NORTHFIELD — A man for whom police spent 10 days on the lookout has been arrested and charged with violating conditions of his release from prison.
Chief Robert Leighton said Stephen Arsenault, 66, of Northfield was arrested on East Street around 1:20 a.m. Sunday morning.
He was arrested on a felony warrant for violating the terms of his parole, which Leighton said Arsenault told him was because he failed a drug screening. Court documents showed the warrant was issued Sept. 9 after Arsenault tested positive for cocaine and opiate use. He was also charged with resisting arrest.
Arsenault had been evading arrest by hiding in a wooded area near East Street. Leighton said community tips and a cell phone conversation on Friday with Arsenault allowed them to focus on the area and increase police presence there.
An officer staking out the area spotted Arsenault, who led the officer on a short foot chase before being apprehended.
Arsenault was arraigned Monday in district court, where he was ordered held without bail until a court appearance Sept. 30.
“We had been looking for him since the ninth, so we increased our efforts over the weekend,” Leighton said Monday of the search. “We had heard from his family that he wasn’t there and possibly not around, and it wasn’t until we called his cell phone and he spoke with one of our officers that we knew (he was evading arrest) – at that point he told an officer he was on the run and we would never get him.”
Leighton said Arsenault’s status as a Level 3 sex offender, that he’d left the court house following his screening after being told to stay, and the fact that his GPS monitoring device has stopped working also contributed to the department’s stepping-up of efforts to capture him.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office also contributed its police dog to the search.
Leighton noted the community’s role in the arrest.
“There was a lot of concern in the community about his whereabouts, and we received a lot of tips from people in town about where he could be hiding,” Leighton said. “We had lots of extra manpower called in. Fortunately, we were able finally apprehend him.”
You can reach Tom Relihan at: 413-772-0261, ext. 264
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