SALEM – A Superior Court judge ruled that a Lynn plumber found with an arsenal of firearms in his apartment following a domestic dispute is a danger to the community, but released him on $1,000 cash bail.Lawrence Van Harvey, 28, of 69 Goodridge St. #3, Lynn, appeared Thursday morning for his arraignment in Salem Superior Court, pleading innocent to charges of rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery and possession of a sawed-off shotgun.Judge Timothy Q. Feeley agreed to release Harvey on the same conditions imposed earlier in Lynn District Court.He ordered Harvey not to possess any firearms and surrender all of them to the Lynn police, to stay away from his accuser and all witnesses involved in the case and keep a job.Between April 23 and May 2 he allegedly unnaturally raped his 25-year-old live-in girlfriend, who now lives in Revere.Then on June 1 the victim told police they had gone to a friend’s house in Peabody and got into an argument. When they got back to their apartment on Goodridge Street, a second argument erupted and Harvey apparently went into a rage and began choking the victim with his hands around her throat, according to police.She managed to get away and later called police, who discovered a total of 38 firearms, including 16 handguns and 22 shotguns and rifles, when they arrived at his apartment.Police said Harvey has two firearm licenses, one from Massachusetts and the other from New Hampshire.Harvey had a permit for all the other firearms, but not for the sawed-off shotgun seized from the apartment.Harvey is due back in court on Dec. 16 for a pretrial conference.Assistant District Attorney Christina P. Ronan is prosecuting the case and William J. Hernon, III is the defense lawyer.
