Citing ‘serious flaws’ in evidence, judge orders pretrial release of Springfield man accused of throwing concrete at cop

Hector Serrano

Hector Serrano

SPRINGFIELD — A Hampden Superior Court judge on Monday ordered the pretrial release of a 21-year-old city man accused of throwing a piece of concrete at a police officer and a brick through a cruiser window, saying the evidence used to identify Hector Serrano as the suspect has “serious flaws.”

Judge Douglas H. Wilkins reversed an order of a Springfield District Court judge who had ruled Serrano, who is represented by Erin O’Connor, was too dangerous to be released under any conditions. Wilkins released Serrano on his own recognizance.

After holding a hearing Friday and reviewing evidence — including a video — Wilkins said someone did throw concrete toward an officer. But, according to his ruling, "There is not clear and convincing evidence, however, that Hector Serrano was the perpetrator.”

Serrano is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, concrete, and malicious damage to a motor vehicle.

The judge said of the prosecution’s case, “The identification evidence has serious flaws, particularly given the circumstances of the identification, the absence of live identification testimony, and the existence of alibi evidence that Mr. Serrano was working at the time, in a truck and in a different location.”

Springfield District Court Judge Michele Ouimet-Rooke had allowed the prosecution’s motion to hold Serrano without right to bail after he was arraigned there early this month. Serrano, who has no criminal record, went to the Police Department on July 3 to find out why police had come to his home. He was arrested at the station.

Wilkins said the police report written by Police Officer Ronald Kenniston “contains errors and some inconsistencies with the video. He reported that the same person threw both the concrete and the brick, but the surveillance video shows that to be inaccurate, as two different individuals threw the two objects. ... (Kenniston) said the bridge of the perpetrator’s nose ‘was distinct and crooked at the top’ but the court did not observe this feature of Mr. Serrano’s nose upon seeing him in court.”

Wilkins said Kenniston’s based his identification on a single photograph shown to him by an officer who reviewed Registry of Motor Vehicle photos and told Kenniston that Serrano was the perpetrator.

“This court in no way suggests any general lack of credibility on the part of police officers: indeed, the police report expressly invites the reader to follow-up by looking at any available video of the incident. Moreover, the court’s findings do not address the officers’ personal credibility, because they didn’t take the stand,” the judge wrote.

He said model instructions for identification exists because “even the most honest and conscientious witnesses make serious errors in identifying suspects when circumstances like those in this case exist. Given the alibi evidence, it is even more likely that the police erroneously identified the defendant as the perpetrator.”

O’Connor called Serrano’s employer to the stand, and presented evidence about the box truck Serrrano was driving and its deliveries, location and speed. He clocked out in East Windsor at 5:54 p.m., according to testimony.

According to police, officers responded to complaints of people on dirt bike motorcycles riding illegally on Main Street in the South End around 5:30 p.m.

Kenniston wrote in his report the man he later alleged was Serrano “neared to within approximately twenty feet of me and took direct aim at my head with an approximately two-baseball sized piece of concrete.”

Wilkins wrote that the video shows the driver of a dirt bike hurl a piece of concrete from the street toward the paved area of the gas station. “The concrete hits the ground well short of Officer Kenniston and bounces several times, passing by the officer’s legs, until it ends up close to the cruiser’s right front passenger door,” Wilkins wrote.

In the police report, right after saying he was close enough to see the bridge of the “assailant’s” nose, Kenniston includes a paragraph about the fatal shooting of a Weymouth police officer last year.

“In July 2018, Weymouth, MA, Police Officer Michael Chesna was shot and killed after he was struck in the head and disabled by a large rock thrown by an assailant who took control of his service weapon and used it to mercilessly execute him as he lay on the ground," Kenniston’s report reads.

Then Kenniston returns to writing about the Springfield incident.

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