NORTHAMPTON — In a blue American Eagle T-shirt, slinky black basketball shorts and tennis shoes, Wayne J. Dlugozima, 54, might have been mistaken for a casual observer rather than a prisoner, were it not for the handcuffs encircling his wrists and ankles.

As the man in custody next to Dlugozima trembled violently on the courtroom bench Thursday, the rattling of his chains causing heads to turn, Dlugozima gave him a reassuring nod.

Apparently, he had no such jitters. Nor, apparently, did he need to.

During a hearing, Northampton District Court Judge Jacklyn Connly deemed Dlugozima — charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and threatening to commit murder — not dangerous after his attorney called the credibility of his accuser into question.

The judge’s decision cleared the way for Dlugozima, of Easthampton, to be released on his own recognizance pending trial.

On July 10, his birthday, Dlugozima was arrested after police were called to his girlfriend’s apartment in Northampton. The woman told police Dlugozima had punched her, spat in her face and threatened to slit her throat with a pocket knife, court records state. She also said he had thrown knives and stabbed cans of food and the walls of her apartment.

Although police found “stab wounds” in the walls and a pocket knife with plaster crusted on the blade’s tip, Dlugozima insisted he’d done nothing and that his girlfriend was mentally unstable, according to court records.

While he waited for the ruling Thursday, Dlugozima exchanged whispers and smiles with his attorney, Zoe Zeichner, of Northampton, and tried to chat up court officers about the fate of New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady.

“You think they’re gonna do this s-— with the Patriots?” Dlugozima asked a burly officer next to him.

The officer shrugged and answered curtly. “I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see.”

But Dlugozima never looked at his girlfriend, who sat across the aisle from him, dressed in a leopard-print top, mouth traced in dark lipstick. She filed for a restraining order after his arrest.

Zeichner argued that the woman’s accusations lacked credibility. In a court filing, the lawyer asserted that she “may not have had a full general ability and capacity to observe and give expression” to the events of the day. The court document stated she is being treated for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Although the woman repeated her version of events multiple times to officers on the night of Dlugozima’s arrest, according to police records, she showed no physical evidence of the harm she said Dlugozima inflicted on her.

Despite Dlugozima’s extensive record of domestic violence and a prior conviction for threatening to commit murder, Zeichner argued he had reformed.

“He hasn’t had any trouble with the law since 2005, and he’s working for a construction company,” Zeichner said. “He’s planning on building three homes from the ground up, which would even create some jobs in the Southampton area.”

In her ruling, Connly focused on the statements of the girlfriend and the lack of clear physical injury.

“I’m going to rule him not dangerous due to the lack of noted injury on the victim by the police and the questionable victim competency,” the judge said.

In telling him that he would be released, Connly read Dlugozima a list of conditions — that he live with his sister, stay employed, submit to alcohol screenings and respect the order keeping him away from his girlfriend.

His mother, who had arrived several hours before his hearing began and sat alone in the back of the room, chased after him as the guards were shuffling him out of the courtroom in the shackles that would soon come off.

Her eye makeup was running when she threw her arms around him. She had begun to congratulate him when their reunion was cut short.

“Hey, you can’t do that,” said a court officer. “He’s still in custody.”

Taylor Telford can be reached at ttelford@indiana.edu.

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