Commeret to get his day in court

LYNN-Monday, March 24 – the day after Easter – Thomas Commeret will get his day in court.Commeret, 55, the former head of the Marblehead Community Charter Public School, has asked for a jury trial on charges of assault and battery and threats.Commeret is charged with shoving a 14-year-old girl student against a door last year and telling her, “If you tell anyone about this I will (expletive deleted) find you.” Marblehead police originally charged him with a felony, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a door.Commeret?s lawyer, Boston attorney J.W. Carney, agreed on the trial date after learning that Lynn District Court Judge Ellen Flatley rejected Carney?s motion to dismiss the charges against his client.Carney got the felony charge reduced to assault and battery. Last month he moved to dismiss the charges, arguing that Commeret was entitled to a clerk?s hearing on a misdemeanor charge.If Judge Flatley ruled in Commeret?s favor, Assistant District Attorney Kim Faitella would have to request a complaint for the charges from a court clerk, starting the judicial process that began last June all over again.After Thursday?s brief court appearance Carney said, “The essence of (Judge Flatley?s) ruling is that if police apply for a felony charge the defendant is not entitled to participate in a hearing. (She ruled) that is true even if the evidence as a matter of law only supported the issuance of a misdemeanor charge.”Carney said Commeret is anxiously looking forward to the trial.Carney also had his first chance to examine the medical records he requested Dec. 4, the records of an April 26 examination by Dr. Robert Macy of Boston and a May 11 examination by Dr. Clovene Campbell.Carney told the court the alleged assault took place April 9, the day an MCCPS teacher saw bruises on the arms of a 14-year-old student, but new bruises were observed two days before Dr. Macy?s examination and the father went to police after a third alleged assault which took place May 7, resulting in an interview by Dr. Campbell, which was referred to the Division of Social Services.After reading the records, Carney told Judge Stacey Fortes-White the records he obtained were not privileged.Judge Fortes-White will rule on Faitella?s motion seeking certain notes from witness interviews by Carney?s investigators.Carney said he would turn over any written reports his investigators made, and any written statements by witnesses, whether the witnesses wrote them or the investigators wrote them for the witnesses.He said he refused so far to submit any investigator notes on witnesses who he does not intend to call, since the government does not supply notes on police interviews that are not included in the police report of an incident.Faitella said she was looking for statements the unidentified witnesses made, not an investigator?s impression of the witnesses, and her motion was in the spirit of the rules.