DANVERS — A Danvers man who insisted to police that the welts, bruises and red marks he left on his girlfriend's young daughters were simply "tough love" and not child abuse, as alleged by prosecutors, was deemed too dangerous to release by a Salem District Court judge yesterday.
Meanwhile, the mother of the girls, ages 2 and 6, was arrested in Maine on Tuesday on a Danvers police warrant charging her with child endangerment.
J. Franco Bertone, 22, was arrested last week on charges of assault and battery on a child. He has pleaded not guilty, despite admitting to police that "maybe I did go a little rough once, but it is not a daily, consistent thing."
On Tuesday, Nicole Dagostino Aiello, 22, was arrested in LaGrange, Maine, a town about 40 miles north of Bangor. She was scheduled to be arraigned on a fugitive-from-justice charge in Bangor District Court yesterday afternoon, according to a spokesman for the district attorney's office. It was not known as of late yesterday whether she had agreed to waive extradition.
Danvers police said the girls are now living with a grandparent.
Prosecutor Colleen Cashman handed a stack of police reports and photographs of the girls' injuries to Judge Mark Sullivan, who then took the documents into his chambers to review them.
Cashman briefly described what the judge was about to view, including what she called "disturbing and disgusting" photos, one of which shows what appears to be a burned area underneath the tongue of the older girl — an injury allegedly caused when Bertone jammed a bar of soap into the girl's mouth and forced her to keep it there.
Other pictures show dark bruises on the girls' faces and bodies, as well as the welts and red marks, including one on the neck of the older girl, which appears to have been caused by a necklace being grabbed.
The abuse, much of which occurred while the couple were staying with the girls at a Motel 6 on Route 1, came to light after the girls' baby sitter grew concerned about the injuries and snapped some photos with her cell phone camera, then showed them to Bertone's sister-in-law, Cashman said.
The sister-in-law called police. The baby sitter told police she feared repercussions from Bertone if she called herself.
In fact, after his arrest, Cashman said, Bertone was more concerned about who had reported the incidents than about how the girls were doing.
"He showed a complete disregard for the children," Cashman said. Instead, he sent a text message to his sister-in-law saying he needed "to get to the bottom of this."
The prosecutor said Bertone showed a "complete and utter lack of appreciation for the wrongfulness of what he had done" while talking to police. During questioning, he claimed that he was simply disciplining the girls.
Cashman also cited past abuse of the girls' mother, who said that while they were living in the New Bedford area, Bertone choked her to the point of unconsciousness. Aiello reported that she awoke to find him trying to revive her, the prosecutor said. Bertone's lawyer said his client denies that ever happened.
Cashman also pointed to Bertone's collection of exotic knives and a pellet gun that looked like a handgun.
"We don't know what sets him off or how far he's willing to go," Cashman said.
Jesse Dole, Bertone's lawyer, said his client insists that the weapons belong to Aiello,
Dole said the couple, who had become homeless after losing their jobs, were going through "an extremely stressful period of time."
"It was an attempt by Mr. Bertone to discipline the girls," Dole said.
Bertone insisted to his lawyer that "he's going to miss these children greatly."
Sullivan was not persuaded to release Bertone, citing the seriousness of the case, and granted Cashman's request to hold Bertone without bail for at least 90 days.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 6.
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