Massachusetts

Man Attacks Dog Owner, 76, Over Cockapoo Defecation, Police Say

"The kid admitted he hit him," a neighbor said. "All because the dog pooped on his lawn."

A man is accused of beating a man with disabilities because the disabled man's dog relieved itself on the alleged attacker's lawn in Spencer, Massachusetts.

The victim, Jim Fradsham, celebrated his birthday Monday, the day before he says he was beaten bloody.

"I'm 76," said Fradsham. "If I was 40 years old, I probably would have taken him on."

Fradsham doesn't get out of his house much — he is legally blind, partially deaf and his overall bad health keeps him indoors.

He only leaves when he takes his dog, a cockapoo named Tommy, for a walk.

On Tuesday, they went down his street when their neighbor allegedly started yelling something.

"The next thing I know, I'm on the ground," Fradsham said. "Whacked."

Fradsham hit his head in the fall, too.

"Next thing I know, I had blood all over my hands from my ear," he said.

Neighbors heard the commotion.

"My neighbor Don came banging on the door and I knew something was wrong," said Holly Gamache, who lives two houses away.

Don St. Peter said at first he thought Fradsham had fallen.

Their neighbor, Angel Rivera, was the one who sent Fradsham tumbling to the ground after slapping him in the head, police said.

"The kid admitted he hit him," St. Peter said. "All because the dog pooped on his lawn."

Rivera told officers that Fradsham walked his dog by his house "several days earlier" and Tommy went to the bathroom on his lawn, according to the police report.

Fradsham told officers that, if it happened, "he did not know it."

"I'm disappointed," said Denise Fradsham, Jim's wife. "There was no reason for it."

Rivera was arrested and charged with assault and battery.

Bail was set at $200 and he posted it.

No one answered when we knocked on his door for comment.

Bloody and bruised, Fradsham still felt good enough to take Tommy for a walk Thursday, but they went in the other direction.

Contact Us