Apr 27, 2018
By KAREN B. HUNTER
Two Bourne police officers went to 329 Shore Road in Bourne on Thursday evening, April 26, and arrested former Bourne selectman Michael A. Blanton on two charges of violating an abuse prevention order, according to court documents obtained on April 27.
Mr. Blanton was first arrested in late February and charged with attacking his live-in girlfriend, allegedly hitting her head repeatedly against the floor and threatening her with a baseball bat.
Mr. Blanton has also been charged with two more counts of assault and battery on a household member, strangulation or suffocation, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, all stemming from a choking incident involving the same woman that reportedly took place back in November.
After being held without bail for several weeks, Mr. Blanton was released on $100 bail by a Barnstable Superior Court judge on March 15. He was ordered not to have any contact with the alleged victim and told he must wear a monitoring bracelet.
The alleged victim met with Bourne police officers on April 25 and April 26, and stated that on or about April 15, she passed Mr. Blanton in traffic and that he “just glared at her,” according to court documents.
That same evening, the woman stated that she received a call from Mr. Blanton on her cellphone. His name was on her caller ID, but no one spoke when she answered the phone. She could hear breathing at the other end of the phone and a TV in the background.
She also stated that she is upset with Mr. Blanton because some of his family members have gone to her Facebook page and “liked” some of her posts about domestic violence. These family members, she said, “liked” the post but did not “message” any text.
Police showed the woman how to block parties on Facebook.
When asked why she did not report the violations earlier, she said she had broken her phone and was unable to retrieve any data, which she thought she would need as proof. Police advised her how to get help setting up her new phone and getting a copy of the incoming calls in order to have that information for court purposes, court documents said.
At a court appearance on April 27, Mr. Blanton’s lawyer, J. Drew Segadelli, told the judge that his client had “butt-dialed” the alleged victim accidentally after seeing her pass him on the highway.
The judge said he did not necessarily believe that explanation.
Mr. Blanton’s 18-year-old son testified under oath at the April 27 hearing.
He said that he did, on at least two occasions, text with Mr. Blanton’s former girlfriend, the alleged victim, and knowingly violated the rule against a third party contacting the victim.
He said he was cleaning up a room in Mr. Blanton’s house, where he lives half of the week (the other half of the week he lives with his mother), and texted the woman to ask if she would be picking up some clothes that she had left at the home.
The teen said his father informed him about the probation rule against a third party contacting the alleged victim.
The woman told the court that she had received a text message from the teen to tell her that her “stuff” could no longer stay at Mr. Blanton’s house. She stated that she believed the texts were “most definitely” at the instigation of Mr. Blanton.
At Friday’s court appearance, the prosecutor asked for Mr. Blanton’s bail to be revoked, but Judge Christopher Welch did not find enough evidence to do so. He released Mr. Blanton on the same conditions of his current probation and stated that he would order a GPS for Mr. Blanton if the previous judge had not already done so.
After the hearing, Mr. Segadelli called the new charges against Mr. Blanton “frivolous,” and said that the son was a “good Samaritan” helping out another person.