Lynn cop hurt in scuffle

LYNN – Police attempts to disperse a West Lynn crowd escalated into a scuffle with three men on West Neptune Street that sent Officer Robert Avery to Union Hospital.Socheat Sok, Savuthyna Chourb and Lee Alen Chea pleaded innocent Monday in District Court to charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault and battery on a police officer.The arrests represented probation violations for the three who have court records for prior arrests.Assistant District Attorney Clint Muche said police arrived at St. Michael’s Hall at 1:10 a.m. Saturday to help disperse 60 to 70 people leaving a Halloween party.Chourb and several others ignored police orders and police chased Chourb, 23, of 8 Minot St., Lynn, down West Neptune where they stopped him and began searching him.”He struck an officer in the chest with his right elbow. A black Escalade stopped and three parties (including Chea and Sok) exited the vehicle and charged police,” Muche said, quoting a police report.As Chourb continued to struggle and shout, Sok, 22, of 99 South St., Lynn, assumed a fighting stance and punched police who used batons and pepper spray to subdue him. Chea ran up behind Officer Alvin Wolfe who ordered him to leave the area. Chea raised his arms before running down West Neptune where police subdued him with baton blows and pepper spray.Avery was treated at Union Hospital for a right knee injury.Chourb’s attorney, William O’Shea, said Chourb did not exchange words with police before he was “pushed down on a cruiser.” Chea and Sok’s lawyers said the Escalade’s passengers asked police why they were detaining Chourb but did not rush police.”Contact was incidental, not intentional,” Sok’s attorney, Christine Debernardis, said.Chea, 29, of 21 Childs St., Lynn, and Chourb were assigned $500 bail by Judge Ellen Flatley and Sok was assigned $2,000 bail and ordered to wear a tracking device.The three are due back in court on Nov. 20. The Licensing Board is slated to receive a report on the incident.