BEVERLY — A Brookline man in custody for causing a disturbance at Endicott College Wednesday night allegedly broke a sprinkler head in his cell at the Beverly police station early Thursday morning.
Ryan Brown, 32, was arrested Wednesday night on charges of trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after getting into an argument with a family member while attending a basketball game and being asked to leave.
A prosecutor said Brown yelled a racist slur at police and told them, “I will (expletive) kill you.”
Police tried to get him to leave the campus, offering a ride to the main gate so he could call for a taxi or rideshare, but he became belligerent when told he couldn’t sit in the front seat of the police vehicle. He was subsequently arrested.
Then, while in custody at the Beverly police station, shortly before 1 a.m., Brown allegedly broke a sprinkler head in his cell, flooding it and leading to a temporary shutdown of the station while the sprinkler system was repaired, a prosecutor said.
The incident caused about $3,000 worth of damage, a prosecutor said. He was then charged with malicious destruction of property valued at more than $1,200.
The $29 million station opened in 2021.
Brown repeatedly spoke up during his court appearance to tell Judge Carol-Ann Fraser, “My grandmother passed away yesterday,” and later explain that he’d been sober but started drinking again due to her death and that he hoped he could be let out of custody to attend her funeral.
“I slipped up,” he told the judge.
But prosecutors, who asked the judge to revoke Brown’s bail in another pending case in Edgartown, said Brown has a lengthy criminal record that includes multiple missed court dates and probation violations.
Fraser set bail at a total of $500 on the new charges, but ordered that before posting bail, Brown would have to be set up with an alcohol monitoring device and, once released, submit to four random alcohol tests per day.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for March 8 in the cases.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis
