On Wednesday, the Cambridge Massachusetts District Court made records of the assault case brought against now-deceased suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev public. Earlier in the week, the Committee for Public Council Services, the Massachusetts public defender’s office, had filed a motion to impound the records, but a judge ruled against that motion.
The records show that Tsarnaev’s jury trial was dismissed on February 8, 2010 by Judge Roanne Sragow, a former law partner of Secretary of State John Kerry. Middlesex County District Attorney’s office spokesperson Stephanie Guyotte had previously told Breitbart News that the case was dismissed “due to lack of prosecution,” and the records confirm that statement.
The victim, whose frantic cell call to the State Police prompted the Cambridge Police Department to arrest Tamerlan Tsarnaev on July 28, 2009, was identified in court records as Nadine Ascencao, at the time a 22 year old woman who lived at the same address in Cambridge as Tsarnaev. This confirms Breitbart News’ earlier report that the victim in the case was not Tsarnaev’s wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev.
When police arrived at the scene, Ascencao told them that Tsarnaev was her boyfriend and that he had beat her up. Tsarnaev confessed to slapping Ascencao to police, and they subsequently arrested him.
According to the court documents, Tsarnaev was arraigned the following day on July 29, 2009 when the CPCS was appointed by the court to represent him. Tsarnaev paid a fee of $150 for that representation. The case was “continued and extended” twice, on October 22, 2009 and December 2, 2009, prior to the February 8, 2010 dismissal.