Judge Kathleen McCarthy-Neyman will no longer preside over the case of a North Andover police officer charged with assault by means of a dangerous weapon.
A day after a request by the officer’s lawyers that the judge be removed from the case, Essex County Superior Court Chief Justice Michael D. Ricciuti said McCarthy-Neyman will be assigned elsewhere, according to lawyers for Police Officer Kelsey E. Fitzsimmons. Attorneys Timothy J. Bradl and Martha Coakley said in a release Tuesday the chief justice did not rule specifically on their question of whether McCarthy-Neyman displayed “a lack of impartiality.”
“In the court’s order, the chief justice determined that the recusal motion was moot in light of some unspecified intervening administrative action, noting that ‘The judge is scheduled to sit in another session during the period of the remaining pre-trial and trial of this case…,’” Fitzsimmons’ lawyers said.
As WHAV reported, Bradl and Coakley filed a motion Monday asking that McCarthy-Neyman, whom they said has been a resident of North Andover for about 25 years, be recused. They argued the judge inexplicably took over the North Andover case despite being assigned elsewhere, prevented potentially favorable family court custody or visitation orders, displayed a “prejudiced demeanor and actions” at a pre-trial hearing last Sept. 11 and had an “undisclosed conversation with Assistant Chief Probation Officer Jeff January” the day before the court revoked Fitzsimmons’ bail.”
“While the order does not specify the timing or source of the administrative assignment, the practical effect is clear: Judge McCarthy-Neyman will not continue to sit on this case moving forward,” the lawyers wrote.
Last June 30, Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker and North Andover Police Chief Charles Gray said at a press conference that a fellow police officer shot Fitzsimmons while attempting to serve her a restraining order following, what they described as, an “armed confrontation.”