LYNN — A judge ordered a city man held for violating probation after police arrested the man on his third drunken driving charge after a car and foot chase Friday night.
“He is held to January 25. On the 25th I’ll fashion some conditions to satisfy me that he won’t hurt anybody,” Judge Albert Conlon said in Lynn District Court Monday.
Dionicio Echevarria, 38, of 28 Nottingham Court, was arrested and charged with operating under the influence of liquor, third offense; reckless operation of a motor vehicle; operating after a license revoked and resisting arrest at 11:12 p.m. Friday.
Echevarria will also be cited in a hit-and-run accident at 10:20 p.m. Friday at 730 Summer St. where three people received minor injuries, according to Lynn Police Lt. Christopher Kelly. Kelly said police would issue a separate complaint for this citation, and this incident was not mentioned when Echevarria appeared in court Monday.
Lynn Police Officer Tom Hazard reported seeing a gray SUV run through a red light at Holyoke Street and O’Callaghan Way at approximately 10:30 p.m. Friday night, according to Kelly and Assistant District Attorney Geoffrey Wood. Wood said at a dangerousness hearing for Echevarria Monday afternoon that Hazard began following the car, and saw the SUV go over the middle lines of the road and cause two oncoming cars to swerve out of its way to avoid an accident.
The SUV almost hit a pedestrian at Kings Hill Drive and the officer turned on his lights to pull the car over, Wood said. The suspect then drove over the curb on the median strip and pulled into Nottingham Court, Wood said. The suspect stopped the car before 28 Nottingham Court, got out of the vehicle and fled on foot.
The officer was able to catch up with the suspect and the two began to struggle as the suspect attempted to get away, Wood said.
The officer “could smell a heavy odor of alcohol on this person,” Wood told the court, who noted that the suspect was shouting obscenities at the officer throughout the struggle.
Other officers responding to the scene helped Hazard subdue and arrest the subject, identified as Echevarria, Wood said.
He noted that Echevarria had lost his driver’s license as a habitual traffic offender and had two prior operating-under-the-influence charges from Chelsea on his Board of Probation record.
“The Commonwealth requests the defendant be detained because he is a danger to the community as a whole in Lynn,” Wood said.
Probation Officer Lisa Marcinko requested Echevarria be detained, saying he had not paid probation fees for five months and violated probation by driving without a valid Massachusetts license.
Public defender Alicia Andrews requested Echevarria be held on $350 bail and released under house arrest or similar conditions. She said Echevarria “does recognize he has a problem with alcohol,” and said he believed he was depressed after losing his job as a teacher at an alternative school in Chelsea this August.
She said he has lived in Lynn his entire life and has extensive community ties in Lynn including as a Pop Warner coach and formerly as an outreach worker with Lynn Housing.
Judge Albert Conlon ordered Echevarria held to “wrap up” the time he owes for probation. But Conlon said he planned on releasing Echevarria on conditions to be determined at his next court date on Jan. 25.
Relatives of Echevarria declined to comment outside the courtroom.
Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].
