Crime

The judge will appear in Brighton District Court due to a jurisdictional conflict.

An Orleans District Court judge is facing two charges related to the alleged assault and battery of a household member 60 years old or older. 

Robert A. Welsh III, a first justice at Orleans District Court, will be arraigned at Brighton Municipal Court. 

Welsh faces a misdemeanor count of assault and battery on a household or family member and a felony charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. 

The court filed the charges in Brighton District Court on Monday and scheduled an arraignment for Tuesday, May 19. 

However, Welsh’s attorney, Daniel O’Malley, filed a request to move the hearing until June, because he will not be available on that date. The court had not responded as of Friday morning. 

O’Malley had no comment at this time. 

The Cape and Island’s District Attorney’s Office said the case was transferred to Brighton “due to a conflict.” 

Court documents do not make it clear where the assault allegedly took place. 

The court is impounding information on the complaint, application, and supporting reports until the arraignment. 

In an affidavit, the prosecutor handling the case says, “this case has the potential to generate publicity, perhaps even before arraignment,” due to the judge’s identity and the content of the documents. 

The documents contain “sensitive details of crime” and identify the alleged victim throughout, the prosecutor wrote. The impoundment will protect the judge’s “limited privacy,” it said. 

At the arraignment, the commonwealth intends to provide the court and defense with copies of the subject documents with proposed redactions, before those documents become public in the court file. 

A Trial Court spokesperson told Boston.com that Welsh is currently off the bench. A chief justice of the District Court placed Welsh on administrative duties beginning on Monday.  

He is not hearing cases while the matter is pending, although he is being paid,. according to the spokesperson.

Welsh may be best known for his prosecution of the Christa Worthington murder case back in 2006. Worthington was a fashion writer murdered in Truro in 2002.

It’s been 20 years since the Governor’s Council first nominated Welsh as a district court judge following a lineage of judges, the Cape Cod Times reports. His father was a presiding judge in the Orleans District Court. His grandfather and great-grandfather were also judges.