"Suspended police chief’s wife says he didn’t assault her" by Jaclyn Reiss | Globe Correspondent, June 25, 2013
CONCORD — One of Andrea LaCroix’s friends has testified that LaCroix’s husband — Thomas LaCroix, the suspended police chief of Waltham — assaulted Andrea LaCroix last year, slamming her head into a countertop.
Another friend said she saw bruises and swelling on Andrea LaCroix the day after the alleged assault.
But Andrea LaCroix said Monday that her husband has never attacked her.
“My husband has never laid a hand on me . . . ever.’’ she said in Concord District Court, where he faces charges that he assaulted her and her friend Shannon Policano on June 12, 2012.
Andrea LaCroix testified after Policano told the court Friday that she witnessed Thomas LaCroix slam his wife’s head into a kitchen countertop at the couple’s Maynard home. Policano also testified that LaCroix told her on June 12 last year that, “Tom beat the [expletive] out of me.”
Claire Coen, another friend of Andrea LaCroix, testified Monday that she saw Andrea with a swollen lip and bruises on her body around the time of the alleged assault.
But Andrea LaCroix said that whatever injuries she suffered came because she attacked her husband June 12 last year in the midst of an argument and ended up falling and injuring her tailbone.
Andrea LaCroix said that the argument started because she had broken a date with her husband the night before, which the couple had set up in order to spend more time together in the midst of their busy schedules.
But the dispute escalated as he drank 10 beers, smashed her laptop, and kicked a ceramic vase, LaCroix testified.
Ban booze! People don't beat people; booze beats people.
How many times do we have to hear the "I was drunk" excuse?
“I elbowed him, pushed him, fell sideways, and fell on my butt,’’ she said, answering a question from defense attorney Thomas Drechsler.
“He never hit me,’’ she said.
LaCroix testified that she had told Policano that she and her husband had argued for eight hours and that she was “sick and tired of beating the subject to death.”
Andrea LaCroix testified on the third day of her husband’s trial. She is scheduled to resume testifying Tuesday.
Thomas LaCroix, who is on paid leave from his job, was arrested June 14 last year by Maynard police. He has pleaded not guilty and is free but wears an ankle monitoring bracelet to make sure he does not go near witnesses in the case....
Shoe, 'er, bracelet on the other foot, huh?
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"Waltham police chief guilty in domestic assault; Jurors concluded he beat his wife" by Jaclyn Reiss | Globe Correspondent, June 27, 2013
A Concord District Court jury found Waltham Police Chief Thomas LaCroix guilty Wednesday of twice assaulting his wife, Andrea, in fits of anger on June 12 last year at the couple’s home in Maynard.
Andrea LaCroix had earlier testified that her husband has never attacked her.
The jury convicted Thomas LaCroix on two assault and battery counts, one in which he picked up his wife and threw her in the couple’s garage and another that left her with a bloody, swollen lip.
He was acquitted on charges that he assaulted his wife by slamming her head on a kitchen countertop, that he attacked his wife’s friend Shannon Policano, and that he threatened to kill both if they went to police.
Reached by telephone, Thomas LaCroix declined to comment.
His attorney, Thomas Drechsler, said that he is considering an appeal.
“My client — he’s a fighter, and we will continue to review options in this case,’’ he said.
Judge J. Elizabeth Cremens set sentencing for July 10. LaCroix faces up to 2½ years in jail for each assault and battery count.
LaCroix has been on paid leave from his chief’s job since his arrest by Maynard police on June 14 last year.
Mayor Jeannette McCarthy said Waltham is going through an administrative process to stop paying LaCroix, and that city officials will begin an investigation into whether LaCroix should continue to keep his job.
The guilty verdicts followed about six hours of deliberations and came after Andrea LaCroix had testified that her husband has never assaulted her.
“My husband has never laid a hand on me, ever,’’ she said in testimony during the five-day trial.
LaCroix said she injured herself when she fell while attacking her husband during a long and bitter argument.
But Policano testified that Andrea LaCroix showed up on her doorstep, shaking and with a swollen and bloody lip.
She said LaCroix told her “Tom just beat the [expletive] out of me.”
Policano also testified that when she and Andrea went to the LaCroix home to retrieve Andrea’s clothes and cellphone, she saw Thomas LaCroix slam his wife’s head into the kitchen counter and pick her up and throw her in the garage.
Also, two employees at TJX headquarters in Framingham, where Andrea works as an audit manager, testified she told them, in separate conversations on June 13 last year, that her husband had assaulted her. One of the witnesses said she noticed Andrea’s swollen lip and bruises.
On Wednesday, before the verdicts were delivered, jurors had asked to see a magnified version of a surveillance video that was taken of Andrea after she went to the Maynard Police Department on the night of June 12 last year.
In his closing remarks Tuesday, Drechsler pointed to the surveillance video which, he said, showed that Andrea was walking normally without a limp.
He also cited medical records in which a doctor wrote that Andrea’s lip was not swollen, as Policano said, and that she did not have bruises on her arms and legs, as her work friend Claire Coen testified.
Drechsler said Policano made “gross exaggerations” in her accusations.
He chastised prosecutors for meddling in a married couple’s private affairs.
“The only two people who were there during the argument was Andrea and her husband,” he said.
But in her closing statement, prosecutor Suzanne Kontz said that one of the surveillance videos Drechsler mentioned clearly showed Andrea having trouble sitting down and standing up.
Kontz also said the doctor who examined Andrea LaCroix reported spending only 2 minutes with her, versus the one hour and 10 minutes a nurse did.
The nurse, Angela Jean, testified Monday that she had reported that Andrea LaCroix told her she was “pulled and thrown.”
Kontz questioned the credibility of Andrea LaCroix’s testimony, noting that she had stated that, from the beginning, she was worried about her husband’s job security and that she was a beneficiary of his pension.
“She has an absolute motive for the testimony,’’ Kontz said. “She told you.”
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Another he said, she said, huh?
Also see:
Waltham police chief resigns
Convicted police chief files for pension
On leave, chief got longevity bonus
And no jail time?
