By Julie Manganis
DANVERS — A Salem District Court judge yesterday declared that a man who allegedly ran from police while holding a loaded gun last week was too dangerous to release. The judge also revoked his probation in an earlier case.
"It is rare that this court labels someone a career criminal," said Judge Robert Cornetta. "Scott Delp is a career criminal."
Cornetta then ordered that in addition to being held without bail in the pending gun case, Delp will have to serve the two-year balance of a sentence he received in 2006 for violating a restraining order.
The woman who had obtained that order, Delp's ex-girlfriend, told the judge in a written statement that she believes the five bullets in the gun Delp is charged with carrying last Wednesday were intended for her.
Delp, 28, has a criminal record that stretches back more than half his life, including prior gun charges when he was 14. Prosecutor Lisa Core said his was not a run-of-the-mill juvenile or adult record. And she argued that Delp has a history of disobeying court orders.
Delp's lawyer, William O'Hare, first tried to challenge the legal basis for the traffic stop that led to the foot chase and arrest on North Street last Wednesday evening.
Then, at the end of the hearing, he raised questions about Delp's competency, saying that another lawyer appointed to represent him last week had trouble communicating with Delp.
What O'Hare suggested might be mental illness, however, Core characterized as anger.
Cornetta agreed, rejecting the request by O'Hare to send Delp to Bridgewater State Hospital for an evaluation before deciding whether to revoke his probation.
The ruling came after a 90-minute hearing, during which a state police trooper testified that he was pulling out of the Mobil gas station on Route 1 near the Ferncroft rotary when he spotted a BMW that Delp was riding in.
He noticed that the BMW had one red and blue license plate, rather than two, and was intending to pull the driver over, when a man in another car yelled out that the passenger had warrants.
Trooper George Katsarakes testified about how he asked the passenger his name and was given a phony name and date of birth, something he realized when he asked Delp his Zodiac sign. Delp, who claimed to have been born in August, said he was a Capricorn.
Katsarakes asked Delp to wait on a curb.
When Danvers patrolman Michael Bean arrived, Delp took off across a lawn, dropping a gun, stopping to pick it up, then scaling a fence, only to fall onto a chair on the other side and drop the gun again.
Katsarakes said Delp crawled toward and reached for the gun, stopping only when the trooper pulled his own gun out.
Katsarakes also said that when Delp was brought to the state police barracks for booking, he suddenly became chatty, telling the trooper that he'd simply kicked the gun as he ran, and knew the police would "pin" the gun on him. Then he told the trooper he knew where police could find another Lady Smith and Wesson .38 caliber gun.
"If you just kicked it, how would you know that it was a Lady Smith and Wesson .38?" Katsarakes said he asked Delp.
Delp also told the trooper he had information on other people involved in illegal activity that he would be willing to give police.
Then, apparently suffering the effects of heroin withdrawal, he asked for a bucket, the trooper said.
