Southborough Police allege: drunk driver injured another driver, assaulted and defecated on officers, and destroyed property

Southborough Police intend to press new charges against a Westborough man already charged with assault and battery on Southborough Police officers.

Those original charges are on top of driving to endanger and a DUI for driving with an intoxication level purportedly more than twice the legal limit.

The charges all stem from a nasty sounding incident reported by Southborough Wicked Local last week. The article shares allegations that the suspect crashed into another car (causing injury to the other driver), resisted arrest, kicked officers, threatened to defecate on them, followed through on the threat, and flooded a jail cell before being placed in a restraint chair.

After all of that, according to the story, a bail clerk released the suspect on $40 bail. The suspect, a 52 year old Westborough resident, Westborough then failed to show at his scheduled arraignment at Westborough District Court on Wednesday.

At the time of the article a warrant was seeking the suspect. I got an update from Chief Kenneth Paulhus today. He tells me that the warrant was withdrawn, indicating that at some point the suspect did show up at court.

Paulhus also updated that in addition to charges listed in the article, the SPD will be “issuing a Criminal Application for Malicious Destruction of Property due to the costs associated with damage/cleanup of the cell block area from the incident.”

If you haven’t already read about the incident in local media here are the lowlights:

A Westborough man was arrested Tuesday night and charged with driving under the influence of liquor and kicking several officers when being taken into custody after failing a field sobriety test, police said.

As part of the struggle, [the suspect], threatened to defecate on them when they arrived at the station, according to a police report. One officer reported being “sprayed with feces from the knees down” while trying to book [the suspect].

Officers at 10:30 p.m. went to Rte. 9 near Cordaville Road for a crash in which [the suspect’s] BMW 328xi rear-ended a Saturn L200. The other driver was injured and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. . .

[The suspect] was charged with driving under the influence of liquor, driving to endanger and four counts of assault and battery on a police officer. He kicked three officers while refusing to get into a police cruiser, the report reads. . .

A breathalyzer test sample showed a blood alcohol concentration of .185 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 percent in Massachusetts.

“[The suspect] continued to be combative and aggressive toward all police personnel that he encountered,” [W. John Woodford] wrote. “[The suspect] flooded one cell, pounded on the cell doors and walls and was very unruly.”

Updated (10/3/17 7:28 am): Fixed a stubborn typo that kept reverting on me. In the lead I referred to charges for assault on an officer. That is supposed to be officers. (It was four counts of assault on an officer.)

Updated (7/22/21 9:36 am): I removed the suspect’s name from this story at his request. His request letter included the following:

This incident was a display of complete reckless, dangerous, inappropriate and unacceptable behavior on my behalf. It was undoubtedly the low light of my life and I take full responsibility for my actions that evening. This was the first and only time I have ever been involved on the wrong side of the law in my lifetime.

I fully appreciate and understand your rights under the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and I know you take pride in your work and connections to the community, just like myself. As four years
have now almost passed since this incident, I am asking, with all sincerity and due respect, for your consideration to help me in my healing process and to remove these on-line posts related to this incident.

To support my request, since this incident, I’ve taken significant positive steps to show my continued commitment to this community and to focus on being a positive role model for my children . . .

I also unlinked the Wicked Local article which still names the driver as of this morning.

(photos by Susan Fitzgerald)