Why did Judge Langlois Talk About 'Two Charges'?

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Why Did Judge Langlois
Talk About ‘Two Charges’?

January 9, 2001

Why did Judge Langlois say that he didn’t care if the former wife of Ken Newell had filed 100 false complaints if two of those complaints were valid? No one is certain, but he apparently had reference to the following charges:

· One of the complaints against Newell was a technical violation of a restraining order. It occurred when the couple was first separated and the husband knew that his wife had mental problems. A man identifying himself as the wife’s doctor called the wife’s mother and said the wife was being admitted to the hospital for a long stay. Could the mother look after her house which was open and look after the animals? The mother telephoned Newell and told him. He tried to calm his young daughter who was living with him by promising to go to the hospital desk to try and find out what had happened to her mother.

The receptionist found that the wife was in the Emergency Room and she told Newell to go in. He explained they both had Restraining Orders, so he was asked to wait in the waiting room and someone would check for him. After he sat down he realized too late that the nurse might call the police. She did call the police. He was arrested and locked in the Brockton jail.

He believes that his wife’s plan was to trick him into going to her house to check on the dogs. He never found out why she went to the Emergency Room or who called, but she did not stay at the hospital. It is obvious to anyone, including a judge, that Newell did not go there with the intent of hurting his wife and he was probably lured there on purpose.

· In another case, Newell was forced to accept a plea bargain in Quincy District Court last August because Judge Mark Coven refused to postpone a trial after a key witness for Newell, his ex-wife’s sister, didn’t show. Newell was told that if he went to a jury trial and lost, he would be sent to prison for 2½ years. Because it was only his word against his ex-wife without his witness being present, he was advised by his lawyer to enter the plea.

The charge resulted from an incident in October 1998 when they were first separated. His wife accused him of punching her in the right eye. The charge was made a week after the court granted Newell temporary custody of the children and ordered the wife to undergo a medication evaluation. (The wife admitted at the last hearing during cross-examination by Chester Darling that she has had a visible reddish blemish under her right eye since she was a sixteen-year-old. See sidebar.)

The trial over the punching incident didn’t occur until almost two years later. The sister who didn’t show up could prove that the wife always had a reddish/purplish blemish under her eye where she says she was struck.

Newell was confident last August that he would prove to a jury that he was innocent. But he was forced to waive his right to a trial later that afternoon and reluctantly agreed to plead to an “Admission to Sufficient Fact,” in which he said he could not contest the charges against him. He was placed on probation for a year. In addition, he had to successfully complete twelve more visits to a “batterer’s” class he has been required to attend and get a psychiatric evaluation from the VA. He was admonished by the court to stop “abusing the victim.”

After the trial had taken place, appellate attorney Chester Darling filed a “Motion to Revise and Revoke,” which allows him to request the court to revoke the plea.

The trial had been postponed several times before at the request of the prosecution without any problem -- even after his former wife, Cathy, walked out of the courtroom to avoid testifying. But it was not to happen when Newell was left at a disadvantage.

Newell had found it increasingly difficult over the almost two-year-period to arrange to bring in witnesses for the twenty-six criminal charges that had been lodged against him. The many charges against Newell by his ex-wife helped her in divorce and custody proceedings in Probate Court, where she enjoys the free unlimited help of government, poverty lawyers. This trial was one of five charges left to be heard against him.

His former wife had previously confessed to Newell that she used makeup to redden her face under her eye to fool the police. Her sister had testified in previous court appearances that she had been told the same thing. Newell spoke on the phone with the sister the day before this trial and she agreed to testify, according to a member of Newell’s family. He had stated previously that his former wife’s mother and sisters are afraid of her. The family member also said Newell was trying to be considerate of the mother by not asking her to testify against her daughter, but he regrets now that he did not subpoena everybody after he was left high and dry without his key witness, who reportedly drove to Maine to avoid the trial.

His witnesses have been forced over and over to sit for long hours in court, only to go home and be asked to come back at a later date. At this trial, for example, Newell’s next door neighbor of thirty years, Shirley Humphreys, sat waiting all day at the courthouse to testify as a witness. At noon, she began to worry about letting the dog out of the house and was sent home to be on-call. Although everyone had been ordered to arrive at 9 a.m., it wasn’t until two p.m. that Newell’s case was heard. Humphreys had nothing but praise for Ken Newell and said he was a good neighbor, always willing to help and was wonderful with children.

Ken Newell once told Massachusetts News that he stays in close proximity to people, so they can be witnesses in case the police show up to charge him yet again with harassing or attacking his ex-wife. He constantly looks over his shoulder and feels his wife wields enormous power over his life by simply being able to pick up the phone and falsely accuse him without consequence to her.

Another Father Was Punished for Doing What Judge Langlois Suggested

Damning Admissions by Former Wife