GREENFIELD — A Vermont man was arrested on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon Wednesday evening in Charlemont, following a fight that had broken out between him and his girlfriend’s brother, resulting in the two men striking each other with “sticks the size of a sledge hammer handle.”
John R. Brooks, 59, of West Halifax, Vt., pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Greenfield District Court Thursday and released on $500 bail, and ordered to stay out of Charlemont except with police escort and to have no contact with Kirk Ovitt, the man he was charged with assaulting.
Ovitt was taken to Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield after police responded to Zoar Road around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday. He was brought to the hospital for a severe cut, according to court documents. He also received a bruised left eye and injured his head and right arm.
The incident developed, according to the police report, when National Grid cut power to Ovitt’s mobile home earlier in the day. He then went to his sister’s home nearby to connect an extension cord to her generator so that he could power his refrigerator. Brooks is dating Ovitt’s sister.
Police said for some reason Brooks objected to Ovitt’s using the generator and went to Ovitt’s home.
“The disturbance had been coming on over time,” the police report said. “The electrical cord was the final straw to cause the physical fight between them.”
The men wrestled inside the mobile home and fought outside with “sticks the size of a sledge hammer handle,” police said.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264