Arrest Yields Evidence in Other Thefts

BOSTON, April 9, 2014—A Hyde Park man scheduled to go to trial next week for receiving a stolen motor vehicle was arraigned again yesterday for the same offense after an eagle-eyed victim spotted his own vehicle and alerted police, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

MAURICE PRIDGETT (D.O.B. 11/28/80) was arraigned yesterday in West Roxbury Municipal Court on a charge of receiving a stolen motor vehicle as a subsequent offense and two counts of receiving stolen property over $250 after police discovered items stolen during at least two other car breaks inside the stolen SUV Pridgett was found driving, prosecutors said.  Pridgett is scheduled to go to trial Tuesday in West Roxbury Municipal Court on charges of receiving a stolen motor vehicle and possession with intent to distribute a Class B substance; he is currently on probation for a 2013 conviction in Roxbury District Court, also for receiving a stolen motor vehicle.  He was convicted of the same charge in 2011 and twice in 2010, prosecutors said.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Aiello requested that bail be set at $10,000 and that Pridgett be required to wear a GPS monitor in the event that he is released on bail.  Aiello also requested that Pridgett’s open bail be revoked.  Judge Debra Shopteese set bail in the amount of $3,500 and ordered GPS monitoring.  She denied the motion to revoke Pridgett’s open bail.

According to prosecutors, a 42-year-old Hyde Park man reported his Ford Escape stolen after it disappeared from the area of Hyde Park Avenue on March 31.  The victim contacted Boston Police again Saturday, this time to report that he had spotted his vehicle being driven on Wood Avenue and was following the vehicle as he spoke to a 911 dispatcher.  Police pulled up alongside the stolen vehicle as it was stopped at the intersection of Wood Avenue and Cummins Highway and ordered the driver, later identified as Pridgett, to show his hands.  He was taken into custody without incident.

The victim informed police that he could see no damage to the vehicle and that nothing appeared to be missing.  There were, however, several items inside the vehicle that did not belong to the vehicle’s owner, prosecutors said, including a black nylon bag that had been reported stolen during an April 2 car break-in in Mattapan.  That victim was contacted by police and identified her bag and its contents, including her wallet, medication, and other items. A cell phone valued at $500 was missing from the bag, prosecutors said.

Officers also found another bag of which Pridgett claimed ownership.  Among its contents was a GPS unit that had the address of a Cambridge woman programed as “home,” prosecutors said.   When contacted by police, the woman said that the unit had been stolen from her vehicle during a previously unreported car break-in, prosecutors said.

Also recovered were a credit card on the vehicle’s front passenger seat in the name of yet another individual, a silver ring, and a screwdriver.  The vehicle’s rightful owner told police that none of these items belonged to him.

Pridgett is represented by attorney Megan Stanley.  He will return to court May 5.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.