Judge rules police lacked probably cause to charge Belmont man who held gun

CIRCUIT COURT — A judge dismissed a single charge of criminal threatening with a gun levied against a Belmont businessman yesterday after determining there was no probable cause for his arrest.

Belmont police charged Henry Dionne Jr. of Laconia Road with criminal threatening after a woman he knows accused him of putting a gun on her shoulder. The woman was apparently in a truck on his property while attempting to retrieve some things she said were hers.

Under direct examination, police said they responded to Dionne's home on April 2 after getting two phone calls from 9-1-1 — one from a man who was a friend of the woman and later one from the woman herself.

Her statement was that as she went to light a cigarette, Dionne, who was also in the truck at that point, put a gun on her shoulder and said something like "why don't you light it with this." She described the gun as silver.

Under cross examination by Dionne's attorney Bob Hemeon, the officer said Dionne was cooperative during the entire investigation and had opened the safes where he kept his guns.

He said the alleged victim told him she had asked Dionne to get out of the truck and put the gun in a safe. The officer also said that she said Dionne never pointed the gun at her.

Police said Dionne was nowhere near the truck when they got there and was inside his home. He came out on the porch when police asked him too.

Under cross examination, Hemeon also got the officer to say that the alleged victim never called the police until after she spoke with her friend and after he had already called them.

In addition, Hemeon said the woman allegedly sent Dionne a letter in the mail changing her story and Dionne turned that writing in to police.

Judge Jim Carroll determined that the police didn't provide enough probable cause to sustain a felony charge of criminal threatening with a deadly weapon and ordered the case dismissed.