Michitson Pleads Not Guilty to Rape, Strangulation Charges

Lawrence District Court at Fenton Judicial Center.

John S. Michitson pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape and one count of strangulation during his arraignment Monday in Essex County Juvenile Court in Lawrence.

The 17-year-old son of Haverhill City Council President John A. Michitson was indicted in December as a youthful offender, which means the younger Michitson’s name may be used even though he is a juvenile, the case is now open to the public and may be covered by the news media and he faces the same penalties as an adult if convicted.

Judge José Sánchez imposed the same bail conditions on Michitson as had been in place since his original arraignment as a juvenile. Sánchez ordered Michitson to stay away from and have no contact with the victim, wear a GPS monitoring device, remain under house arrest other than to attend school, remain drug and alcohol free and to submit to random screens and abide by a restraining order.

Michitson returns to court March 27 for a pre-trial hearing. His attorney, William A. Korman of Boston, could not be reached before deadline.

8 thoughts on “Michitson Pleads Not Guilty to Rape, Strangulation Charges

  1. God forbid people actually read the whole article instead of just the headline…

    Why is no one calling for the resignation of Mitchitson Sr from the City Council? I’m not sure I want someone managing our town who can hardly manage his own family.

    • I agree, Michitson sends his allies on here to defend him and attack the victim, Its a shame. How can anyone take this man seriously anymore when he has his allies attack the young lady? His allies that are defending him would be the first to attack another elected official if it was their child. His true colors have shown and even if he doesnt resign, most people will not support him anymore.

  2. Having followed the original story–and saw that an erstwhile competitor kept their original story up in the top slot for two weeks on their website without objection–I see WHAV gets no breaks. If it mentions son of councilor, they get crap. Don’t mention it, they get accused of covering it up. Safely go with generic headline with the very first paragraph of the story explaining clearly the situation and they get accused of something still.

    • True. The local tabloid kept the story up on their site for two weeks. Horrible. Let us imagine it was their family member and see how they would react. Only a fiery death was able to replace it. We now know why the media is generally on the down slide as people are figuring out their tricks.

  3. This headline should be edited immediately to indicate that the referenced person is not the Council president. The current headline is worthy of a supermarket tabloid, no matter how technically accurate it may be.

    • Does anyone know what goes into writing a headline to fit a space a fraction of Twitter? I do. I did it in metrowest for years for a small weekly. It’s no win. Put councilman’s son in the headline, the writer would still be accused of “tabloid” journalism. Leave it out, and get whacked by other criticism. I see nothing to suggest ill will on the editor’s part. Of course, there are some who hate transparency when their allies are involved and love it when their enemies are indicted. Funny, I guess the out-of-town papers were bullied into skipping this important update entirely.

      • “there are some who hate transparency” –

        Quite the understatement, especially in light of another local paper that shall not be named which is basically the propaganda mouthpiece of this city’s leadership. IIRC, some of their writers have been rewarded for being such sycophants, they are now on Beacon Hill working for some area legislators.

    • Here’s a new concept. If you don’t want your name in the paper for something bad, STAY OUT OF TROUBLE. Use your head and keep yourself out of bad situations. If this was a sports star of today, the whole country would be ripping him or her. Why is City Council President’s kid any different?