Lynn man charged with assault on pregnant woman

LYNN – A judge ordered a city man held without bail after a woman said the man tried to strangle her although he knew she was pregnant and he was the child’s father.But a defense attorney called the accusations “all theatrics.””It’s basically all made up,” court-appointed attorney Christopher Nihan said in Lynn District Court Tuesday.Jeremiah F. Wooden, 19, of 26 Mall St. #12, was charged in a warrant with assault and battery; and aggravated assault and battery.A plea of not guilty was entered on Wooden’s behalf at his arraignment in Lynn District Court Tuesday.Police responded to a report of a disturbance on Chestnut Street Sept. 19 and found a woman walking on Essex Street who appeared to be upset, Assistant District Attorney Shailagh Kennedy told the courtroom.Kennedy said the woman told officers she was walking with her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend when they all got into an argument. The new girlfriend allegedly wanted to fight the alleged victim. But the alleged victim told officers Wooden “instead punched her in the stomach and put his hands around her neck as if he was attempting to choke her,” Kennedy said, summarizing a Lynn Police report.The alleged victim told officers she was eight weeks pregnant with Wooden’s child, and the two had gone to the doctor’s office that day and confirmed the pregnancy, Kennedy reported.Kennedy requested Wooden’s bail be revoked in an open case as well as to order Wooden held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing. Kennedy cited prior assault charges and a threats charge against the defendant with the same alleged victim – although the charges were dropped for a lack of prosecution – and said Wooden had used an alias previously on charges before Lynn District Court. Kennedy asked the hearing be continued as the alleged victim could not be reached that morning to appear in court.But Nihan questioned the alleged victim’s credibility.Nihan said the alleged victim had a history of filing charges and then not showing up to testify against the defendant. He noted the alleged victim claimed to be eight weeks pregnant with the child of a man who was in custody in Middleton eight weeks ago.Nihan also said the defendant’s new girlfriend – a witness to the alleged attack – denied Wooden ever hit the alleged victim and would testify on his behalf. As for the alias, Nihan said the alleged victim in the case had a stay-away/no-contact order with Wooden and gave an alias for Wooden in order to not be found in violation of that order.Nihan requested the Commonwealth’s requests be denied but that, if probable cause for a dangerousness hearing was found, that the hearing be held immediately.”The Commonwealth is now looking to hold him for three days on a witness who has shown she doesn’t cooperate with police in the past and this is the same scenario,” Nihan said.Judge Mary McCabe rejected the motion to revoke Wooden’s bail, but ruled the Commonwealth was allowed to request the alleged victim’s presence for a dangerousness hearing. McCabe scheduled that hearing for Sept. 30.