A local pro-life advocate in Massachusetts who claimed police beat him while his hands were handcuffed behind his back after they detained him for passing out pro-life literature at a local fair has seen the charges dropped.
The conservative web site Mass Resistance published the account of Peter D’Attilio, who was detained, jailed and had his vehicle improperly searched for handing out pro-life fliers and LifeNews covered the incident.
Now, the same web site provides an update on the situation, which is now a victory for the pro-life advocate.
A district court judge threw out the Franklin, MA police department’s case against pro-life activist Peter D’Attilio, after sharply challenging the prosecutor regarding validity of the charges. At the hearing on Thursday, Feb. 9, in Wrentham District Court, Judge Stephen Ostrach berated the prosecutor for pursuing what were clearly false charges.
However, the government is apparently so intent on going after Peter that they had someone follow him and listen to his conversations with his attorney at the courthouse.
At the Feb. 9 hearing, the judge first took a few minutes to read the police report. Although the police report had numerous inaccuracies and misstatements in favor of the police, the judge was still able to see that there were serious problems with the charges against Peter.
What happened then was quite surprising. The judge challenged the prosecutor about — and rebuked him — on a number of points regarding the charges, including whether there was actually any “disturbing of the peace” and whether any “resisting arrest” legally took place. As the prosecutor attempted to defend the police actions, things just got worse for him. Finally, the judge dismissed the case, to the visible dismay of the prosecutor.
