GREENFIELD — The man accused of breaking into an Elm Street home in May and refusing to leave until Franklin County Regional Special Response Team officers removed him from an attic crawlspace was held without bail following a dangerousness hearing in Franklin County Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon.
William Judd, 58, of Greenfield, faces charges of home invasion, assault with a firearm, larceny of drugs (for the theft of prescription medication), larceny under $1,200 and assault with a dangerous weapon, as the prosecution argues that Judd was armed with a gun when he broke into Chester Bai’s home at 221 Elm St.
Judd’s attorney John Godleski argued at the hearing that the prosecution had insufficient evidence to support that Judd was armed — an argument that Judge John Agostini agreed was strong.
“I think you have the stronger argument,” Agostini said to Godleski while reviewing still images from police body camera footage. “I looked carefully in the video, I couldn’t see anything. It was vague as to who had the gun, or whether they can even prove there was a gun, and that’s very important for the home invasion charge.”
Godleski argued for Judd to be released to a drug treatment program, noting that he believes the incident was fueled by his drug addiction, referencing his client’s successful efforts toward sobriety while incarcerated in the Franklin County Jail and House of Correction. However, Agostini held Judd without bail due to his criminal record.
While maintaining that the defense has a strong argument that Judd was unarmed, Agostini noted that a grand jury found probable cause that he was.
“The more important thing is, I looked at his record — that record really is impressive. There were so many times that he was sentenced to jail separately. I got up to 10, and I may have missed a couple,” Agostini said, noting that the defendant is 58 years old. “I have no faith in any treatment or anything like that. He has decided either he has no control over it or has decided that this is the course that he’s taking.”
At a pretrial hearing last Thursday, Godleski argued that his client had never brought a firearm into the home and that false reports of a firearm arose when Bai called 911 and loudly proclaimed he had a firearm in an effort to intimidate his alleged intruder.
On Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Robinson outlined the prosecution’s narrative of the case, which involves a six-hour standoff with more than a dozen law enforcement officers, including those assigned to the Franklin County Regional Special Response Team. The team eventually pulled Judd down from an attic crawlspace after deploying CS gas, one of the most commonly used tear gases.
Arguing against Judd’s release on bail, Robinson said the standoff started when Bai called 911 after he awoke to find Judd dressed in black “Army crawling” on his bedroom floor.
“We would suggest to the court that what we have here is an extremely dangerous situation warranting a finding of dangerousness. We have an invasion into the home of a wheelchair-bound man while he sleeps in the early morning hours — a gentleman crawling around a bedroom while armed,” Robinson said. “As I said at the first arraignment, one of particular concerns of the commonwealth is that once he was discovered by Mr. Bai, he didn’t flee. He stayed in the home, which is of grave concern, creating a dangerous situation and allowing a dangerous situation to continue, rather than simply leaving once he was unsuccessful.”
Agostini moved to schedule a pretrial conference for Oct. 24.
