Closing arguments today in Peabody exam-scam trial

BOSTON – With the mood inside Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday seeming rather positive, Peabody Police Lt. Edward Bettencourt’s trial came closer to an end with both parties resting their case. Attorneys joked with one another and members of the family carried on small talk between sessions.Bettencourt was indicted by a grand jury in October 2006. He stands accused of accessing confidential information of Peabody Police officers and one Salem officer and creating false accounts on the Massachusetts Human Resource Division’s Civil Service Exam Applicant Web site in order to view promotional exam scores.Thursday’s court session began with brief testimonies from five Peabody Police officers early in the morning. Sgts. Vincent Patermo, Scott Richards, and Richard Callahan, and Patrolmen Richard Heath and Leo Cunha answered a series of general questions by Prosecutors Ina Howard-Hogan and Kathleen Healey in regards to creating accounts and accessing their Civil Service Exam scores. The Commonwealth then rested its case.Defense attorney Douglas Louison then tried once again to dismiss the case, stating that the commonwealth failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bettencourt is guilty of 21 counts of unauthorized access to a computer.Howard begged to defer, and asked the court to deny his motion, which Associate Justice Margaret R. Hinkle did. She then informed Bettencourt of his Fifth Amendment rights just moments before the defense rested their case without ever calling a single witness to the stand.Closing arguments will take place this morning. Both attorneys don’t believe they should need much longer than a half-hour to restate their case, but Hinkle said she has no plans of announcing her verdict without taking the weekend to think things over.If found guilty on all 21 counts, Bettencourt could face up to $21,000 in fines and nearly two years in the house of correction.