SALEM — A Salem firefighter was cleared yesterday of charges that he punched and then pushed a Danvers man down the front steps of a Balcomb Street home during a Halloween party last fall.
Salem District Court Judge Ellen Flatley found Richard Thomas, 25, not guilty following a four-hour, jury-waived trial.
Flatley pointed to "a great deal of conflicting testimony" that left her with reasonable doubt as to whether Thomas had committed an assault and battery in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, she said.
Thomas, of 30 Balcomb St., Salem, was off-duty and attending a costume party in the apartment of his first-floor tenants when one of the guests, Ryan Lynch, 25, of Danvers, somehow ended up at the foot of the front steps to the house, in a pool of blood.
Lynch suffered injuries to his hip and his face and was taken to a Boston hospital. He will have to undergo another procedure to correct a deviated septum, he told the judge.
But just how he got those injuries was hotly disputed yesterday.
Lynch's friends told police that Thomas had punched a drunken Lynch, then shoved him, sending him down a flight of 12 steps in front of the house.
Thomas and his brother denied that, saying that Lynch either fell or was inadvertently pushed by one of his friends during a scuffle on the porch after Lynch demanded to be let back into the house.
Lynch, for his part, doesn't recall much of what happened after the police left.
"I don't really recall any of the specifics," Lynch said. "The next thing I knew, I was coming to on the ground."
Lynch, who still had a blood alcohol level of .16 eight hours after the incident, acknowledged that he'd been drinking rum, beers and at least one shot of some unknown liquor that night.
His friend, Brian Bixbe, said he and his girlfriend, Ellory Jacobs, were returning to the party from her car to get his brother when he saw Thomas ask Lynch to leave.
Bixbe said Lynch was offended, and refused. He said Thomas then punched Lynch.
Bixbe said he then had his back to Lynch and didn't see what happened next.
Jacobs testified that she did.
Jacobs said she saw Thomas punch Lynch in the nose. As others moved toward the two, "I saw Rich (Thomas) push Ryan (Lynch) down the stairs," Jacobs said.
The defense presented a different picture of events, suggesting that Jacobs was actually the one who "inadvertently" shoved Lynch down the stairs.
Derek Thomas, the defendant's brother, said Lynch was "wasted" and was trying to get back inside the house when Richard Thomas intervened.
A profane Lynch, dressed as rock star Brett Michaels, refused to leave, Derek Thomas said.
"There was a lot of yelling back and forth. Ryan was intent on going inside the house," Derek Thomas said. "He shoved Rich, and then Brian bumped Rich."
Richard Thomas turned around toward Bixbe, who was standing behind him at that point, his brother said.
"The girl, Bixbe's girlfriend (Jacobs), she got mad," said Derek Thomas, who said that Jacobs then reached out toward Lynch and accidentally pushed him, sending him down the stairs.
Richard Thomas, who testified in his own defense, said he was trying to clear out the party but that Lynch "seemed to take offense to that, for some reason."
Thomas testified that Lynch shoved him, and that suddenly Bixbe "kind of got in my face."
"Did you retaliate for the shove?" defense lawyer Jesse Dole asked.
"No," said Thomas, who denied shoving, punching or pushing Lynch down the stairs.
"Within a matter of seconds I turned around and he was on the bottom of the stairs," Thomas said.
Flatley said that while it's possible that Thomas "clocked" Lynch after being shoved, she couldn't be certain, and added, "I don't think there's credible evidence to support the allegation that he was pushed down the steps."
"With all this conflicting evidence, I'm left with reasonable doubt," the judge said.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis may be reached at 978-338-2521 or jmanganis@salemnews.com.
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