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Bianco posted her own $1,000 bail. Her pretrial hearing is scheduled for Aug. 17.

    Provincetown emergency services responded to five medical calls for suspected overdoses of the drug GHB over the holiday weekend. GHB is a so-called club drug that can induce euphoria, but it is also a depressant that slows the heart rate and can cause confusion, memory loss, and other complications, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse website. The risk of GHB overdose is greatly increased when mixed with alcohol.

    Chief Golden wrote in an email that three of the five medical calls came from A-House, while the remaining two came from Spiritus Pizza and the Provincetown Inn.

    On the call to the Provincetown Inn on the evening of July 4, police made one arrest after discovering a variety of illicit drugs in the room where they had responded to a report of a man having a panic attack. According to the police report filed by Officers Murray and Dow, the man’s friends told police that he had taken ecstasy that morning, but that he had not taken any other drugs and that no other drugs were in the room.

    But during the interaction, the man began to have a seizure. Mixed with ecstasy, GHB can cause both panic attacks and seizures. When police searched the room, they discovered GHB and several other drugs, including methamphetamine and more than 20 grams of cocaine.

    The alleged owner of the drugs, Donn Bullens Jr., 32, of South Boston, faces seven drug counts, including possession of GHB with intent to distribute. It is unclear if the drugs seized from Bullens are connected to the other emergency calls police received over the weekend. Bullens was released on $1,000 bail and has a pretrial hearing on Aug. 19.

    COURT REPORT

    A Skiff Is Lost — on Land — and Found

    Brought to Wellfleet’s ‘sandpit’ for safekeeping, a boat goes missing

    By

    ORLEANS — Had he arrived at his own bench trial on time, May 20 might have marked the end of Kevin Berry’s two-year boat odyssey. But arrive on time Berry — 56, who lives in Wellfleet and works for the town’s dept. of public works — did not. So, District Court Judge Charles Welch gave Berry a do-over. On July 8 at 9 a.m. he’ll stand trial for receiving stolen property valued at more than $1,200; intimidating a witness, juror, police, or court official; and conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200. All are felonies.

    Michael Ziemba walked into the Wellfleet police station on May 16, 2019 looking for help. A year before, he said, the Wellfleet harbormaster had towed his 2005 Carolina skiff to the town storage yard (the “sandpit”) for winter safekeeping. He checked on his skiff in February; it hadn’t moved. Then May rolled around, and “several people,” Ziemba said — according to Det. Geraldine LaPense’s police report — broke the news that they’d seen his boat parked on Kevin Berry’s Dale Avenue property. Ziemba set out on recon: his boat was indeed visible from the roadway by Berry’s house.

    Ziemba wanted to give Berry an opportunity to return the boat, he told LaPense. He said he offered Berry “several chances,” but at every turn, Berry refused. So, he involved Assistant Harbormaster William Sullivan, who confirmed to LaPense that he’d seen Ziemba’s boat on Berry’s property. Trying “to help negotiate its return,” Sullivan had haggled with some of Berry’s co-workers at the DPW. He had no luck.

    Hence Ziemba’s police-station trip. On May 17, Wellfleet officers went to Berry’s property, where they found a boat — but not Ziemba’s. Berry “adamantly denied any knowledge of ever having Ziemba’s boat on his property,” LaPense wrote. He did tell Officer Edward Garneau that he operates a sander for the DPW, and “is familiar” with boats in the sandpit.

    Four months passed. The skiff’s trail got colder. Then, on Sept. 9, the Truro police called with some news: they’d found a Carolina skiff, previously reported stolen, parked in a lot on Horseleech Road. Ziemba’s brother David had positively identified the boat.

    The Horseleech Road property belonged to Mira Rabin, the police found. And Rabin’s son, Raphael, 22, of Chatham, had been living with Berry in May 2019, during the skiff’s stint in his yard. LaPense contacted Raphael Rabin, who immediately agreed to make a recorded statement.

    He’d moved to Wellfleet in September or October 2018, he said, and moved in with Berry. “Sometime in October,” he’d stumbled across the sandpit. Its locked gate — accessible only by a town employee with keys — was coincidentally open.

    Rabin was in the market for a skiff, so when he noticed one in the sandpit, he considered it abandoned (he took a trailer, too, which must have also been abandoned, he thought). He was, he told LaPense, “just learning to fiberglass,” and felt he could restore the vessel.

    He brought Ziemba’s skiff to Berry’s residence, where it stayed until a few days before the Wellfleet police visited. Rabin told LaPense that both he and Berry were on the property the day of the investigation. Berry had lied to Officer Garneau about the skiff’s location, Rabin allowed. And once Ziemba and others started sniffing out the skiff, the two had moved the boat to Rabin’s property “to make more space in the yard.”

    Rabin and Berry initially made trips to Orleans District Court as co-defendants. But Rabin’s cooperation with the police got the charges against him dismissed upon the Commonwealth’s request. He paid $500 in restitution.

    COURT REPORT

    Preliminary Charges for Meth Possession in Provincetown

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Dispatched to the Cumberland Farms parking lot on Monday morning to deal with a man asleep at the wheel of his car, Patrol Officer Jason Sullivan found Frederick Muhl, 54, of Colchester, Conn. waking up from a nap.

    He’d been in town since 4 a.m., Muhl said, and sleeping at Cumby’s since 6 a.m. He stepped out of his car to talk to Sullivan, Patrol Officer Daniel Sheehan, and Patrol Officer Thomas Radzik — who, according to Sullivan’s report, noticed a four-inch glass pipe “in plain view on the floor next to the driver’s seat.”

    The officers asked Muhl if there were any drugs in his vehicle. Yes, he said, “There was meth in the glove box,” Sullivan reported. There, Radzik found a locked box; Muhl offered up its combination code. Inside, officers found a methamphetamine cigarette in a case, two glass meth pipes, purple and pink containers with meth, a white container holding a crushed blue pill, a clear baggie with five orange pills, a pouch shaped like Grumpy Cat (an internet-famous feline) with a glass meth pipe inside, four disposable syringes, a glass meth pipe funnel and butane torch, an “Asian pouch and small plate,” three pill bottles and one container with meth, a mirrored case with three black and one orange pills, and “various other contents.”

    Field sobriety tests on Muhl revealed no signs of impairment. More charges are likely to follow, but he was arraigned on May 24 in Orleans District Court on one count of possessing methamphetamine, a Class B controlled substance, and one count of possessing Clonazepam, a Class E controlled substance. He’ll next appear in Orleans on July 13, for a pretrial hearing. — Josephine de La Bruyère

    TRUE CRIME

    Pit Bull v. Provincetown Will Go to Court

    Dog owner demands a jury trial over poop on the pier

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — In his 20 weeks of state-standardized training at the Plymouth Police Academy, Sgt. Kevan Spoor, now a 14-year veteran of the Provincetown P.D., broke down doors. He shot dummies. He was yelled at; he yelled. He practiced arrests, investigations. He grappled hand to hand.

    Small-town policing, on the other hand, can be less exhilarating. But last spring, Spoor walked onto MacMillan Pier and into a case that had all the makings of a great whodunit: dueling witnesses; glitching cameras; an alibi that was rough at best. Also, a tag team of officers searching for the truth and accusations of corruption within the ranks of law enforcement.

    The mystery at the heart of it: did the poop on the pier belong to “Archie” the pit bull (whose name was scooped from a Facebook post but not confirmed by his owners)?

    Spoor and Animal Control Officer RuthAnne Cowing said yes. But Matthew Shaffer, 42, of Dennis, Archie’s human, disagreed. In Orleans District Court on Feb. 26, he appealed the  citation he received for violating town bylaw 13-2-7-3 (“no owner shall permit a dog to defecate upon public sidewalks … without immediately and permanently removing the excrement therefrom”) — and demanded a jury trial to clear his dog’s name.

    Judge Charles Welch set the trial for Sept. 14. That date could well change. Massachusetts courts spent the summer and first months of fall severely limiting in-person hearings; jury trials, by definition, did not meet Covid regulations. Courthouses across the state have begun reopening to the public and to potential jurors, but only a pressing sliver of cases in high courts qualify under new orders. Clerks at the Orleans District Court confirmed that district-level proof of canine innocence does not meet any impending criteria.

    But Archie and Shaffer will, eventually, go to trial. And when they do, their jurors will become privy to a saga that began just after 1:30 p.m. on April 16, 2020, when Officer Cowing was called to the scene of the crime.

    According to her police report, Cowing was walking on Bradford Street when Ronnie Walker, an employee with the Provincetown Dept. of Public Works, told her that he had just witnessed two people allow their brown pit bull “to defecate on the sidewalk in front of the buoy bench, not picking up.”

    Cowing made a beeline for the pier, where she conducted a thorough analysis. Her conclusion? That the mess was “freshly laid.” That, and the fact that only one dog, the brown pit bull, was in the immediate area assured Cowing she had the correct human culprits.

    Cowing approached Shaffer and his companion, Laraine Harvey, who maintained their innocence from the start. The dog, they said, could simply not have done the deed. He had just defecated by the Chamber of Commerce, where Cowing could find ample evidence in a nearby trashcan. Cowing was framing them, Shaffer said. Harvey told Cowing that “she was a ‘blue blood’ and that she knew what this was really about.”

    Cowing called for backup.

    So arrived Sgt. Spoor on scene. Harvey and Shaffer greeted him with the charge that they’d been framed. “They were demanding that they be provided everyone’s name immediately,” he wrote, “and were furious of the accusation that their dog would have defecated.”

    Spoor set out on a search for evidence. Video feeds at the harbormaster’s office seemed promising but, he wrote, “The cameras in the immediate area were not working.” One functioning camera showed Shaffer and Harvey walking, then Shaffer and Harvey arguing with Walker. But the footage was inconclusive as far as the dog’s doings.

    Spoor issued Shaffer a citation anyway — as Shaffer and Harvey “continued to tell me how I was making a big mistake and they were going to sue the town and police department.”

    Shaffer paid his $100 first-offense fine. Then, on May 26, he submitted a formal request for an in-court hearing. Neither he nor Harvey responded to requests for comment.

    ‘Sites’ at Gallery 444 

    By

    “Sites” is an exhibition of large-scale black-and-white photographs by Tara Conant. It will be on view at Gallery 444, 444 Commercial St. in Provincetown, through April. The gallery is open by appointment at gallery444ptown.com.

    Conant’s project began as the number of murders of women in Western Massachusetts was rising. The photographs depict the scene of the crime, or a nearby location — homes, parking lots, shopping malls — all the more shocking in their ordinariness. They aim to “raise awareness of the ever-increasing level of violence in our society” and “serve as a remembrance for the victims,” according to the press release.

    TRUE CRIME

    A Sunday Drive in Truro, Foiled

    Car thief’s tale about ‘Aunt April’ doesn’t fool Officer Cheverie

    By

    TRURO — Driving north on Route 6 around midnight last Sunday, Shelby Zawaduk passed a car she could’ve sworn she recognized. Stopped by police just shy of Truro’s Stotts Crossing was a blue Toyota RAV4 that matched Zawaduk’s boyfriend’s family vehicle in make, model, and je-ne-sais-quoi. The car’s driver, though, was a stranger. Zawaduk shook off her premonition and continued north.

    Back at Stotts Crossing, Joshua Scoullar, 27, with addresses in West Dennis and North Attleboro, was, according to Truro Patrol Officer Christopher Cheverie Jr.’s report, fidgeting. The blue Toyota RAV4 in which he’d pushed 70 miles per hour in a 50-mile-per-hour zone was his aunt’s, he told Cheverie. He’d just borrowed it to drive around and cool off. No, he didn’t have the registration, or his license. And no, he couldn’t remember Aunt April’s last name.

    Some prodding from Cheverie and a database search revealed two things. One: the Toyota was registered to Provincetown’s Luster Packard Inc. Two: the Toyota’s driver was the distinctly unlicensed Scoullar, facing an active default warrant from Milford District Court for trespassing.

    Cheverie told Scoullar what he knew; Scoullar dropped the Aunt April story. He had just been walking in Provincetown, he admitted, when he opened the car’s door and took it for a drive. Cheverie called a tow truck. But before it showed up, another vehicle arrived on scene. It was Zawaduk.

    She’d arrived at her boyfriend Caleb Luster’s Provincetown house to learn that his family car was missing from its usual parking spot. Caleb had left it unlocked with the keys inside, he told her. The couple set out on a Toyota-hunt — first stop, Stotts Crossing in Truro.

    Luster reclaimed his car; police arrested Scoullar. The Truro police charged him with the unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and speeding. The Provincetown police charged him with larceny under $1,200 (a $50 bill Luster had left in his glovebox was gone), and larceny of a motor vehicle.

    Here’s where things get complicated.

    Scoullar proved no stranger to the Provincetown P.D.: two Sundays ago, on Oct. 25, Officer Samantha Voltolini arrested him for breaking and entering with intent to commit a misdemeanor and vandalism.

    Roy Renwick, an employee at the Provincetown Inn, had been checking the property (closed since Oct. 20) when he saw Scoullar inside room 173, lying on the bed. When Voltolini arrived on scene, Scoullar told her that he’d been staying in the hotel for “one or two days.”

    Scoullar was arraigned in Orleans District Court on Oct. 26 and released on personal recognizance. But these vehicular cases sent him back to Orleans, where a more thorough perusal of his background revealed two open cases of larceny of a motor vehicle: one, from Aug. 20, in Attleboro District Court, the other, from May 4, in Fall River District Court.

    Hearings in both of those cases allowed for Scoullar’s release on bail, under the condition that he not commit any new offenses. His Nov. 1 exploits violated those conditions.

    As a result, at his Nov. 2 arraignment, the Commonwealth moved to revoke Scoullar’s bail and hold him at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility. Judge Robert Welsh upheld the motion.

    Scoullar will next appear in Orleans District Court for three separate pretrial hearings on Nov. 23. He is due in both Attleboro District Court and Fall River District Court on Jan. 29, 2021.

    TRUE CRIME

    Suspect in George’s Pizza Attack Arraigned

    Drugs dominate local cases at court this week

    By

    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.

    TRUE CRIME

    Finding Amato Dangerous, Judge Denies Bail

    Defense minimizes violence with a well-worn argument

    By

    ORLEANS — At an Oct. 8 dangerousness hearing, Orleans District Court Judge Robert A. Welsh ordered Joseph Amato, 45, of Provincetown, held without bail at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility for 120 days.

    Welsh’s ruling represents the strongest legal action taken against Amato or his husband, Christian Peters, to date. For more than a decade, the two men have been embroiled in a cycle of domestic abuse; they’ve accumulated nine case files and 13 varied iterations of assault charges dating back to July 2010.

    But despite the severity and frequency of their mutual violence, Amato and Peters have managed to evade conviction in every instance. Time and again, prosecution has been halted by the exercise of their marital privilege: an evidentiary exception protecting one spouse from being forced to testify against the other.

    Now, though, may have come a turning point.

    Provincetown police most recently arrested Amato on Sept. 30, after Peters reported that Amato had stabbed him in the neck. The police found a broken, bloodied bottle on the scene, and Peters was airlifted to Mass. General Hospital in Boston. Amato was charged with domestic assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and two unrelated drug offenses.

    Until now, Amato and Peters have faced misdemeanors. Assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, though, is a felony. That offered the district attorney’s office the chance to request a 58A petition.

    In the event of a felony charge, the commonwealth can request that a defendant be detained for 120 days, without bail, as he awaits trial. The success of the petition hinges on a dangerousness hearing, in which a judge decides whether a defendant poses a danger to his victim or to the community — and, accordingly, whether to release him or keep him in custody.

    At Amato’s Oct. 8 hearing, prosecutors submitted each of the previous police reports as evidence, then played a recording of Peters’s Sept. 30 911 call for the court.

    Peters informed the dispatcher that “my husband stabbed my neck.” He repeated himself, through sobs, for just over eight minutes.

    But defense attorney Scott Gleason of Haverhill argued that Amato had not, in fact, stabbed his husband. Gleason asked Peters — who sat in the back of the courtroom, next to Amato’s mother and cousin — to display his neck wound to the court.

    “I think anyone can see it’s not a stab wound,” said Gleason. “What I would suggest to the court is there was a fall to the floor. That’s the only way I would suggest that someone could have sustained this injury, is in the process of a fall.”

    Gleason said that Peters — who, on the night of the incident, told the dispatcher and police officers on the scene that Amato had stabbed him — agreed with this version of events.

    “Mr. Peters insists there was no act of any stabbing,” said the lawyer. “He’s described to me that he took a piece of glass and pulled it out from behind his head. He didn’t know what it was. It just started to bleed.”

    Domestic violence is a crime notoriously difficult to prosecute in large part because victims who were willing initially to be transparent with police often change their stories to protect their abusers, said Ann Burke, a violence recovery program advocate at Fenway Health, a Boston-based LGBTQ+ health care provider.

    Physical violence between intimate partners, said Burke, usually comes on the heels of a campaign of intimidation, isolation, financial manipulation, and emotional abuse, all of which make a victim feel like losing his partner would mean losing his only support system.

    “They’ve been together for 18 years, and Mr. Peters desperately wants his husband home with him,” Gleason told the court. “I know he supports his husband 100 percent.”

    The effects of isolation have particular weight in the gay community. Straight couples are significantly more likely than gay ones to have separate groups of friends, Burke said. The fact that gay victims of domestic violence often share their abuser’s network makes them even less likely to accuse partners of wrongdoing. Gleason cited that shared community in his argument.

    “Mr. Peters and Mr. Amato own their own business together,” said Gleason. “They clean houses together. They have many clients and friends in the area. Their clients are all fully in support of the both of them.”

    The prosecutors brushed off Gleason’s claim that Peters had fallen on a broken bottle. They again cited Peters’s 911 call, as well as the observation in Provincetown Police Officer Emmett Catanese’s report that a wound on Peters’s forearm was consistent with a defensive injury.

    And they described in detail “a history between these two that does seem to be escalating in injuries,” asking Judge Welsh to find Amato dangerous based on his extensive record.

    Welsh agreed. He dismissed Gleason’s argument that there had been no stabling. “It’s fairly clear to the court that Mr. Peters was stabbed,” he said, and, citing an “escalating history of violence,” ordered Amato’s continued detention.

    Amato will next appear in virtual court on Nov. 6, via Zoom, for a pretrial conference.

    Neither attorney Gleason nor the district attorney’s office would comment on the case. But the prosecution made it clear in court that — breaking with their past decisions — they would forge ahead with Amato’s case even if Peters exercises his marital privilege.

    “With respect to the victim’s position, because of the nature of this case and the significant history, we fully intend to prosecute it based on the evidence at this point,” they said.

    TRUE CRIME

    Vandalism, Alcohol Blemish Weekend Perfection

    Bad art, boneheaded arguments, a car accident, and a lot of expletives

    By

    WELLFLEET — An employee at Bay Sails Marine on Route 6 was flushing out his boat Saturday evening at the end of a beautiful late September day when he noticed a new, distinctly unsolicited mural decorating the marine supply store’s back shed. The medium: graffiti paint on concrete. The message? Unclear.

    “BLM” appeared twice, joining “Justice 4 Breonna” and a disparaging comment about President Trump in the tableau’s political section. Then there was a series of hieroglyphs: a hot dog, a broken heart, a middle finger, a reference to the Illuminati, two stick-figure men in hats. The phrase “Im the coochie mann” figured prominently, as did “WAP” — an abbreviation popularized by rapper Cardi B.

    Wellfleet Police Chief Michael Hurley does not think the hieroglyphs found at Bay Sails Marine have artistic merit. (Photo Josephine de La Bruyère)

    “I can’t say I understand all the symbols,” said Lyle Butts, principal of Bay Sails Marine, “but I will say there’s a little talent there. It must have taken some time.”

    As for a possible culprit? In Butts’s estimation, it’s probably “a local kid who saw this on TV and thought it was a smart-ass thing to do.”

    Wellfleet Police Chief Michael Hurley would like to clarify: the vandalism was not, in fact, a smart thing to do.

    “We’re reviewing camera footage from all over,” he said. “We’re in touch with local departments, and we’re actively seeking the public’s help.”

    Butts is eager to avoid a repeat incident. Cameras for Bay Sails are arriving next week — and in the meantime, he has the situation under control.

    “I won’t stand for this,” he said. “I worked all my life to create this place. Every extra dollar I had went into it. For someone to come in and do something like this? Ridiculous.”

    Of Face Masks and ‘Fascism’

    Officers patrolling Provincetown’s mask-mandatory Commercial Street on Friday morning received a slew of reports about a man refusing to cover his nose and mouth.

    One caller told officers the man was fighting with “at least five different people.” Another said he’d referred to several women with the same rude expletive. Police Sgt. Glenn Enos said he’d had an exchange with the man about the proper use of a face mask.

    After a 20-minute search, Det. Meredith Lobur located the man, later identified as Brian Aldred, a Quincy resident, outside the Wired Puppy. She asked for his name; he informed her, according to Officer Thomas Radzik’s police report, that “I’m done talking to you,” then walked away.

    Radzik and Seasonal Officer Karolina Gawedzki approached Aldred, asking him to calm down. He clenched his fists, spread his legs, tensed his upper body, and informed his interlocutors, with a choice expletive, “You’re all … fascists.”

    Then came a moment of national focus for Aldred. “This is America,” he yelled. “Is this really America 2020?” When Radzik informed Aldred he was to be arrested for disorderly conduct, he responded that the officer was kidnapping him.

    “I was up all night drinking,” Aldred told Radzik during his booking. He agreed to take a preliminary breath test, which produced a blood alcohol content reading of 0.174 percent. (The state’s maximum allowable blood alcohol level is 0.08 percent.)

    Aldred was arraigned in Orleans District Court on disorderly conduct charges on Sept. 28.

    Car Flipped, Driver Fled

    When State Trooper Patrick Bosworth arrived on the scene of a crash at Exit 12 on Route 6 in Orleans Saturday night, he found a 2006 Toyota Avalon with “extensive front end damage” lying on its roof, a mangled guardrail, and officers from the Orleans police and fire depts. One thing Bosworth didn’t find was the driver.

    A witness told officers he’d seen a young white male get out of the Toyota and head into the roadside woods. Officers established a perimeter and, soon enough, made out a man in a white T-shirt standing in the thicket. They ordered him to leave the woods. He didn’t.

    Twenty minutes later, he made his way to the highway on ramp, where he identified himself as Roland Kaplan, 25, an Eastham native. Kaplan told officers he’d been just a passenger in the vehicle, then told them he’d been driving, then called himself a passenger again.

    Bosworth’s vehicle inventory revealed deployed driver-side airbags but no passenger-side ones, plus a collection of empty White Claw cans in the car’s back seat. Kaplan elected to refuse a breath test, but failed to properly execute the three standardized field sobriety tests Bosworth administered. While being booked and fingerprinted, he stated he was “drunk.”

    Kaplan was released from custody on Sept. 27 and arraigned in Orleans District Court the next day on four charges: operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of a property damage accident, and a marked lanes violation.

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