COP ARRAIGNED IN LOHAN ASSAULT
Pleads not guilty to attack of then-BC hockey player
Out-of-town bachelor party pals — one a New Jersey cop — pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges they shattered the face of former Boston College hockey player Kevin Lohan during a dust-up in a Domino’s Pizza prosecutors say was caught on camera.
The 24-year-old cousin of actress Lindsay Lohan did not attend the Suffolk Superior Court arraignments of officer Daniel Hunt, 27, and his co-defendant, Ian Salerno, 29, of Philadelphia.
Assistant Clerk-Magistrate Michelle Fentress released both men on $100 cash bail and waived their appearances at a Sept. 6 pretrial hearing.
Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Kacie Sherman told Fentress that Lohan was one of three college students waiting for a food order at a Domino’s on Boylston Street in the early morning hours of Jan. 19 when a group of men in town for a bachelor party, including Hunt and Salerno, walked in and also placed an order.
“A verbal altercation began, initiated by defendant Hunt,” Sherman said. “That verbal argument became physical when Hunt pushed one of the college students (Lohan) in the chest. When the scuffle broke out between those two men, both groups of men were trying to separate them, trying to defuse the situation.”
Salerno, she said, approached Lohan, “pushed him from behind and punched him in the face.”
The blow toppled the 6-foot, 5-inch defenseman, “resulting in injuries to his mouth, his jaw and his cheeks.”
Hunt, Salerno and their pals left, Sherman said, while Lohan was taken away in an ambulance to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“At the hospital he underwent a number of medical procedures to his mouth, face and teeth,” she said. “These procedures resulted in his jaw being wired shut, metal plates being inserted into his face permanently to maintain the structure of his face. His jaw was wired shut for three weeks, during which he was only able to eat liquids.
“The entire incident in the shop was captured on video,” she said.
Sherman said Boston police identified Hunt and Salerno by tracing their steps that night, “through financial records of the bars that they had been at,” and eventually with the help of their families and friends.
Salerno pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault and battery, and Hunt pleaded not guilty to assault and battery.
Hunt’s attorney Phil Tracy Jr. told reporters he’s hoping to avoid a trial.
“We’re trying to resolve the case, satisfactory to the defendants and satisfactory to the commonwealth,” Tracy said. “It’s unfortunate. There was an incident. There’s a lot more to it than what you see on the video.”
Tracy said Hunt is on administrative leave from the Haddon Heights Police Department in New Jersey, but that he and Salerno “have no prior criminal records whatsoever, and my client’s a police officer. We expect him to be able to return to work after the case is resolved. He’s been a police officer for three years, with a stellar record, a pristine record.”
BC spokesman Ed Hayward said Lohan, a New York resident and graduate student, returned to the Eagles in time to play in the Hockey East playoffs. He remains enrolled in the master’s degree program in sports management through the Woods College of Advancing Studies.