Lynn machete attack victim charged with assault

LYNN – A judge ordered the alleged victim of a machete attack held on $1,000 cash bail after police said video showed the man start the alleged assault with a sucker punch.”Without warning, (the defendant) throws a full, textbook sucker punch into (the cross-complainant’s) right jaw area,” Lynn Police Officer Timothy Ferrari wrote in a police report.Alexander Speed, 23, of 16 Surfside Road #12, was arrested on a warrant for assault and battery causing serious bodily injury; at 2:18 p.m. Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty to the charge Wednesday in Lynn District Court.Police reported responding to 16 Surfside Road at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 1 and finding Speed with wounds to his right hand and right leg.Speed and his girlfriend told police a neighbor, David Dixon, had run at them and attacked Speed with a machete for no apparent reason, police and a prosecutor said. The couple allegedly retreated to the foyer of a building where they tried to hold the door shut. But Dixon allegedly broke a window in the door and sliced Speed’s hand and stabbed Speed as the couple tried to get into a locked door located across the foyer.Dixon, 55, of 10 Surfside Road #6, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; last Wednesday.But Dixon said his jaw was broken when he was “sucker punched” by Speed prior to the alleged machete attack, according to his attorney.Police said surveillance video shows Speed’s girlfriend and another woman go into Dixon’s apartment building and then Speed coming and ringing the doorbell. Dixon comes outside and speaks with Speed, when the latter throws the punch.”The force of the punch knocked Dixon’s head into the metal pipe of a chain-link fence,” Ferrari reported. “Dixon then falls to the ground and appears to be knocked unconscious.”Speed stands “in a threatening manner” over Dixon, but the latter eventually gets up and the two men walk back into Dixon’s apartment building, police said the video shows. Speed and his girlfriend then are seen walking towards their building when Dixon comes outside with a large sword and begins chasing the couple, police said.Police also cite a Daily Item article as saying Dixon’s attorney told the court her client had been treated for a broken jaw from the punch.Essex Assistant District Attorney Justin Edwards requested Speed be held on $1,000 cash bail at the defendant’s arraignment.Defense attorney Kevin Prendergast said Speed’s doctors expected it would take six weeks of rehabilitation for his client to regain the full use of his right hand. Prendergast said Speed had a criminal record but had recently successfully completed a detoxification program and should be released on personal recognizance.Judge Ellen Flatley cited “a horrible record of defaults” in ordering Speed held on $1,000 cash bail. She scheduled him to return to court Oct. 8.Flatley had previously found Dixon to be a danger and ordered him held on $1,000 cash bail and GPS-monitored house arrest should he post the money. Dixon is scheduled to return to court Oct. 20.