The scion of a prominent North Shore family avoided jail time yesterday for beating two black teenagers with a metal baton in 2002, but a judge imposed unusual consciousness-raising conditions on the young man for what prosecutors had called a racially motivated assault.
Josiah Spaulding III, whose father is president of the Wang Theater in Boston, must remove his tattoos with racist symbols, visit the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and do 200 hours of community service at the Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter in the city, or at a veterans’ shelter. He also faces five years of probation.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley had asked for 2 1/2 years in a house of correction, a term prosecutors said was appropriate for a “vicious, unprovoked attack.” He later said the sentence, including the probation conditions, was “wise and thoughtful.”
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Charles Spurlock, who acquitted Spaulding of associated civil rights charges last month but convicted him of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, did warn Spaulding that if he reoffends, he will be sent to state prison, not a county jail.
Before Spaulding was sentenced, one victim, Stephanie Gemma, now in her early 20s, told Spurlock the beating had transformed her and her best friend, Maureen Pontes, from social, outgoing teenagers into more withdrawn, wary women.
“I have frequent nightmares,” said Gemma, who was 17 at the time of the attack. Gemma said Pontes has seen a therapist. “We’re hoping these feelings go away, but they’ve been there for three years,” Gemma said…
On Nov. 22, 2002, Spaulding, then 23, was with several other white people at the concourse of the Park Street MBTA station when they confronted three young women, including Gemma and Pontes. They began shouting racial slurs at the teens. Spaulding, who was wielding a collapsible metal baton, struck Gemma in the head. Then he ran after Pontes as she tried to flee. He caught up with her and, as she crouched, struck her on the head, said Assistant District Attorney David Fredette.
Pontes still has a scar from the attack, Fredette said. After the attack, Spaulding fled to Amsterdam, but returned to the United States in 2003…
In a telephone interview yesterday, Conley said he believed Spurlock made a wise decision. “You could tell that Judge Spurlock spent some time thinking about this,” Conley said. “It appears to be a very meaningful sentence. My hope, the judge’s hope is that by visiting places like the Holocaust Museum, visiting the African Meeting House, maybe Spaulding will reconsider his actions.”
Josiah Spaulding III, whose father is president of the Wang Theater in Boston, must remove his tattoos with racist symbols, visit the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and do 200 hours of community service at the Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter in the city, or at a veterans’ shelter. He also faces five years of probation.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley had asked for 2 1/2 years in a house of correction, a term prosecutors said was appropriate for a “vicious, unprovoked attack.” He later said the sentence, including the probation conditions, was “wise and thoughtful.”
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Charles Spurlock, who acquitted Spaulding of associated civil rights charges last month but convicted him of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, did warn Spaulding that if he reoffends, he will be sent to state prison, not a county jail.
Before Spaulding was sentenced, one victim, Stephanie Gemma, now in her early 20s, told Spurlock the beating had transformed her and her best friend, Maureen Pontes, from social, outgoing teenagers into more withdrawn, wary women.
“I have frequent nightmares,” said Gemma, who was 17 at the time of the attack. Gemma said Pontes has seen a therapist. “We’re hoping these feelings go away, but they’ve been there for three years,” Gemma said…
On Nov. 22, 2002, Spaulding, then 23, was with several other white people at the concourse of the Park Street MBTA station when they confronted three young women, including Gemma and Pontes. They began shouting racial slurs at the teens. Spaulding, who was wielding a collapsible metal baton, struck Gemma in the head. Then he ran after Pontes as she tried to flee. He caught up with her and, as she crouched, struck her on the head, said Assistant District Attorney David Fredette.
Pontes still has a scar from the attack, Fredette said. After the attack, Spaulding fled to Amsterdam, but returned to the United States in 2003…
In a telephone interview yesterday, Conley said he believed Spurlock made a wise decision. “You could tell that Judge Spurlock spent some time thinking about this,” Conley said. “It appears to be a very meaningful sentence. My hope, the judge’s hope is that by visiting places like the Holocaust Museum, visiting the African Meeting House, maybe Spaulding will reconsider his actions.”
Police later found racist literature in a storage locker rented by Spaulding and described him as a “skinhead” during the trial. The 26-year-old was acquitted of civil rights violations in connection with the attack.
From Boston Magazine: The Fifty Families.
Here are the fifty families that run this town…
23. The Spauldings
At an age by which most people have long since retired, Academy of Distinguished Bostonians inductee Helen Bowdoin Spaulding–a direct descendant of James Bowdoin, the second governor of Massachusetts and founder of Bowdoin College–remains a vibrant figure in Boston’s social and cultural circles. Her husband, Josiah Spaulding, was one of Massachusetts’ leading Republicans (he ran against Ted Kennedy in 1970), but after his death in 1983 she became a Democrat and took to philanthropy, chairing the Boston Foundation and doing work for the New England Aquarium, Massachusetts General Hospital, and other educational and social institutions. Among the boards on which she still serves are those of the Smithsonian and the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, which is named for her late husband. Her son Josiah “Joe” Jr. runs the Wang Center for the Performing Arts, and while he has sparked controversy over the size of his salary and his decision to evict the Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker , Spaulding’s Wang Center remains one of the city’s most important cultural venues–even in the face of the assault of national megamonopoly Clear Channel. His brother, Alexander “Sandy” Spaulding, former finance chief of the state Republican Party, is president of Hinckley Yachts and a partner in the controversial plan to build a resort village at Mount Greylock in western Massachusetts. (Not all the Spauldings may be a chip off the old block: Joe Spaulding’s son, Josiah A. Spaulding III, has pleaded not guilty to charges on two counts each of civil rights violations, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and other charges in connection with an alleged attack with a metal baton on two black girls in the Downtown Crossing subway station.)
23. The Spauldings
At an age by which most people have long since retired, Academy of Distinguished Bostonians inductee Helen Bowdoin Spaulding–a direct descendant of James Bowdoin, the second governor of Massachusetts and founder of Bowdoin College–remains a vibrant figure in Boston’s social and cultural circles. Her husband, Josiah Spaulding, was one of Massachusetts’ leading Republicans (he ran against Ted Kennedy in 1970), but after his death in 1983 she became a Democrat and took to philanthropy, chairing the Boston Foundation and doing work for the New England Aquarium, Massachusetts General Hospital, and other educational and social institutions. Among the boards on which she still serves are those of the Smithsonian and the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, which is named for her late husband. Her son Josiah “Joe” Jr. runs the Wang Center for the Performing Arts, and while he has sparked controversy over the size of his salary and his decision to evict the Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker , Spaulding’s Wang Center remains one of the city’s most important cultural venues–even in the face of the assault of national megamonopoly Clear Channel. His brother, Alexander “Sandy” Spaulding, former finance chief of the state Republican Party, is president of Hinckley Yachts and a partner in the controversial plan to build a resort village at Mount Greylock in western Massachusetts. (Not all the Spauldings may be a chip off the old block: Joe Spaulding’s son, Josiah A. Spaulding III, has pleaded not guilty to charges on two counts each of civil rights violations, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and other charges in connection with an alleged attack with a metal baton on two black girls in the Downtown Crossing subway station.)