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THE LOWELL SUN, JUNE 3, 1998
TEEN WON’T FACE MANSLAUGHTER TRIAL IN TEACHER’S DEATH
CHARGES EXPECTED TO BE CHANGED AFTER MEDICAL EXAMINER OVERRULES HOMICIDE FINDING
By DARREN BERARD and LISA REDMOND
LOWELL – A manslaughter charges against a 14-year-old boy accused in the death of Lowell teacher David “Jake” McHugh is expected to be dropped, after a second medical examiner ruled McHugh could have died from a previously undetected heart condition, the boy’s attorney said. Scott Bratton, representing Julian Rivera, said yesterday he expects the District Attorney’s office to ask Lowell District Court Judge Jay Blitzman on Tuesday to dismiss the manslaughter charge because a state medical examiner has changed McHugh’s cause of death to “undetermined.” The death cannot be ruled a homicide.
Middlesex County District Attorney Thomas Reilly said he was surprised by the medical examiner’s new ruling, but he said no decision has been made to dismiss the manslaughter charge. “We are reviewing al the information in detail to determine its effect on the case,” Reilly said. However McHugh’s family said yesterday they were told by the District Attorney’s office the manslaughter charge will be dropped.
The amended death certificate, which arrived at the City Clerk’s office yesterday morning, states that the “manner of death” cannot be determined. “I was unable to determine to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the proximate cause of the terminal episode was due to prior concussive head trauma,” wrote Stanton C. Kessler, the state’s associate chief medical examiner, in an affidavit attached to the amended death certificate. “The manner of death is undetermined,” Kessler wrote.
Rivera, 14, of 30 Farmland Road, was charged with manslaughter and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot) in connection with the August 12, 1997, death of McHugh, 34, a behavior modification specialist at the Sullivan Middle School. Rivera is alleged to have kicked McHugh in the head during a scuffle outside the school in March 1997. After the injury, McHugh could not work because of seizures, for which he was hospitalized twice before his death.
Dr. Gerald Feigin, who no longer works for the state medical examiner’s office, ruled McHugh died as result of seizures linked to blunt trauma to the head. He ruled the death a homicide. Rivera’s trial was scheduled to start June 15. After Feigin’s departure, Kessler, the associate chief medical examiner, was asked to do a standard review of the case. According to Bratton, Kessler found a previously undetected hear condition in McHugh. The heart was enlarged, which increased the risk of heart failure. Dr. Edward Sussman, the defense’s expert pathologist, said, “The only way that this could happen was that he (Feigin) must not have even looked at the heart,” according to Bratton.
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