[ad_1]
Editor’s note: The details in this story may be disturbing for some readers. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org.
There’s a hearing Friday afternoon for the North Andover, Massachusetts, officer who is facing an assault charge after she was shot by police during an armed confrontation in her home last summer.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon in connection to the June 30 incident at her Phillips Brook Road home. Police were serving Fitzsimmons with a restraining order and informing her that her fiancé, who claimed she had assaulted him and threatened the life of their child, was obtaining court-ordered custody of their son.
Fitzsimmons and her lawyers have previously pushed back against the police account of what happened on that night, with Fitzsimmons previously saying she never, as alleged, pointed her gun at other officers, claiming only that she pointed the weapon at her own head. She was in treatment for postpartum depression at the time.
Fitzsimmons is currently scheduled to go on trial on March 23.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
Now able to meet bail conditions, Kelsey Fitzsimmons is going home for the holidays.
Friday’s hearing comes a day after her legal team, in a new filing, accused her ex-fiancé of breaking into her home with several other men after she was shot. Her attorneys say the home’s WiFi and surveillance system was cut during this break-in, and they allege her ex-fiancé stole her laptop and used it to steal money from her bank account and access her personal medical records.
Her attorney provided surveillance video to NBC10 Boston that shows the alleged break-in. It shows a man apparently breaking down a door to the home and entering with several others following. The men can also be seen inside a basement area just before the video cuts off.
The defense’s latest motion also took aim at her colleague who shot her, alleging that the officer has been placed on leave twice — yet still worked details and collected overtime for them, against their union agreement.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons was shot in her own home by a fellow officer during a confrontation in June.
Fitzsimmons was jailed for months following the incident in June. She was released after a hearing in December in which she established that she was healthy enough to take a breathalyzer test, which was a condition of her release. She was initially freed on personal recognizance back on Sept. 8 with several conditions, including court-ordered alcohol testing, but she was taken back into custody just days later when an Essex Superior Court judge vacated the court’s prior order of pre-trial release after her lawyers submitted an emergency motion asking the court to modify the terms and conditions — saying it was impossible for Fitzsimmons to use the court-ordered SCRAM system for alcohol testing due to injuries suffered when she was shot.
Fitzsimmons is due in Essex Superior Court in Lawrence at 2 p.m. Friday for a trial readiness hearing.
[ad_2]
Monica Madeja and Kaitlin McKinley Becker
Source link
