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Pro-Israel demonstrator charged in Newton shooting gets GPS monitor removed, curfew lifted
Scott Hayes is no longer barred from Newton, where he's accused of shooting a man who tackled him during a pro-Israel rally last month.
A man accused of shooting someone who allegedly attacked him at a pro-Israel rally in Newton last month will no longer have his whereabouts tracked after a judge agreed to remove his GPS monitor.
Framingham resident Scott Hayes, 47, has been out on bail since his Sept. 13 arraignment in Newton District Court, where he was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for allegedly shooting Caleb Gannon the day prior.
Previously:
Prosecutors allege Hayes was rallying with other pro-Israel demonstrators at the corner of Harvard and Washington streets when Gannon — a 31-year-old Newton resident — shouted comments at the group and sprinted across the street to tackle Hayes. Hayes allegedly shot Gannon during the ensuing struggle.
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Gannon is facing a clerk magistrate hearing as police seek to charge him with assault and battery for the incident, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office previously said. The DA’s office confirmed Wednesday Gannon is still hospitalized.
Hayes, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty last month and was released on $5,000 bail with orders to stay away from Gannon and the city of Newton, abide by a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, and refrain from possessing any firearms. His lawyer, Glenn Alexander MacKinlay, later sought to remove Hayes’s curfew, Newton ban, and GPS monitoring.
While the court allowed Hayes to travel through Newton on the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 128, the GPS monitor mistakenly activated several times when Hayes did so, MacKinlay explained in his motion. The curfew and home confinement are also “unwarranted” at this point, he argued.
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“When the Court ordered home confinement to be imposed if the Defendant posted bail, there was tension in the community and fear of escalating violence,” MacKinlay wrote. “Indeed, the case was highly publicized in and around Newton and elsewhere. Today, three weeks after the incident occurred, tensions have subsided considerably.”
A judge ultimately agreed, lifting Hayes’s curfew and GPS monitoring and allowing him back in Newton, court records indicate. Hayes remains barred from possessing weapons or having any contact with Gannon.
He is due back in court Nov. 7.
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