Changes kick off tonight at Lynn’s Manning Field

LYNN – A local gang member and another man have been charged with beating a 16-year-old at Manning Field last Friday that prompted city officials to crack down on admissions to Manning games beginning tonight.Under the new policy, tickets to Manning games will be sold through the end of the third quarter and no one will be admitted to games in the fourth quarter. Anyone who leaves the field must purchase a ticket to be re-admitted.”The changes will be in place for tonight’s Classical-Beverly game,” Facilities Manager John Kasian said Thursday. “There will be signage at ticket booths and other areas.”Prior to this week, game attendees were admitted for free during the second half and “pass outs,” or half-ticket stubs, were acceptable means of re-entry for anyone leaving the game and returning.Police arrested and charged Isaiah Rieves, 23, 75 Seymour Ave., and Matthew Elwell, 21, 28 Arlington St., with the beating and the crowd disturbance sparked by the attack.Rieves pleaded innocent to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and affray charges in District Court on Thursday and was ordered by Judge Dunbar Livingston to return to court on Nov. 20. He was also arraigned Thursday on drug charges.Police reports filed in court identify Rieves as a member of the Asian Crips gang. Rieves is well known to police from a mass gang member arrest in 2007 on Sheridan Street. Rieves claimed an officer kicked him in the face during the police raid.At last Friday’s game, Officer Paul Holey spotted Rieves kicking the 16-year-old beneath the field bleachers as the teen lay on the ground. Rieves denied involvement in the attack but Holey’s description of the clothing Rieves wore last Friday night matched Officer Steven Withrow’s description early Friday evening when he spotted Rieves near Manning Field.The attack occurred shortly before 9 p.m. and forced officers assigned to the field to control the crowd even as they responded to the assault. Initial reports, subsequently unsubstantiated, indicated someone armed with a gun was in Manning Field.”The scene was chaotic and dozens of students and other fans were emptying out into the parking lots and streets,” Withrow wrote in his report.An acquaintance drove the 16-year-old to North Shore Children’s Hospital where doctors treated the teen for a head abrasion, swollen left eye and puncture wound behind his left ear. All three injuries were determined to be non-life threatening.Police questioned witnesses in the days following the attack, including a 15-year-old male who asked Elwell for help in avoiding a fight with the 16 year old. Elwell confronted the 16 year old, according to a police report, and asked him if “he had a problem.”Elwell pleaded innocent to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and affray charges in District Court on Tuesday and Judge Ellen Flatley ordered him to return to court on Nov. 20.