Five Island Residents Arraigned In Court For Involvement In Cedar Circle Melee, Winter Park Kidnapping
David Creed •
An assault on Cedar Circle last week was the impetus that led to the beating and kidnapping of a man two days later at the Essex Road playground, according to court documents and hearings. On Monday, five men allegedly involved in both incidents were arraigned on criminal charges in Nantucket District Court, revealing new insights into the disturbing series of events.
An island resident was charged and arraigned in court on Monday morning for a physical assault on Tuesday, July 14th when he allegedly attacked a man with a glass bottle and a construction level. Two days later, the alleged victim of the Cedar Circle assault and three accomplices are accused of beating and kidnapping the assailant’s nephew, which led to those four men also being arraigned in Nantucket District Court Monday afternoon.
Shawn Duncan, 52, was arraigned on Monday morning for allegedly striking Calray Brown, 31, in the back with a four-foot construction level and with a glass ginger beer bottle in the back, head, and right elbow. Brown, along with Dijon K. Hazel, 30, Newton Lawrence, 35, and Alvin Barnett, 21, were arraigned for allegedly kidnapping Duncan’s nephew two days later at the Winter Park playground off Essex Road, tying him up with an extension cord, and beating him. All five individuals reside on Nantucket and were released after posting a cash bail.
Duncan has officially been charged with five counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of threatening to commit a crime. Brown, Hazel, Lawrence, and Barnett have each been charged with assault and battery (16 counts), assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (four counts), assault, and kidnapping. All five men had not-guilty pleas entered on their behalf’s. Duncan posted $500 cash bail and was ordered to return to court August 25thfor a pretrial hearing.
Brown, Hazel, Lawrence, and Barnett were ordered to return to court November 3rd for a probable cause hearing. Lawrence posted $1,000 cash bail while the three other defendants posted $500 cash bail. All four were ordered to stay away at least 25 yards and have no contact with the victim. Barnett and Hazel were ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device while Lawrence and Brown are not wearing a GPS, but are required to check in with the probation office once per week.
Duncan is alleging through his attorney – Erin Donovan – that his initial attack on Brown was in defense of his nephew, who Duncan claims has been the target of consistent harassment, bullying, and physical abuse by the four men on several occasions.
According to the police report from the alleged incident involving Duncan, Brown was identified by police officers in the driveway of 2 Cedar Circle after police received a report he was bleeding from the head from being hit with a bottle. Brown told police it was Duncan who struck him in the head and that he was wearing a white T-shirt. Police then located Duncan in the backyard, and Brown added he was assaulted by someone else as well, but that person had left the scene.
Police say a subsequent investigation revealed a verbal altercation began in the kitchen of the home due to a disagreement that occurred earlier in the week. They said as Brown was leaving the kitchen to go outside, Duncan allegedly retrieved a 48-inch-long construction level from the area and struck Brown in the back. As the fight progressed, police said Duncan grabbed a ginger beer glass bottle from the area and struck Brown four times; once in the back, once in the right elbow area, and twice in the head. Brown had puncture wounds on his arms, cuts on his back and a laceration and swelling on the left side of his face and head.
Brown was transported to Nantucket Cottage Hospital by members of the Nantucket Fire Department and while police conducted a follow up investigation at the hospital, Brown told officers Duncan stated, “I am going to kill you” during the altercation.
During Duncan’s arraignment, it was revealed that Duncan is a convicted felon and that he served jail time on drug charges back in 2009. Donovan, Duncan's attorney, told Judge James Sullivan that her client was allegedly defending his cousin, who Duncan said to her has been routinely harassed, bullied, and beaten up by Brown, Hazel, Lawrence, and Barnett. (It was revealed during the kidnapping arraignments later in the day that the individual is Duncan’s nephew, not his cousin).
"The information that the police did not receive is that the alleged victim and his other three co-defendants have been continually harassing, bullying, and beating up (Duncan's nephew) to the point that Mr. Duncan has had to come in between them in order to defend (his nephew) from these individuals, and that is the situation of what happened that day,” Donovan said. “He doesn't want to have anything to do with these individuals. He just wants them to leave him and his (nephew) alone. But for some reason, there have been more than five incidents between these four individuals and (Duncan's nephew). Unfortunately, there was one that actual day, but it was not reported. They were not charged. They were not charged until two days later when they beat up (Duncan's nephew).”
Duncan was released on $500 cash bail.
According to the police report on the alleged kidnapping involving Brown, Hazel, Lawrence, and Barnett, Nantucket Police officers and Massachusetts State Troopers were dispatched to the area of 24 Essex Road for the report of an individual being beaten by a group of men who appeared to be in their mid-20s, and that one or more of the individuals may have been wielding a hammer.
As the NPD officers arrived at the scene, they found that Massachusetts State Police Troopers had already arrived and separated the parties. The individual who had been beaten was tied up with an extension cord around the mid-section of his body, completely restraining both of his arms. The alleged victim had blood coming from his mouth, his nose, and visible scrapes and red marks on his face, along with a complaint of a lump on the back of his head.
Police identified Brown, Hazel, Lawrence, and Barnett on the scene. The alleged victim told officers he was jumped by four individuals, all of whom were punching him or holding him down before being brought back to 24 Essex Road against his will, where he was tied up with the extension cord. The alleged victim said he believed at least one of the individuals had been hitting him with a hammer, and another was striking Rodriguez with an object he could not identify. The alleged victim told police he tried to run away, but he was pulled back and hit again. He said he was also kicked in the chest.
A witness of the fight told police he and his wife were driving on Essex Road when they observed two men escorting a bloody individual up the road away from Winter Park, and that one of the men was holding what looked like a hammer while also holding onto the bloody individual.
Police said one of the several reporting parties recorded a video on her cell phone of the incident. On the video, four men identified as the four individuals charged in court are seen beating the victim in the parking lot of Winter Park located at 43 Essex Road. Lawrence can be seen with what appears to be a wooden stake that is approximately 1.5 feet long in his right hand winding up and striking the victim in the head at least four times with the stake. Hazel can be seen striking the victim in the face with a closed right hand fist, open palm left hand, and kicking the victim in the legs with his right foot while wearing a shoe.
“A total of 13 strikes can be counted coming in contact with (the victim) and one right hand closed-fist swing that misses (the victim) as he was being pulled downwards by his shirt,” the police report states. “Alvin Barnett can be observed pushing (the victim) with both hands before striking him in the face with a closed handed fist. Calray Brown can be observed holding onto (the victim) while he is getting struck by Newton and Hazel and at one point pulling (the victim) by his shirt in a jerking motion. Based on the provided video, all four individuals were actively engaged in preventing (the victim) from leaving and attacking him with the knowledge of what was occurring was criminal activity and the intent to aid in the criminal activity.”
The Cape & Island’s District Attorney’s Office sought to have all four defendants held in pretrial detention based on dangerousness stemming from the kidnapping charges. Aine Dillon was the assistant district attorney in court on Monday. She said the alleged victim has a broken nose and, while speaking with police, he was bleeding from his face and officers had to stop the interview because he was “throwing up continuously in the emergency room.” She said Lawrence has spent time in jail for assaultive behavior in the past.
"The other three defendants candidly really have no criminal history," Dillon said. "However, the Commonwealth cannot look past the sophisticated nature of this event of finding this person, tying him up with an extension cord, and beating him and pulling him into a car. I would also posit to the court that the Commonwealth's case is somewhat a strong case. There's third-party witnesses. There's a video of this assault that the Commonwealth intends to play for the court that shows exactly what the complaining party stated, as well as what the reporting party states.”
The video was played on a small screen for Sullivan during the hearing. The Current has requested the video from the court.
Jenny Cooney represented Hazel and said her client was not one of the individuals walking the victim down the street. She said one of the witnesses to the incident saw an individual run past the car towards the guy being beaten up and believes the guy was running to assist the victim. Cooney said that man was Hazel.
The altercation was approximately three minutes, according to witnesses, and the clip shown in court was just 34 seconds. She said the victim was the second assailant in the assault of Brown, and that her client as well as the others were trying to assist police with their investigation of the Duncan incident.
"These individuals were simply trying to hold (the victim) for the police to arrive," Cooney said. "They, in fact, called the police from their own cell phones after they had secured him because he was not arrested when Shaun Duncan was arrested for assaulting Mr. Brown.”
Attorney Rob Moriarty represents Brown and said his client did not throw a punch and only grabbed onto the victim to keep him in place until the police arrived. He said Brown’s conduct in comparison to some of his co-defendants was not “extraordinarily egregious.”
Attorney Jim Merberg represents Lawrence, and he reiterated that Duncan was the alleged victim’s uncle and that he helped Duncan attack Brown two days prior before fleeing the scene.
"They recognize that (the alleged victim) is the missing individual who the police have been unable, at least between the 14th and the 16th (of July), to identify and/or arrest,” Merberg said. “(Lawrence and the three co-defendants) simply attempt to detain him. This was good citizenship, not individuals attempting to commit a felony or even a misdemeanor. They take action. They detain this individual. They don't take him out in the woods and beat him up. They take him back to a public area where they have called the police and are awaiting the arrival of the police, so they can turn this individual over who, for whatever reason, the police department had been unable to identify or locate. In fact, they take him to the residence where my client lives with his mother and stepfather.”
Merberg said Lawrence has shown to be a cooperative person with probation in the past, and that he understands what it means to be on some sort of supervision and has no history of defaults.
Attorney Mark Byron is representing Barnett and told Sullivan this was Barnett’s “introduction to the justice system.” He said Barnett has never been tested but received an order to return to court Monday after being released on bail by the Nantucket Police last week, and appeared.
"If you watch the video and you read the reports, there's a suggestion and video evidence that somebody is walking away from this melee as it's occurring. That's my client. So I think that'll have considerable impact on the complaints against these four individuals, especially mine, as I believe he was grossly overcharged.”
Dillon was given a brief opportunity to respond to each of the four defense attorneys by Sullivan, and she quickly added that video quickly dispels any sort of belief that the actions of Hazel, Brown, Lawrence, and Barnett were the acts of good Samaritans.
"Your honor, I think this contention that these individuals were just holding this individual for the Nantucket Police and being good Samaritans. I think that idea is fairly quickly dispelled by the violence exhibited in that video.”
Sullivan sided with Dillon while explaining his decision during the dangerousness hearing.
"After viewing the video, I tend to agree with Ms. Dillon," Sullivan said. "The altruism of the defendants is somewhat suspect in terms of their motivations. However, this is obviously a situation that everyone involved has unclean hands.”
The subject of whether the four defense attorneys are Superior Court certified was raised while a probable cause hearing date was being selected, indicating a possible indictment in Nantucket Superior Court is on the table. All four attorneys are, in fact, certified to represent clients in the Superior Court.
This story will be updated.