Goose Pond Case Returned To Juvenile Court

BARNSTABLE – The case involving a Chatham teen indicted for attempted murder in connection with an alleged racially motivated incident last summer at Goose Pond has been returned to juvenile court.

The 14-year-old was indicted in Barnstable Superior Court in August on charges of attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon. Because he is a juvenile, The Chronicle is not identifying the teen by name.

The charges stem from an incident in July in which the teen and another 13-year-old juvenile allegedly threw stones at and attempted to drown another boy, 15, at the pond. The alleged aggressors, both of whom are white, also allegedly directed racial slurs at the victim, who is Black.

The teen is due to appear in Barnstable Juvenile Court for a pretrial hearing on March 20, an official in the juvenile clerk’s office said Jan. 16.

The teen is being charged as a youthful offender, allowing his case to be tried as that of an adult in open session. He was ordered held without bail during a dangerousness hearing on Aug. 31, but was released into the custody of his father during a bail hearing in September.

Conditions of the teen’s release include that he wear a GPS monitoring device and stay in the custody of his father or other adult at his father’s home in Chatham. He also must appear regularly for probation as directed and undergo a mental health evaluation.

Danielle Whitney, a spokesperson for the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office, said the case was only brought into Superior Court for the purpose of bail review.

“The case won’t be addressed in Superior on the merits as Juvenile Court continues to have jurisdiction even after indictment,” she said in an email.

However, Whitney said that the teen’s youthful offender status still stands, meaning that his case will continue to be tried in open session in juvenile court. Typically matters before the juvenile court are not open to the public.

The alleged incident at Goose Pond prompted concern and outcry from residents, Chatham officials and local groups, including the Martin Luther King Action Team and the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission. During the September bail hearing, the teen’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, said that the three teens were friends, and that the alleged incident was “a stupid act that was carried way too far.”

But Assistant District Attorney Elieen Moriarty pointed to a pattern of behavior suggesting that the alleged altercation at Goose Pond wasn’t isolated. She said just hours after the Goose Pond incident, the teen was involved in a separate altercation in which he allegedly hit another teen, who is Asian, in the face and called him a slur.

“This wasn’t one incident with one child,” she said in September. “This is two separate incidents with two separate children that were racially motivated. There’s no way to keep a child like that safe in the community.”

The 13-year-old also connected to the alleged Goose Pond incident is also being charged as a juvenile.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com