SALEM – Three men were indicted on separate cases involving narcotics and assault crimes Friday afternoon by an Essex County grand jury.Richard Johnson, 56, of 12 Sumner St., Saugus and Nuno Mendonca, 34, of 29 Virginia Lane, Newburyport, stand charged each with trafficking over 14 grams of cocaine and illegal possession with the intent to distribute buprenorphine, a Class B substance.They were arrested in Saugus on Sumner Street on Dec. 29.Inside the Ford SUV vehicle, registered to Mendonca, police said they confiscated more than 20 grams of cocaine and numerous buprenorphine tablets.They face a mandatory three-year prison term if convicted on the drug trafficking charge.Assistant District Attorney John B. Brennan is prosecuting the case.Also indicted was William P. Maurice, 49, of Peabody, listed as homeless, charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, two counts of threats to commit a crime, to kill, as well as two counts of intimidation of a witness concerning a series of episodes in Peabody that begin on July 8 when he beat a man with a police scanner, threatened to kill two people July 11 and again on July 13 and intimidated two witnesses from prosecuting against him on July 16.Assistant District Attorney Marsha Slingerland is assigned to the case.Indictments are not an indication of guilt, rather it is a legal process that allows a case to be transferred from District Court to Superior Court, allowing for a more severe punishment.