Release denied for man who shot wife, tied up son

SALEM – A Superior Court judge has denied the release of William J. Brady, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to shooting his estranged wife and hog-tying her teenage son in their Peabody home.Attorney Lawrence J. McGuire appeared earlier this week in Salem Superior Court and argued with Judge David A. Lowy to release Brady from prison because he, allegedly, has Alzheimer’s disease and is “no longer the person that entered the house in Peabody. He is an individual who has no memory and should be allowed to spend the rest of his days in dignity.”McGuire also suggested that when Brady pleaded guilty back in 2006 he may have already have been suffering from the onset of the disease.Assistant District Attorney Greg A. Friedholm strongly opposed his release, emphasizing that Brady was a violent man in 2006 and remains that way. He reminded Lowy, the sentencing judge in 2006, that he had asked for at least a 17-year prison term but, because of Brady’s age (then 68), Lowy handed down a 10-year sentence.Friedholm also pointed out to Lowy, “We don’t know if he actually has Alzheimer’s until a tissue sample is done upon his death.”Lowy, in his decision, said he considered the information provided and felt “justice was done” in his “original sentence and that the punishment imposed was well below the commonwealth’s recommendation.He acknowledged the “sad circumstances” Brady is now facing but denied the request by McGuire that Brady be released to live the remainder of his life with his daughter in Boston.Brady, now 73, has been in Norfolk State Prison since 2006 after pleading guilty to a host of charges.On the night of Jan. 14, 2006, Brady broke into his estranged wife’s home at 5 Spinale Road in Peabody, where he confronted her 17-year-old son, Jeffrey Greene, in the living room and pointed a gun at him. He told the teenager his mother was cheating on him as he hog-tied the boy, binding his arms and legs and put a noose around his neck.Rita Greene-Brady, then 44, was dropped off by her friend a short time later and was confronted by Brady in her kitchen. The two argued before he fired shots, at least four, one grazing the left side of her neck.Then, at gunpoint, he forced her into her car and ordered her to drive away from the house. He got out of the car near Bishop Fenwick High School.In the meantime, Jeffrey managed to reach a phone and called 911. Brady was arrested several days later outside a home in Swampscott.