Jean-Babets brothers held after attack on Sunderland police in station
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GREENFIELD — Two brothers who allegedly attacked police in their station while trying to spring a sibling from custody were themselves locked up Tuesday.
District Court Judge Maureen Walsh ruled that one of those brothers, Kenneth Jean-Babets, 26, of Sunderland was dangerous and ordered that he be held without possibility of bail in the Franklin County Jail until his trial. He is the brother who police allege first threatened to kill Sunderland Police Chief Jeffrey Gilbert and his family and then attacked him with a knife in the police station Monday afternoon.
On March 2, the court will rule on the dangerousness of brother Patrick Jean-Babets, 24, of Sunderland, who also allegedly attacked police in the station after he and Kenneth Jean-Babets showed up with the intention of springing their brother Stephen, 22, from custody. Until then, he will also be held in jail.
All three brothers live in the Cliffside Apartments on Route 116.
On Monday afternoon, Chief Gilbert and officer Gary Sibilia were booking Stephen Jean-Babets when his brothers Kenneth and Patrick forced their way into the police station and attacked the police, Kenneth armed with a butcher knife, according to prosecutor Jeremy Bucci.
"Chief Gilbert, thankfully, was able to knock the knife out of his hand," Bucci told the judge at the Tuesday morning arraignment.
WGGB reports:
Kenneth Jean-Babets knocked the chief to the ground and the two tussled until Gilbert was able to subdue and handcuff him, Bucci said.
While they were fighting, Patrick Jean-Babets also tried to force his way into the station and Sibilia used pepper spray to subdue him, Bucci said
"It's difficult to imagine how much more serious it could be," Bucci said, arguing to have the brothers declared dangerous.
Both brothers were relatively expressionless as they awaited their arraignment and stood before the judge.
Barry Auskern, Kenneth Jean-Babets' lawyer, requested that the decision on his client's dangerousness be postponed until a mental evaluation could be performed. But Walsh overruled him.
Situation got out of hand
It all started when police responded to several complaints Monday afternoon from residents at the Cliffside Apartments that someone was knocking on apartment doors and bothering the tenants, Gilbert said. When the first officer, Gary Sibilia, arrived on scene at the apartment complex, he encountered Stephen Jean-Babets, who was acting strangely, according to Gilbert, so Sibilia called the chief to the scene as backup.
Because Jean-Babets "was acting suspicious and not all there mentally," while Sibilia and Gilbert attempted to speak to him, "we did a background check and discovered a warrant," Gilbert said. The chief said the warrant was out of Ware, and had been issued for unpaid motor vehicle fines.
While taking Jean-Babets into custody on the outstanding warrant, Sibilia and Gilbert discovered that he was in possession of marijuana.
In court Tuesday, Bucci said police said it was over an ounce.
The charge of possession of marijuana was tacked on along with an additional $500 bail.
Once back at the police station, Gilbert said, a call for bail was made to Jean-Babets' father, who lives in Shutesbury. He, however, refused to post the bail, Gilbert said.
Shortly after the call to Jean-Babets' father, Gilbert said, the accused's older brother Kenneth called the station, wanting to know the address there "and said some unkind words."
When Kenneth Jean-Babets, 26, and Patrick Jean-Babets, 24, arrived at the police station, Gilbert said, he opened a door between the lobby and back of the station house to tell the brothers that unless they could post bail, Stephen would be held overnight at the Franklin County House of Corrections, but would likely be released in the morning.
"I never got a chance to tell them that, though," Gilbert said.
"I opened the door to inform them what was happening to their brother and all hell broke loose," the chief said.
Gilbert said the older Jean-Babetses charged through the door and Kenneth told him, "I'm here, I'm taking my brother. I'm going to [expletive] kill you and kill your family." Gilbert said. "Then the butcher knife came out and the fight was on."
After the arraignment, Gilbert, who walked gingerly around the courtroom with a slight limp, spoke with a group of reporters gathered outside the courthouse. "I'm a little sore. He and I went down really hard, but with my training I came up on top and I was able to subdue him."
He said he was relieved the brothers will remain in jail. "Those two are dangerous. I didn't take it personally, but when they threatened me and my family I took that seriously."
In Gilbert's 18 years in law enforcement, the last seven of which have been as chief, he said he's "had to encounter aggressive individuals before, but nothing like" Monday's incident.
Following protocol for booking a suspect, neither Sibilia nor Gilbert was armed in the station house, and therefore did not have access to their guns.
Tuesday, Gilbert said his family is "very happy that things turned out the way they did."
Gilbert said his department had not had previous dealings with the brothers.
A pretrial hearing for Kenneth Jean-Babets has been scheduled for March 16.
He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering in the daytime and putting a person in fear (a felony charge), intimidation of a witness, threatening to commit murder and aiding escape from an officer.
Patrick Jean-Babets pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, threatening to commit murder, assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, intimidation of a witness, breaking and entering in the daytime, putting a person in fear (a felony charge) and aiding escape from an officer.
The attempted murder charge alone could bring a 20-year prison sentence.
Stephen Jean-Babets was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to possession of marijuana and was being held at the Franklin County jail Tuesday in lieu of $500 cash bail. He has a pretrial hearing scheduled in March.
Stephen Jean-Babets has twice been arrested for disorderly conduct; Patrick Jean-Babets has twice been found guilty of possession of marijuana; and Kenneth Jean-Babets has been found guilty of assault and battery, all in Hampshire County.
The Jean-Babets brothers have been tenants at Cliffside apartments since June 2010 and managers there report having no problems with them as tenants.
