Welcome To Crazy Town
A Bridgewater woman is drugged, restrained with wire and imprisoned in her own home for a month before being rescued by a family member on May 18th. In the span of two weeks, Bridgewater police respond to not one, but two threats of "suicide by cop" by people driven over the edge, yielding guns. And on May 16th, a bomb threat is called in to Bridgewater-Raynham High School. In East Bridgewater, a model citizen is exposed as a serial rapist whose been on the loose for years, disguising himself as a Massachusetts State Trooper, getting his helpless victims into his car by telling them they were in trouble.
Sounds like the plot lines for a CSI show, huh? Nope. Just another day in the Bridgewater Triangle.
The articles below are all from The Brockton Enterprise.
Patience by SWAT team prevents ‘suicide by cop’ in Bridgewater
By Amy Carboneau
Enterprise Staff Writer
Apr 24, 2013
BRIDGEWATER — When police heard a 25-year-old man was holed up in his home, drunk and with a gun, in the middle of a normally quiet neighborhood, they knew they had enough reason to call in the SWAT team. Bridgewater police and negotiators from the Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (SEMLEC) talked the man into giving himself up Monday night after nearly 21/2 hours of negotiations during which the man was threatening “suicide by cop,” police said.
“They did an awesome job,” police Lt. Thomas Schlatz said about SEMLEC’s SWAT team.
Before being captured, Thomas Viera, 25, of 83 Forest St., stood in the doorway of his home Monday pointing a rifle at the SWAT team’s armored car, Schlatz said.
By about 4:30 that evening, police had set up a perimeter around the man’s home and called him three times at home and on his cell phone, but “to no avail,” said Schlatz.
So they called in the SWAT team for backup, a move that police said was based on information presented at the time and not related to the bombings in Boston last week, which in no way put them on edge, Schlatz said.
“If our response was two weeks ago, it would have been the exact same response,” Schlatz said Tuesday. Police are “well-trained” for such situations, said Mitch Librett, a retired police officer who once commanded a SWAT team and now teaches criminal justice at Bridgewater State University.
“I really believe that, although it may be running in the back of their minds – ‘here we go again’ – police are very well-trained,” Librett said Tuesday. “Whatever the motivation of the actor, or the suspect, is almost irrelevant.”
It is all based on tactics and dealing with the situation at hand, he added.
For Bridgewater police, the timing of the incident was “lucky,” said Schlatz, because it happened on a shift change, which meant more officers were immediately available to respond.
Bridgewater police have been a part of SEMLEC, a regional force, for about a year. Its SWAT team is commanded by Bridgewater police Sgt. Carl Macdermott.
Police on Monday placed an automated, emergency phone call alerting neighbors of a “domestic situation.”
“Please stay in your homes or away from 83 Forest St. You will receive a call when the situation is ended,” it alerted.
Roland Fortin, 62, who lives a couple houses away from the scene, said he did not worry when he saw an officer walking through his backyard.
When police heard a 25-year-old man was holed up in his home, drunk and with a gun, in the middle of a normally quiet neighborhood, they knew they had enough reason to call in the SWAT team.
Bridgewater police and negotiators from the Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (SEMLEC) talked the man into giving himself up Monday night after nearly 21/2 hours of negotiations during which the man was threatening “suicide by cop,” police said.
“They did an awesome job,” police Lt. Thomas Schlatz said about SEMLEC’s SWAT team.
Before being captured, Thomas Viera, 25, of 83 Forest St., stood in the doorway of his home Monday pointing a rifle at the SWAT team’s armored car, Schlatz said.
By about 4:30 that evening, police had set up a perimeter around the man’s home and called him three times at home and on his cell phone, but “to no avail,” said Schlatz.
So they called in the SWAT team for backup, a move that police said was based on information presented at the time and not related to the bombings in Boston last week, which in no way put them on edge, Schlatz said.
“If our response was two weeks ago, it would have been the exact same response,” Schlatz said Tuesday.
Police are “well-trained” for such situations, said Mitch Librett, a retired police officer who once commanded a SWAT team and now teaches criminal justice at Bridgewater State University.
“I really believe that, although it may be running in the back of their minds – ‘here we go again’ – police are very well-trained,” Librett said Tuesday. “Whatever the motivation of the actor, or the suspect, is almost irrelevant.”
It is all based on tactics and dealing with the situation at hand, he added.
For Bridgewater police, the timing of the incident was “lucky,” said Schlatz, because it happened on a shift change, which meant more officers were immediately available to respond.
Bridgewater police have been a part of SEMLEC, a regional force, for about a year. Its SWAT team is commanded by Bridgewater police Sgt. Carl Macdermott.
Police on Monday placed an automated, emergency phone call alerting neighbors of a “domestic situation.”
“Please stay in your homes or away from 83 Forest St. You will receive a call when the situation is ended,” it alerted.
Roland Fortin, 62, who lives a couple houses away from the scene, said he did not worry when he saw an officer walking through his backyard.
There were so many police out here that there was no one getting close to me,” he said.
Two other women who live nearby declined to comment out of respect for the family involved, they said.
Viera was evaluated at the scene by Bridgewater paramedics, police said. He was then taken to Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital and the Brockton Multi-service center for further psychiatric evaluation. He was to remain for 48 hours. Viera will be summoned to Brockton District Court at a later date, police said. He faces charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and 12 counts of failing to secure a firearm. Police seized 12 rifles and a handgun from the home.
Link To The Brockton Enterprise
SWAT teams defuse suicide incident in Bridgewater
By Amy Carboneau
Enterprise Staff Writer
May 8, 2013
BRIDGEWATER — Just hours after police and SWAT teams descended on a Randolph street for a drug deal gone bad, Middleboro and Bridgewater faced their own crisis situation.
A Middleboro man, later identified as 40-year-old Christopher French, of 173 Old Center St., had barricaded himself in his truck with a shotgun in Middleboro, then fled north up Route 18 into Bridgewater where local officers joined the pursuit, Bridgewater police Lt. Tom Schlatz said Wednesday.
At around 1 a.m. Wednesday, the vehicle was stopped in the parking lot of P&L Paintball, at 1221 Bedford St., on Route 18. There, Schlatz said, the man pointed the shotgun at his own head multiple times as negotiators spent the next 2 1/2 hours talking him down, with success.
“I can’t say enough about the negotiators,” said Schlatz. “The outcome was excellent, and the reason it was excellent was because of the cooperation from the multiple agencies.”
Police closed off Route 18 from Flagg Street to State Farm Road, which is the access road to the Bridgewater’s prison, and created a perimeter around some paintball fields.
“We had to prevent him from going mobile again,” Schlatz said.
Negotiators finally coaxed French out of his vehicle and away from his shotgun at around 3:30 a.m., police said.
The situation is the second situation is less than three weeks in which Bridgewater police called in SWAT and negotiator teams to assist suicidal persons.
On April 22, Bridgewater police was assisted by SWAT and negotiator teams for an incident on Forest Street, in which a man was threatening “suicide by cop,” police said.
There were no injuries reported in either situation.
French faces charges by Middleboro police, which were not immediately available Wednesday. Other charges may follow by Bridgewater police, Schlatz said.
Middleboro police, Bridgewater police, Bridgewater State University police, State police and Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council negotiators and SWAT teams, the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department and Department of Corrections officers from Bridgewater state prison all responded to the incident.
Link To The Brockton Enterprise
East Bridgewater man's rape conviction shocks neighbors
By Maria Papadopoulos
Enterprise Staff Writer
May 10, 2013
EAST BRIDGEWATER — By all accounts, Peter Pearson was living the American dream on Village Road, with a large raised-ranch, expansive back yard, great job, devoted wife, two sons and a family dog.
Neighbor Joe Voci, who first met Pearson three decades ago, recalls attending birthday parties for the young sons of Pearson, a former Boston deputy fire chief.
And he remembers Pearson as a friendly “sports nut” who generously gave away baseball tickets, he said. Voci would often see Pearson at Fenway Park.
“I had a bad dog bite at one time, he came down and he brought me a big baseball book and stuff,” Voci, 76, recalled from his home Thursday. “He’s given me baseball tickets. He used to have season tickets. He was always so good to us.”
That philanthropic, All-American image Pearson gave to his neighbors was shattered Thursday when a Plymouth County Superior Court jury found Pearson guilty of posing as a state trooper and raping five women at gunpoint.
“I am shocked. He’s always been a very nice neighbor, so I’m very shocked,” said Diane Wolfe, 47, who lives a few houses away from Pearson. “He always waved. He was friendly.”
Pearson, 56, of 142 Village Road, was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in state prison at Cedar Junction.
Steve MacDonald, spokesman for the Boston Fire Department, said he worked with Pearson, who retired in 2008, but he didn’t want to comment on his conviction.
“He’s not an employee of the department,” MacDonald said Thursday.
Officials from the Boston Retirement Board did not return requests Thursday for Pearson’s pension amount and whether he will continue to receive it.
MacDonald’s professional distance from Pearson, who worked as a Boston firefighter for 23 years, is a far cry from when the Boston Fire Department honored him in 1998 for rushing into a burning house while off-duty to extinguish a fire.
Pearson received a Distinguished Service Award for his efforts.
In 2000, he was in a group of 40 firefighters who received a unit citation for responding to an East Boston building collapse, where they rescued two injured workers from the building. Pearson was the chief officer commanding the scene outside, MacDonald said.
Pearson retired on Sept. 5, 2008, less than one month after he was accused of posing as a state trooper and raping a Brockton prostitute at gunpoint.
Pearson’s heroism was soon eclipsed by his apparent double life. Pearson would pose as a state police officer, using a badge and a handheld radio, trial testimony showed. He took his victims to places in Brockton like D.W. Field Park and the parking lot of a hospital and would force them to perform oral sex on him. His crimes occurred during an 11-year period, from 1997 to 2008, authorities said.
Pearson was arrested in August 2008 after a man flagged down an officer, saying the person who raped his girlfriend just drove by.
The woman first reported the attack to police in July 2008, when she was arrested on common nightwalker charges. She told police at the time that the man ordered her into his car, claimed to be a state trooper and drove to D.W. Field Park where she was forced to perform a sex act at gunpoint. The suspect, who told her he had been watching her for weeks, then drove her back, the woman told police.
She told her boyfriend about the attack at that time. She told Brockton police she was afraid to report the attack because she believed the man was a state trooper.
The woman told police she saw the man again later driving by on Haverhill Street, authorities said. That’s when her boyfriend flagged down a Brockton cruiser, leading to Pearson’s arrest in 2008.
After his arrest, investigators executed search warrants at his East Bridgewater home and his Boston Fire Department locker.
Subsequently, the other victims came forward and told authorities they recognized Pearson from news reports of the arrest. They identified him in a police photo array, officials said at the time.
His neighbors said they saw a different side of Pearson.
“I don’t have anything bad to say about him,” Wolfe said. “He seemed nice.
Link to Brockton Enterprise
All clear at Bridgewater-Raynham high after morning bomb scare
By Amy Carboneau
Enterprise Staff Writer
May 18, 2013
BRIDGEWATER — Police have cleared the scene after a morning bomb scare at Bridgewater- Raynham Regional High School led them to evacuate the building. Nothing was found in the search.
Bridgewater police and fire personnel responded to the threat at 415 Center Street at around 10:15 a.m., as school authorities led all students and staff to the adjacent football field.
Three bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in from state police and Quincy police to search the inside and outside of the high school building, said Bridgewater Lt. Tom Schlatz. The search turned up no bombs, he said. While on scene, authorities realized in an unrelated incident, that there was a problem with the school's fire alarm. Because the search and fire alarm repair lasted until about an hour before dismissal, Schlatz said, authorities made the decision to dismiss students early.
Buses arrived around 12:30 p.m. All students and staff were dismissed by about 1 p.m.
State police, Raynham police and Bridgewater State University police were also on scene to assist.
"At no time were any students or staff in danger," Schlatz said in a press release.
Opposite from the high school entrance, parents waited to bring their sons and daughters home. Many had waited for over two hours, having received text messages from their kids at around 10:30 a.m. During the search, a police car stood parked outside the school's entrance. No one was allowed in or out.
After-school activities will continue as scheduled, police said. But according to the school's website, tonight's spring concert has been rescheduled for next Wednesday.
The threat is under investigation, Schlatz said, adding that he would not release any futher information about where the threat came from as it is may jeopardize the investigation.
Police have cleared the scene after a morning bomb scare at Bridgewater- Raynham Regional High School led them to evacuate the building. Nothing was found in the search.
Bridgewater police and fire personnel responded to the threat at 415 Center Street at around 10:15 a.m., as school authorities led all students and staff to the adjacent football field.
Three bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in from state police and Quincy police to search the inside and outside of the high school building, said Bridgewater Lt. Tom Schlatz. The search turned up no bombs, he said. While on scene, authorities realized in an unrelated incident, that there was a problem with the school's fire alarm. Because the search and fire alarm repair lasted until about an hour before dismissal, Schlatz said, authorities made the decision to dismiss students early.
Buses arrived around 12:30 p.m. All students and staff were dismissed by about 1 p.m.
State police, Raynham police and Bridgewater State University police were also on scene to assist.
"At no time were any students or staff in danger," Schlatz said in a press release.
Opposite from the high school entrance, parents waited to bring their sons and daughters home. Many had waited for over two hours, having received text messages from their kids at around 10:30 a.m. During the search, a police car stood parked outside the school's entrance. No one was allowed in or out.
The threat is under investigation, Schlatz said, adding that he would not release any further information about where the threat came from as it is may jeopardize the investigation.
Cops: Bridgewater woman beaten, drugged, kept captive in her home
By Amy Carboneau
Enterprise Staff Writer
May 17, 2013
BRIDGEWATER—In a horrific case of alleged domestic assault, a Stoughton man is accused of severely beating his girlfriend in her Bridgewater home, drugging her and keeping her captive for nearly a month before she was able to get medical treatment, police said.
Now, the boyfriend, Mark Roger Crean, 49, of 75 McCormick Terrace, Stoughton, faces charges of attempted murder, a felony; kidnapping, a felony; assault and battery (domestic), a felony; assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot), a felony; witness intimidation, a felony; drugging a person to kidnap, a felony; and assault and battery (domestic), on a previous occasion, a misdemeanor.
He was arrested in Wareham about 5:30 a.m. Friday and arraigned in Brockton District Court that afternoon. He was held without bail for a dangerousness hearing on May 23.
Authorities say Crean beat his 50-year-old girlfriend in her Bridgewater home, fracturing four of her vertebrae and multiple ribs, leaving contusions all over her body, and fracturing her right eye socket, leaving her blind in one eye, police said. He also, police claim, bound her by her ankles, feet and neck with coated coded wire and placed a plastic bag over her head to try to suffocate her.
On multiple occasions, police said, she passed out from the abuse, and Crean poured a cold beer over her face to wake her. She later told police Crean kept her drugged with what she believed was Percocet, and held her hostage in her own home for the next month.
Police said they believe Crean took away her cell phone when he left the home, and only gave it back when he was there and could monitor her every text message. He denied her any opportunity to seek medical attention, said Bridgewater police Lt. Tom Schlatz.
Early Friday morning, police said, a family member was finally able to get the victim to the hospital, where nurses called police. Bridgewater officers arrived about 2:30 a.m.
She was released from the hospital on Friday, police said.
Police said the same victim was hospitalized about a year ago for a broken nose; doctors suspected domestic abuse.
Crean has a history of assault and battery leading back to 1999, according to Stoughton District Court records.
Crean has had two previous restraining orders against him through Stoughton District Court dating to 2005 and 2007; both had been closed, according to court records.
He also faced two earlier felony assault cases that were dismissed, one because the victim failed to show up in court.
In 1999, Crean faced a charge for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon against a family member in a case that was later dismissed “upon failure to prosecute,” according to court records, which were unclear about why the case was dismissed. In 2005, records show that Crean faced a charge of aggravated assault/homicide after he threw a past girlfriend through a glass table, which shattered. The case was dismissed after the victim failed to show in court. And in 2009, in a case reopened in 2011, records show Crean was charged with two counts of assault and battery against a police officer and resisting arrest in an incident in which children were present. One Stoughton police officer was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
In Brockton District Court on Friday, Bridgewater court prosecutor Christopher Shaw filed for a restraining order on behalf of Crean’s most recent alleged victim.
