MASSACHUSETTS JUDGE ARRESTED

Judge Remains On Massachusetts Payroll

Judge Shannon Frison screams at police:

‘I’m a superior judge, you can’t arrest me,’

Shannon Frison, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge

The Massachusetts judge arrested for allegedly grabbing her wife by the hair and yanking her head back during a dispute told police, “I’m a superior judge” while being put into custody, according to police reports.

Judge Shannon Frison, who sits in Worcester Superior Court, was arraigned Monday in Marlborough District Court on a charge of domestic assault and battery. She was released on personal recognizance and returns to court next month.

The 49-year-old judge was arrested Sunday in Hudson, police reports and court records show.

“I’m a superior judge, you can’t arrest me. Let me go,” Frison allegedly told police.

Frison is now on paid administrative leave, the Massachusetts Trial Courts confirmed.

Hudson police were called to Brook and Chestnut streets for a report of an “upset female” around 7:30 p.m. Police learned she may have argued with a person in a car.

In one police report, a Hudson police sergeant said he saw his fellow officer putting Frison into custody on a domestic assault and battery charge.

The judge was “balking at this claiming she was a Superior Court Judge and that she has to sit in Court in Worcester in the morning,” the sergeant wrote in his report.

William H. Kettlewell, Frison’s lawyer, sent a statement to the Boston Globe that said his client denies the accusations.

The alleged victim, Frison’s wife, told police that Frison pulled her hair. The couple has a 4-year-old daughter, according to reports.

Police were told a car was following an upset woman. The car was speeding up and down Brook Street, according to police reports.

The driver of the car was identified as the judge.


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Police talked to the upset woman, who is Frison’s wife. The wife said the couple is having “a tough marriage recently,” according to police reports.

The wife told police that Frison yelled at her at their home in Hudson and began screaming at her.

Frison, according to police reports and her wife, pulled the back of her wife’s hair, yanking her head back.

The wife then left and walked down the street with their child.

Frison refused to speak to one officer, police reports said. She was then handcuffed and taken to a cruiser.

Police said that’s when Frison told police she was a judge and they can’t arrest her.

A witness, who told police he heard some of the commotion, said he saw a silver BMW speed down the street and cut in front of a woman. The woman, who appears to be Frison’s wife, was holding their daughter.

The vehicle left the scene and returned. Frison was allegedly driving the BMW.

The driver allegedly yelled at the woman, “Now you have this white boy with his dog protecting you.”

Authorities contacted the state Department of Children & Families after the incident.

Police said Frison also had an active license to carry a firearm. There were firearms in the couple’s home. The wife located the guns. An officer went to the home to retrieve the firearms, police reports said.

Frison’s license to carry was suspended. Frison was ordered to have no contact with her wife.

Frison’s lawyer told the Boston Globe that the judge and her wife are upset that the dispute ended with the filing of criminal charges.

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Volunteers working to help people spot, stop and recover from fraud and corruption in probate, trusts, estates & guardianships.