SALEM — A Harbor Street man charged with twice running over the foot of a man who was trying to detain him for police was given a 10 p.m. curfew and ordered by a judge to stay 100 yards away from the man and his family while the case is pending.
Jose Diaz is facing two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the bizarre and harrowing incident that was touched off when someone tossed a beer bottle at a passing car near the intersection of Salem and Palmer streets early Sunday.
Diaz, 22, of 64 Harbor St., Salem, was released from custody yesterday after posting $500 cash bail, set by Judge Richard Mori, following Diaz's arraignment in Salem District Court.
That's one-fifth the amount Salem police prosecutor Lt. Conrad Prosniewski was seeking for a "verbal confrontation, which quickly escalated into something beyond horrific" after a violent mob descended on the man's home, smashing windows and sending glass shards into both the man and his girlfriend.
Prosniewski described the incident that occurred shortly after midnight Saturday.
When the driver of the car that had been struck by the bottle yelled that he was calling police, Diaz allegedly began following him in his red Honda Civic as the crowd began to yell.
Meanwhile, a man who had just moved to Salem Street with his girlfriend and her 2-year-old was outside smoking a cigarette and witnessed the confrontation.
The man, 32, stepped out and told Diaz, whom he recognized from the neighborhood, that he wasn't leaving until police arrived.
Diaz allegedly ran over the man's foot, backed up and then did it again, as the man banged on the Honda's windshield and jumped out of the way.
Diaz then left, but within moments, the man's girlfriend saw a line of 20 people, armed with bats, pipes and sticks, coming toward them. They ran inside and locked the doors, as the group descended on the house, smashing windows and a door on both sides of the duplex where the man lived.
The man ran back outside and was able to grab a bat out of one man's hand.
When police found Diaz a short distance away, he told them he'd been in a fight with a white man.
Diaz's lawyer, Stephen Reardon, called it a case of "guilt by association" and said his client had nothing to do with either throwing the beer bottle or the subsequent melee.
"It had nothing to do with him, judge. Putting those facts on him is unfair," Reardon said.
But Prosniewski pointed out that Diaz was charged in another melee back in 2007, which was eventually continued without a finding and dismissed after a period of probation.
Diaz is due back in court on Jan. 20.
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