Man gets two years for domestic abuse

Julie Manganis, The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.
·3 min read

Jul. 7—SALEM — William Damon is, a prosecutor said Tuesday, "somebody that has trouble staying sober, and trouble staying out of trouble."

But there's always hope for redemption, both she and Damon's lawyer told a Salem Superior Court judge.

"He seems to have turned a corner," said lawyer Kirk Bransfield, during Damon's sentencing for domestic abuse charges involving a woman he briefly dated in 2019 while she was pregnant with twins from another man.

Damon, now 40, pleaded guilty to three counts each of suffocation or strangulation and assault and battery on a pregnant woman during Tuesday's hearing. The hearing came just days before his case was scheduled to go to trial.

Salem Superior Court Judge Kathleen McCarthy Neyman went along with a plea agreement in the case that calls for Damon to serve two years in state prison, to be followed by two years of supervised probation.

They are the most recent entries on his 16-page criminal history, a record that dates back to the 1990s.

Prosecutor Lindsay Nasson said the latest incidents occurred over the course of about a week while he was dating a woman he'd known for years.

The woman, like Damon, had experienced frequent stretches of homelessness.

When sober, Damon was fun to be around, the woman told prosecutors. But when he drinks, "He's a different person," Nasson quoted her as saying. Soon after they started dating, he began to grow very controlling and then violent.

Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 8, 2019, there were three incidents in which Damon assaulted and tried to strangle the woman, one of which was partly captured on surveillance cameras. One incident took place on the grounds of a former car wash off North Street, another near a fast food restaurant on lower Lafayette Street and the third near the Lifebridge shelter.

The woman did not require medical attention, but was in fear of him, said the prosecutor.

Even with that, the woman did not want prosecutors to seek a no-contact order on her behalf, out of concern that it would hinder Damon's ability to receive help after he's released from prison if they happened to take part in the same services through Lifebridge. And the two have mutual friends and acquaintances.

Bransfield said that during the nearly two years Damon has been in custody on the pending charges and a probation violation in a 2018 case, he has been taking part in both Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and attends religious study.

He has an associate's degree in English and has been teaching English as a second language to other inmates, said the lawyer.

Damon told the judge that he still suffers the effects of a brain injury he received in an accident when he was a child.

While Damon has been held since Aug. 8, 2019, he did not receive credit for that entire period of time. Neyman opted not to give him credit for approximately six months he served for violating his probation in the 2018 case.

After his release, he will be required to take part in a program for domestic abusers, undergo a substance abuse evaluation and any treatment recommended by his probation officer, and not use any drugs or alcohol, which will be monitored by random testing.

And acceding to the victim's wishes, Neyman did not order Damon to stay away from the woman, but did order that he not abuse her.

When he gets out, said the lawyer, Damon hopes to stay sober and rebuild his relationships with his two children — but also hopes to head north, perhaps to Maine, and return to college.

Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis.

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