Two Foxboro, Mass, High students charged with assault on transgender North Attleboro student

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Two Foxboro High School students were arrested Tuesday and charged with assaulting a transgender North Attleboro High School student after a boys basketball game last week. One of the suspects, Allen R. Hart III, 18, who police say has addresses in Foxboro and Walpole, was arraigned in Attleboro District Court Tuesday afternoon. He was released with no bail but ordered to wear a GPS bracelet. The other suspect, a juvenile boy, was arraigned in Attleboro Juvenile Court, where the proceedings are not public.

Both face charges of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery to intimidate and a civil rights violation, according to police and Paul Carlucci, the lawyer for Hart. The charges stem from an altercation in the parking lot of North Attleboro High last Tuesday after a game between North Attleboro and Foxboro. The altercation led to the transgender NAHS student being taunted about their sexual identity and assaulted, according to police.

The defense lawyer said there were conflicting witness accounts about what happened and that the juvenile was initially named as the perpetrator during the altercation after students for both sides left the school. He said his client was called a name. “There was name-calling going on. These are young people. It doesn’t excuse it but in part it explains it,” Carlucci said. The defense lawyer maintained that Hart was punched first by the transgender student and retaliated by holding the student in a bear hug.

But during her bail argument, Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Murphy gave a far different account. She said the transgender student was targeted and the assault was unprovoked. She said witnesses identified Hart as the perpetrator. As they were leaving the school building after the game, the prosecutor said the defendant and his friends approached the transgender student and called them slurs, referring to the student's sexual identity. “Are you a boy or a girl?” Murphy quoted Hart as asking the victim before allegedly grabbing the student by the shirt and slamming them against a parked car. “While pinned against the car, this defendant struck the victim in the face,” Murphy said.

The victim suffered back pain, a bruise and scratches to the face, according to the prosecutor, adding that the defendant left the school before police arrived.

https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/two-foxboro-high-students-charged-with-assault-on-transgender-north-attleboro-student/article_ef62e9d6-4301-5201-b80d-f78015262c6e.html