Cops: Mom Beat Neighbor Busted For Child Porn

SEPTEMBER 25--A mother of two children was arrested after she entered the apartment of a neighbor and punched him in the face because she was incensed that he returned to the Massachusetts residence after being arrested for possession of child pornography.

Nicole Pelletier, a Navy veteran, was busted Monday evening after allegedly attacking Gary Spring, 61, inside his condominium in Danvers, a town 20 miles north of Boston. Pelletier, a licensed clinical social worker, was charged with assault and battery and breaking and entering.

According to a court filing, the 41-year-old Pelletier entered Spring’s apartment through the unlocked front door around midnight and confronted him as he was getting out of bed. “Before he could react she struck him in the face with her hand,” police noted. Spring, a former Merrimack College professor, lives directly below Pelletier and her children, a 13-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy.

Upon arriving at the condo complex, a cop spotted Pelletier walking down the stairs “crying and visibly upset.” She had blood on her hands and right arm. “I went into his apartment and hit him,” Pelletier reportedly confessed. Spring, who suffered a bloody nose, declined medical treatment.

Pelletier, pictured above, herself called 911 to report the assault, telling a police operator that she wanted to kill Spring, cops reported.

Pelletier confronted Spring hours after he was released on $30,000 bond from federal custody. Spring was arrested by FBI agents following a two-month probe that began after Merrimack College officials detected child porn images on a laptop provided to Spring.

A law enforcement review of the computer yielded more than 300 illicit images stored on the machine. During subsequent interviews with agents, Spring admitted to possessing large amounts of child pornography and said that he “freaked out” and began destroying evidence after first being contacted by a detective. Spring’s apartment and office were searched by FBI agents on September 19, the day of his arrest (which received local media coverage).

“Spring stated that he took two thumb drives, totaling 6 gigabytes, which were full of child pornography and threw them in the trash at his home,” according to an FBI affidavit, which noted that Spring (seen at left) “admitted being sexually aroused by child pornography, and masturbating to images of child pornography.”  

After spending last weekend in jail, Spring posted bond Monday and was released from custody that night. Federal prosecutors in Boston sought Spring’s pretrial detention, but his release was ordered by a magistrate judge.

As a condition of his release, Spring was placed on home detention, which allowed him to only leave his Danvers condo for court appearances, medical or legal appointments, religious services, and “job search as approved by Pretrial Services.” His travel was restricted to New England and Skidmore College (court records do not detail Spring’s connection to the New York school). Spring was recently fired from Merrimack College.

While Judge David Hennessy additionally ordered Spring to have “no contact with children under the age of 18 unless accompanied and supervised by an adult,” the defendant is allowed to live in the same condo complex where children reside. He is also barred from coming within 100 feet of parks, schools, playgrounds, arcades, and other places where minors congregate. (2 pages)