Thomas M. LaCroix, the Waltham police chief arrested last week on assault charges, will remain held without bail through Thursday, a judge ruled Tuesday.
LaCroix’s lawyer, Peter Bella, has asked the state to release his client to a mental health care facility while he awaits trial, a request prosecutors said they are considering.
LaCroix is accused of assaulting his wife and a female neighbor during two separate violent incidents last Tuesday in Maynard, where he lives.
Prosecutors have said the alleged assault involved a bicycle rack and a counter top. LaCroix is charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of assault and battery, one count of assault, and one count of intimidating a witness, officials said.
Following the incident, LaCroix’s wife received treatment at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
‘I want to put him in the best position to get whatever help he may need.’
The police report and most records relating to the incident have been impounded, and at the request of Bella, much of Tuesday’s hearing took place right next to the judge, out of earshot of most of the courtroom.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Concord District Court Judge Paul Yee agreed to give prosecutors two more days to research the treatment center recommended by Bella. The dangerousness hearing for LaCroix will resume Thursday.
Yee asked LaCroix to avoid all contact with his wife and the neighbor. He also denied the prosecution’s requests for two mental health evaluations of LaCroix.
Bella told Yee the evaluations were unnecessary because his client has already been examined.
After emerging from a door in the back of the courtroom wearing a dark suit, LaCroix spent the hearing behind a brick wall that blocked him from public view.
He spoke just twice, when he told the judge he understood that he could not communicate with the alleged victims.
“Yes, your honor,” he said, repeating himself when the judge clarified the question.
In an interview late Tuesday, Bella said the facility he has proposed specializes in treating first responders.
“I want to put him in the best position to get whatever help he may need,” Bella said.
LaCroix, who was appointed chief in 2008, has been placed on paid leave and has turned over his gun and badge to Waltham’s Police Department.
On Tuesday, Waltham’s mayor, Jeannette McCarthy, called his arrest “a very serious matter,” but said she planned no further action while the Middlesex district attorney’s investigation continues.
“The current matter with the DA has to proceed first, before anything else can be addressed,” she said.
McCarthy said she remained confident in the city’s Police Department. Deputy Chief Keith MacPherson has been named acting chief.
LaCroix’s dangerousness hearing will continue Thursday at 2 p.m. He remains at the Plymouth Correctional Facility.