Attorney Seeks Dismissal Of Goose Pond Case

BARNSTABLE – The attorney for the Chatham teen charged in connection with an alleged racially motivated incident at Goose Pond last summer is seeking to have the case dismissed.

The 15-year-old, who was 14 at the time of the alleged incident, 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 made repeated attempts at trying 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.

Following a September bail hearing, the case was moved from Superior Court to Barnstable Juvenile Court. During a juvenile court hearing on March 20, the 15-year-old’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, said he will file a motion to dismiss the case. Another pretrial hearing was set for May 29, where Reddington said a case will be made for the dismissal.

“But I’m not going to get into a big discussion with you today about the grounds of the motion,” he said following the hearing. “It’s more important for me to have the exhibits attached to the motion and have it presented in a cohesive fashion.”

Despite being in juvenile court, where cases and records are not open to the public, the 15-year-old’s “youthful offender” status means that his case will be open to the public, and that he could ultimately be charged as an adult if found guilty. Reddington said he plans to question his client’s youthful offender standing in his motion to dismiss.

“The motivation behind this prosecution, why you’re prosecuting a 15-year-old kid as a youthful offender looking at state prison,” he said. “Yeah, I think that that’s something that really has to be looked at.”

Reddington said he also intends to file a separate motion to join his client’s youthful offender case with that of the other 13-year-old, who is being charged as a juvenile. The latter case is not open to the public.

“I just don’t think that it’s very fair to have everyone knowing that there’s a juvenile case but it’s kept secret,” he said following the hearing. “I’m going to beat them at the submission of that case. I’d like that joined in with the [youthful offender case], because a jury should be able to know what’s been going on in the prosecution of this case, a 15-year-old kid.”

During the September bail hearing, Reddington argued that the three teens were friends, and that the alleged incident was a case of “a stupid act that was carried way too far.”

But Assistant District Attorney Eileen Moriarty said at the bail hearing that a separate incident in which the 15-year-old allegedly punched another teen, who is Asian, occurred just hours after the alleged incident at Goose Pond.

The 15-year-old was released into the custody of his father in September with the condition that he wear a GPS monitoring device and stay in the custody of an adult at his father’s home in Chatham. He was also ordered to regularly attend probation and undergo a mental health evaluation.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com