NORTHAMPTON — The college student accused in a drug-related home invasion two months ago now faces nearly a dozen charges in Superior Court, after being indicted by a grand jury last week.

Patrick Bemben, 25, is slated to be arraigned early next year. A Hadley native who resides in Worcester, where he was enrolled as an engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute at the time of the incident, Bemben previously pleaded not guilty to armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon charges in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown.

Now, he faces 11 charges upon his case being brought up to Hampshire Superior Court: conspiracy to commit home invasion, conspiracy to commit armed and masked robbery, assault and battery, assault and battery with dangerous weapon, aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, three counts of armed masked robbery, nighttime breaking and entering, larceny from a building and use of body armor while carrying out a felony, according to the Dec. 7 indictment.

Court staff said Bemben, who is currently being held without bail, will be arraigned Jan 17, 2017 on the charges stemming from the Oct. 3o alleged home invasion.

Prosecutors say Bemben and a group of masked individuals fled into a wooded area near South East Street when police responded to a report of an armed robbery and assault.

Following a brief foot pursuit, police apprehended Bemben who they said was in possession of goggles, a headlamp, tactical bulletproof vest, a hatchet, pepper spray, various knives and a baton, according to the Northwestern District Attorney’s office.

Inside the South East Street house where the robbery allegedly took place, authorities said they found a 23-year-old man who suffered a severe laceration to his upper right arm after being attacked with a hatchet Another resident, a 24-year-old man, was pistol-whipped and beaten by “multiple aggressors,” police said.

Bemben, too, was badly injured that night, after being struck from behind with a blunt object, authorities said. While he was being treated for his injuries at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Bemben told investigators that he and the other perpetrators — who have not been caught or formally charged — targeted the South East Street home because they were under the impression it contained large amounts of narcotics.

In court in November, Bemben’s ear was completely concealed by a white bandage.

From a bed in Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Bemben told police he and the other perpetrators targeted the South East Street home because they believed it to contain large quantities of marijuana and other narcotics.

Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.

]]>