Lynn man leads police on wild chase

LYNN – Lynn police officers were led on a 90 mph high-speed chase ending in a fiery crash early Friday morning, as they trailed a gun-wielding driver who had kidnapped his ex-girlfriend.Michael V. Chiappini, 39, 285 Lynnshore Drive #103, Lynn, was arrested and charged with kidnapping, breaking and entering at night, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, handgun, assault with a dangerous weapon, bottle, receiving stolen property, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop for police, assault and battery on a police officer, and threat to commit a crime, shortly before 1 a.m. Friday.Chiappini was arraigned Friday in Lynn District Court, and a dangerousness hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20.Awaiting his fate, Chiappini stood in the courtroom, slightly slumped over and handcuffed, with visibly deep cuts on his bloodied face and swollen eyes.Judge Stacey J. Fortes-White said Chiappini posed a danger to not only the victim, but to the community, and ordered that he be held on $250,000 bail at the Essex County House of Correction.According to a police report, the victim’s boyfriend called police after Chiappini, the victim’s ex-boyfriend, broke into his house on Lawrence Road and kidnapped his girlfriend.Officers spoke to the victim’s boyfriend, who said Chiappini went to the rear of the house, pulled open a screen in the kitchen window, and jumped into the house. Once inside, Chiappini allegedly told the boyfriend that he was going to shoot him, and broke a beer bottle on the floor, almost striking him.The victim then started screaming to her boyfriend to get out of the house before Chiappini harmed him. Screaming that she didn’t want to leave with Chiappini, the victim was allegedly forced from the house against her will into an SUV.Fleeing the scene, Chiappini led several police cruisers and assisting officers from the Lynn Gang Unit on a high-speed chase for about two miles, where the pursuit ended in a fiery crash between an officer’s vehicle and Chiappini’s at the intersection of Western Avenue and Centre StreetA traffic control box was hit with such force from the vehicles that it moved the concrete foundation of the box about four inches back, and put a 30 foot crack in the sidewalk.Chiappini, suffering from severe injuries to his head, face and body from the crash, was removed from the burning vehicle and placed into custody after a brief struggle.As Chiappini was handcuffed, he allegedly spit blood onto the face and into the left eye of an officer, and tried to do the same to others on scene.The victim was found lying in a fetal position on the floor of the front seat in the vehicle and was rescued by police.Both were transported to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for treatment of their injuries.Following an investigation at the scene, officers recovered a plastic Coke bottle, which appeared to have been fashioned into a crack pipe.Police said the vehicle was stolen from Chiappini’s friend shortly before the incident took place.Chiappini was previously arrested on March 23 after he violated a court ordered restraining order, and held his then girlfriend against her will for several hours.Threatening to harm himself with a razor blade because police were trying to arrest him on kidnapping and assault and battery charges, Chiappini was restrained with a rubber projectile after a brief standoff.According to a police report, Chiappini, fearing his girlfriend would leave him, bound her legs and arms and threatened her with a knife.