MALDEN, MASS. (WHDH) - A Mattapan youth football coach accused of attacking a referee with a football was arraigned Monday and charged with assault on a person over 60.
“This force hit me in the middle of the chest and it staggered me,” said Pop Warner Referee Thomas Abruzzese.
Abruzzese said a hit between two youth players during a game at MacDonald Stadium in Malden over the weekend prompted Mattapan Pop Warner Head Coach Dana Jones to walk onto the field swearing. Abruzzese said Jones then threw a football at him, a decision Jones said he regrets.
“It wasn’t meant to hit nobody … just aggravation,” Jones said as he left court Monday. “Things happen, people take you to court. That’s it.”
Abruzzese, a retired lawyer for the Commonwealth, said he insisted Jones be charged so the kids wouldn’t learn the wrong lesson.
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