Five men arrested this morning for a brawl in Roxbury District Court were back before judges in the very same building this afternoon when they were arraigned and held on bails as high as $3500, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
The quintet face charges of assault and battery, affray, and disturbing a public assembly for the incident, which took place shortly before 10:00 in the courthouse’s second floor corridor. A Boston Police officer suffered a broken finger as he tried to break up the fracas, Conley said.
Arraigned this afternoon were:
- STEVEN ALLEN, Jr. (D.O.B. 8/3/88) of Roxbury, held on $2500 cash bail and represented by attorney Carla Barrett;
- his brother, RHYDELL WRIGHT (D.O.B. 1/2/87) of Dorchester, held on $3500 cash bail and represented by attorney Dmitry Lev;
- CARLTON BUFORD (D.O.B. 8/10/74) of Roxbury, held on $1000 cash bail, represented by attorney Kernahan Buck;
- his cousin, SHAKA BUFORD (D.O.B. 9/4/77) of South Boston, held on $1000 cash bail and represented by attorney David Shea; and
- JERMEIL ROBINSON (D.O.B. 10/2/91) of Jamaica Plain, held on $1000 cash bail and represented by attorney Charlotte Creeley.
Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Tynes, the chief prosecutor at Roxbury court, said that Allen and Wright comprised one group of combatants while Robinson and the Bufords comprised another. None of the five was in court for a scheduled court date.
Shortly before 10:00 this morning, Tynes said, a pair of Boston Police officers in the building heard a loud verbal confrontation erupt outside of the First Session courtroom. As the officers approached, they saw the verbal confrontation escalate to physical blows.
Additional Boston police and a large contingent of court officers managed to separate the participants and handcuff them. It was while trying to separate the parties that one Boston officer suffered a broken finger; he was transported to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Judge Mark Hart Summerville presided over the arraignments of Allen and Wright, while Judge James Coffey presided over the arraignments of Robinson and the Bufords. The former group will return to court on Dec. 28 and the latter on Jan. 10.
