SWK/Hilltowns

Back behind bars after four days free

WESTFIELD – A felon taken in by a Montgomery woman after his release from incarceration in New York was at liberty for four days before he found himself locked up again, for more than a year, after pleading guilty to assault charges.
Daniel A. Davidson, 38, of no known address in Holyoke, had been incarcerated in New York in July, 2013, two months after he started dating the Montgomery woman who took him into her home when he was released in March, 2014.
Four days later she called State Police because, she told the responding trooper, “Davidson lost his temper and began to ‘throw me around’” when they began talking about future plans while they were both drinking.
When Trooper Alexander Berry arrived at the house on Old House Road in Montgomery the woman said, out loud, that although her boyfriend had been there she could no longer find him. But, Berry reports in a court document, she also “indicated to me that she believed he was hiding in a loft.”
He wrote “She stated he knew the incident was going to violate the terms of his parole and he would be sent back to prison, if caught.”
After Sgt. Paul Coakley arrived to assist and the victim and her son were moved safely outside, Davidson was found hiding between mattresses in the loft but did not cooperate at all and struggled to avoid being handcuffed. Once cuffed, Davidson used his legs to resist being moved to a cruiser, all the while cursing and calling the troopers pejorative names.
Berry reports that even after he was placed in the cruiser Davidson continued to resist, attempting to kick Coakley when he reached into the backseat to fasten his seatbelt, and fought to get out of the cruiser until Berry applied a burst of pepper spray.
Berry reports that on the trip to the barracks “his demeanor changed back and forth between crying and begging that he not be sent to jail, and being belligerent and threatening.”
When he reached Westfield District Court for arraignment, Judge Philip A. Contant noted his “extensive record out of New York” and his apparent parole violation by leaving that state without permission when he set bail at $10,000 after his arraignment on charges of assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.
When Davidson appeared before Contant again, on May 9, he pleaded guilty to the three charges.
Contant sentenced him to three concurrent 14-month terms, with credit for time served, with a recommendation that his sentence be served at the Howard Street jail, more formally known as the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center, a facility designed to provide for the custody, care and treatment of addicted offenders.

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