Charges were dropped in Wrentham District Court Friday morning against the Massachusetts State Police trooper accused of exposing himself and punching a man at a Luke Bryan concert at Gillette Stadium in June, the Norfolk district attorney’s office said.
Andrew Patterson, 32, was set to be arraigned Friday morning, but Massachusetts District Court Judge Neil Hourihan dismissed the charges against him before the arraignment in accordance with the Brave Act, said David Traub, a spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney’s office.
Patterson’s attorney, Daniel Moynihan, “moved under the [Brave] Act to have the charges dismissed prior to arraignment,” Traub said. “The Commonwealth did not object.”
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The law allows a judge to decide if veterans such as Patterson can seek treatment in certain cases instead of going to jail, according to Mass VetsAdvisor. The law calls for an assessment to be made of whether a program would benefit the veteran.
“He is going to seek whatever appropriate resouces he needs as per his assessment,” Moynihan said.
The law “permits someone who has been honorably discharged and has seen active duty to have a criminal charge of a misdemeanor, if the individual has no other record, dismissed under a diversionary program,” according to attorney Michael DelSignore’s website.
Patterson was suspended with pay from State Police on June 26 and then suspended without pay Oct. 26 after an internal hearing, State Police said.
State Police said Friday he remained suspended without pay.
“Internal investigation into alleged violations of MSP policies/rules remains ongoing. [He] remains suspended without pay,” said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman.
Patterson told reporters outside the court Friday that he had “done nothing to deserve the type of slander and public shaming that I’ve experienced.”
Moynihan said the charges were a “product of media hype.”
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“These were false allegations from the start,” Moynihan said. “There were no witnesses forthcoming, no videotapes forthcoming.”
Patterson has had four other complaints logged against him since 2015, but none reached the full internal investigation phase, according to State Police records.
The Suffolk district attorney’s office said in 2017 after an investigation that Patterson was justified in shooting and killing a knife-wielding man near Boston University in 2015.
Matt Rocheleau and Gal Tziperman Lotan of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Alyssa Lukpat can be reached at alyssa.lukpat@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlyssaLukpat.