In Lincoln County Superior Court Friday, a jury found Fern Clark, 80, of Somerville, guilty of assault on a police officer and two counts of violation of conditions of release stemming from a search of her home on Oct. 30, 2008.
A great-grandmother of seven from Somerville, Clark reacted to the verdict much the same way as she did to each development in her May 13-14 trial: without censorship.
Clark listened to the entire trial with the assistance of a court-provided hearing device and did not appear to understand the verdict as it was delivered. As the court went into recess, however, her son, Matthew Clark, a witness in the trial, explained the verdict.
Outside the courtroom after the verdict, she made her disappointment known. “It’s pretty [expletive] good when an officer can get away with trying to fool around with an old woman.”
Clark also had a message for Assistant District Attorney Andrew Wright, who represented the state in the case.
“I’ll have something for that D.A. he isn’t looking for,” she said.
Wright’s take on the outcome was less critical. “I think the jury was correct. Anyone, no matter what their age, needs to follow the law and not assault people.”
Clark will remain free on administrative leave until sentencing. Prior to the jury’s verdict, Clark was subject to bail conditions including random searches and a ban on possession of animals as a result of a 2009 conviction on 15 counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals.
Clark’s 2009 conviction resulted from a widely reported raid in which Animal Welfare officers removed over 70 animals from Clark’s residence, including two dead dogs stored in a freezer.
During the trial, Clark told the jury the officer in question, Deputy Todd Chilton of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Dept., attempted to rape her.
In Oct. 2008, Chilton, accompanied by Sgt. Daniel Sceviour, found two cats in the home. Clark resisted arrest and struck Chilton with a telephone.
Defense Attorney Andrews Campbell made light of the state’s actions in his opening argument. Of the events of Oct. 30, he said, “It isn’t a drug raid, not a murder raid… it’s a raid to see if a woman had a cat in her house.”
Chilton testified that after he found the cats, Clark “became very angry” and told him, along with Sceviour, his supervisor, to “‘get the [expletive] out of my house.'”
Later, as State Veterinarian Christine Fraser arrived, Clark told Chilton “‘that [expletive] better not come in my house.'”
Chilton allowed Clark to call her lawyer, but when she got off the phone, “she struck me on the right hand,” Chilton said.
Chilton then attempted to handcuff her. “As I put her hands behind her back she began yelling… Rape! Rape! Rape!” Clark began to convulse. “I could just feel her quivering, shaking… I backed away from her and let her sit on the bed… she told me she was going to sue me for assault.”
During cross-examination, Campbell focused on Chilton’s level of training and his lack of injury from the assault. He suggested that it was improper for Chilton to arrest Clark without the presence of a female officer. “How often do you go into women’s bedrooms at night?” he asked. “How did she know you weren’t going to rape her?”
Throughout Chilton’s testimony, Clark periodically hissed accusations and contradictory statements from her chair across the courtroom. “I did not, you liar… Liar! Liar! Liar! You liar! He’s a Liar! Liar!”
The judge, Justice Andrew Horton, spoke to Clark about her outbursts during a mid-morning recess. Clark defended herself, telling the judge Chilton “told so many lies it wasn’t funny,” but eventually she gave in. “Alright, I’ll behave,” she said, and she was mostly silent until her afternoon testimony. During the break, however, Clark called Fraser “a thief and a liar.”
“She stole a bunch of stuff out of my house,” Clark said, including a digital camera and several photo albums.
Sceviour followed Chilton and essentially repeated his account. Sceviour was in other room, speaking with Clark’s son, Matthew, when the assault took place.
“I heard a commotion and I heard the defendant screaming at the top of her lungs: ‘Rape! Rape! Rape!'” Sceviour said he was in the room within seconds, and that he told Chilton not to fight Clark. “It didn’t seem like the wise choice,” he said.
Contradicting the account the officers gave, Matthew Clark described a dramatic scene of violence and intimidation.
“They rushed in… the younger one had his hand on his gun,” he said.
Later, during the arrest, he said Chilton lost control. “He said ‘we’ll drag you out of here kicking and screaming if we have to.’
Matthew Clark denied his mother hit Chilton, but instead said Chilton tried to grab the phone from his mother. Again, Campbell asked if he had ever heard his mother say [expletive]. “Not in my lifetime,” he said.
Fern Clark herself was the final witness. Clark insisted on taking the stand even as Horton and Campbell assured her of her right not to.
Despite her apparent physical weakness and Campbell’s allusions to confusion and possible dementia, Clark spoke clearly and rapidly from the stand.
She did resist arrest, she said. When Chilton told her he was going to arrest her, “I says, like Fred you are… I ain’t going to jail for nobody,” in response to which “he picked up my pants and threw them at me.”
Clark later said Chilton never told her she was under arrest, and that she didn’t hit him with the phone. Instead, she said, the phone slipped out of her hand and hit him on the way to the floor. “If I wanted to hit him, I would’ve hit him on the head,” she said.
Clark proceeded to tell the whole truth about her feelings regarding Fraser, the State Veterinarian who confiscated her animals. “Someone should cut her throat,” she said.
Advocation of violence aside, Clark assured the jury of her righteousness. Again, Campbell asked his witness if she had ever used the expletive from the police report.
“I have never said that word in my life. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t swear. I read my Bible every day.”
The state’s closing argument was brief. Wright recounted the facts of the case and said the officers “acted in [Clark’s] best interests.”
Campbell, on the other hand, launched into a lengthy and ruthless assault of his own. He acknowledged that the rape accusation was far-fetched, but said Chilton “created a very bad, scary impression for an elderly lady,” and that when an officer is “throwing your panties in your face, it might seem like a long time.”
The Jury returned their verdict shortly after noon. After they left the courtroom, Clark had the last word.
Shouting at the judge, she said, “in other words, people don’t have any rights anymore.”
According to Justice Horton, the sentencing will likely take place “a few weeks down the road.” Horton heard Clark’s earlier animal cruelty case and suspended the 10 60-day sentences he imposed. Clark already faces 10 years of administrative release and a 10-year ban on possession of animals in connection with those charges.
