Saugus selectman pleads not guilty to assault charges

LYNN – Saugus selectman Stephen Horlick pleaded not guilty to assault charges at his arraignment in Lynn District Court Monday morning.Horlick was charged with assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after a domestic dispute at his home earlier this month.Horlick was released on personal recognizance and is due back in court on Nov. 28 for a pretrial hearing.Lynn District Court Judge James LaMothe also issued a 60-day bail warning and ordered him to refrain from any abuse, according to Horlick?s attorney John Burke of North Andover.?They?re living together and everything is fine,” said Burke, in a phone interview Monday. “Our intention is to exchange information with the government at the pretrial date and the prosecutor?s office, and we?ll take it from there.”Burke said he thinks the legal process will “take care of itself.”?I think it will prove my client is innocent of these charges,” said Burke. “But at the same time he?s also very concerned, as he?s always been, for her welfare and well being. I?m sure the process and the facts and legal system will show he?s innocent.”According to court documents, police responded to Bacon Drive at around 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 5 after a resident reported an unknown woman came to his door and said she was assaulted and asked him to call police.While police stated there was no sign of an assault, police received a call from Melrose-Wakefield Hospital at 3:30 the next morning reporting that a woman was there with “visible injuries she claims to have sustained from a past assault.”Saugus Police Sgt. Paul Vansteensburg stated in the report that the woman had red marks to her forehead above her left eye, and marks to her “upper arms, her left wrist, both her thighs, her left knee and a cut to her big toe.”The woman told police that she got the injuries from the earlier incident with Horlick, but the marks were not visible the previous evening, the report states. She stated they got into a physical struggle and Horlick threw her phone at her, hitting her in the forehead.The woman also told police she tried leaving the house but Horlick “held her by the arms, keeping her from leaving because he did not want anyone to know they were fighting,” according to the report.Horlick stated the woman slapped him and “defending himself, he pushed her away and that he may have inadvertently pushed the phone in her hands to her forehead,” according to the report.Horlick told police the woman was the primary aggressor and said he believed her recently changed medicine was to blame, said the report.Horlick also emailed photos to police he took after the incident showing “redness to the right side of his head.”Vansteensburg wrote in the report that after speaking with both sides, he was “unable to determine who the primary aggressor was since both claim they were acting in self-defense.”The current assault charges are not the first time Horlick has been in trouble with the law. Horlick was charged with stalking in 1999 and assault and battery in 2000. Both cases were dismissed in Lynn District Court.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].