BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) - A Massachusetts State Police sergeant charged in New Hampshire with assaulting his girlfriend has been denied bail, with a judge ruling Tuesday the record “shows a defendant who wanted to control the actions and manipulate the emotions of the alleged victim.”
Bryan Erickson, 38, of Groveland, Massachusetts, is charged with second-degree and simple assault, obstructing report of a crime; disobeying an officer; criminal trespass; and reckless operation. Erickson pleaded not guilty. He’s been suspended from work.
A police affidavit alleges that Erickson, who is married, took his 29-year-old girlfriend’s cellphone and threw her on a bed on Jan. 31. He allegedly “wrapped her arms around her on the bed and knelt on her upper thigh area so that she could barely breathe and could not move,” and “put his hand on her neck and one of her fingers down her throat” to stop her from screaming. Erickson’s also accused of head-butting her twice. He’s accused of speeding away from police.
Erickson’s lawyer accused the state of holding his client without bail based on a “character assassination.” He argued that Erickson originally went to the girlfriend’s home to end their relationship.
Judge Martin Honigberg ruled that Erickson is a danger and that even supervised release would not be appropriate.
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