By Darrell Halen 

A Pelham man who engaged in a standoff with a police SWAT team at his home in October wants a judge to dismiss two charges filed against him: reckless conduct and resisting arrest.

George W. LaBonte Sr., 69, surrendered to police after keeping them at bay at his 4 Jones Road residence for about five-and-a-half hours. Now, his lawyer is arguing that two charges he’s facing should be thrown out.

LaBonte was arrested for reckless conduct on Sept. 30. Police charged him with recklessly discharging a rifle toward a house less than 300 feet away, which placed residents in danger of serious bodily injury, on Sept. 14.

LaBonte’s lawyer, Benjamin L. Falkner, argues in documents filed in Salem District Court that a Pelham police report lacks probable cause that a projectile fired from LaBonte’s gun could have reached the residence allegedly endangered.

In addition, the law that actually applies to LaBonte’s alleged misconduct, not the law he’s accused of breaking, is only a violation rather than a crime, Falkner claims.

That law forbids the discharge of a firearm within 300 feet of a home without permission of its occupants or from the owner of the land where the gun was fired.

“As the State will be unable, as a matter of law, to prove that LaBonte lacked his own permission, no violation of (the law) can have occurred,” Falkner wrote.

On Sept. 14, officers Matthew Keenliside and Theresa Ferrante responded to Jones Road for a report of shots fired close to houses.

Sherburne Road resident Susan Mossey told Keenliside that she heard a gunshot and she and her husband were having an ongoing dispute with LaBonte.

LaBonte had recently threatened, while patting the handle of his revolver, to shoot their dog if it came near him, Mossey told police.

At LaBonte’s home, his wife, Phyllipa LaBonte, told Keenliside and Ferrante that her husband shot at a raccoon a few minutes earlier.

She indicated that LaBonte fired directly toward a house a short distance away, according to Keenliside’s report.

“It appeared possible that a stray round could have hit the house west of the LaBontes,” Keenliside wrote.

When police tried to talk with George LaBonte, Keenliside’s report says, LaBonte swore at the officers, and told them: “I shot the gun, so what? I was in my yard.”

“The narrative portion of the police report fails to demonstrate probable cause that LaBonte’s conduct was reckless, as the police report fails to establish adequately that the weapon used was, in fact, a rifle, and where the report fails to establish that a projectile allegedly fired from the weapon would or could reach the residence allegedly endangered,” Falkner wrote.

On Oct. 1, the day of the standoff and the day after he was arrested on the reckless conduct charge, LaBonte allegedly assaulted his wife by striking her in the chest with a roll of toilet paper.

When police arrived at their house, Phyllipa LaBonte told two officers of the alleged assault and that her husband blamed her for his arrest.

LaBonte was asked by police to come out of his home but continually refused to do so. He was told repeatedly that he was under arrest but refused to surrender to police, according to a police affidavit.

Falkner wants the resisting arrest charge against his client dismissed. He contends, through court documents, that the affidavit does not describe any action by LaBonte which physically interfered with his arrest.

Falkner cited that according to a police log, LaBonte told police they would have to get a warrant to arrest him.

“The only conduct for which the State seeks to penalize LaBonte is that he remained in his home,” Falkner wrote. “In essence, the State seeks to criminalize LaBonte’s refusal to consent to a warrantless arrest in his home.”

Pelham police are going to fight Falkner’s motions to have the charges thrown out.

“We’re filing objections to those and will argue why they shouldn’t be dismissed,” said Lt. Gary Fisher.

The Oct. 1 standoff was not the first time a police SWAT team was called to LaBonte’s home.

According to a police report, SWAT team members responded to LaBonte’s home in February 2004, after he made suicidal comments to a counselor on the telephone while cleaning a firearm.

When the counselor told LaBonte that police would be coming to check on his well-being, he replied that he was armed and police should be ready for a fight, the report says. That incident ended peacefully, too.