Chadwick trial moved to Friday, one case dismissed

A Wareham district judge today moved Selectman Jared Chadwick's trial to Friday, July 10 and dismissed one of his felony charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years old. 

Chadwick's trial is now scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday on a charge accusing him of striking the buttocks of a preteen girl. The judge dismissed a case in which Chadwick was accused of groping another girl. 

Chadwick was accused last year of inappropriately touching two minors in 2019 and 2020. In December, he was charged with two separate felonies of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years old. Chadwick pleaded not guilty to both cases, one of which was dismissed today.

Friday's trial will hear the case in which Chadwick is accused of striking a girl on the buttocks as she attempted to grab her cell phone next to the couch Chadwick was sitting on. The child told Wareham Police Detective Lieutenant Michael Smith that Chadwick had made uncomfortable comments about her buttocks in the past.

With a pool of potential jurors ready for what was scheduled to be a jury trial today, Assistant District Attorney Jordyn Carpenter asked to postpone Chadwick's trial regarding the groping incident, saying that the alleged victim did not want to testify. 

"It caused her too much anxiety," the prosecutor said of the alleged victim. 

She added that the alleged victim in the second case "could change their mind at any minute" as to whether to testify.  

"Where's the justice in any of this?" Judge Edward Sharkansky asked, seemingly frustrated. He criticized the district attorney's office for requesting to move the trial because the alleged victim would not testify. 

The postponement request comes as part of a string of delays with Chadwick's trial. All of Chadwick's cases were originally set to go to trial in May, but the trial date was pushed to Thursday, July 9. Sharkansky ultimately dismissed the charge related to the alleged groping incident for a lack of prosecution.

Chadwick's attorney, James Merberg, requested that Sharkansky also dismiss the second case related to an allegation that Chadwick struck the buttocks of a girl in early 2019. That case was scheduled for a pretrial hearing this morning. The judge instead scheduled it for a bench trial tomorrow morning.

"The problem is, my client is a Selectman sitting in the town of Wareham, he's a firefighter, they took his job, they're about to take his house…" Merberg said.

Chadwick is a firefighter and paramedic with the Dennis Fire Department. He was placed on unpaid administrative leave after the indecent assault allegations, The Standard-Times reported in June. Merberg said that Chadwick is now at risk to have his electricity shut off.

Before being dismissed, Chadwick's case today was set to be heard by a jury. Tomorrow's trial will be a bench trial, meaning a judge, not a jury, will decide the outcome. 

Friday's trial could close out a set of felony cases that have embattled Chadwick over the last year. 

In addition to the indecent assault charges, prosecutors charged Chadwick in March with reckless endangerment of a child and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon to a child under 14 years old. Prosecutors claimed the case was "relevant to the character of Jared Chadwick." 

Court documents detailed a videotaped 2022 incident involving Chadwick driving a car. Prosecutors dropped those endangerment charges on Thursday, June 25.