WALPOLE, MASS. (WHDH) - The former deputy chief of police in Walpole is facing a criminal charge in connection with a drunken incident in which he allegedly groped his colleague’s wife during a car ride home from a popular bar last year, authorities said.
Christopher MacKenzie has been charged with assault and battery on a person over 14, according to documents filed in Wrentham District Court.
On the evening of May 4, 2019, an intoxicated MacKenzie bumped into one of his co-workers, who was celebrating his birthday with his wife and a group of friends at the Raven’s Nest, a Massachusetts State Police investigator assigned to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said in the documents.
“It became apparent to the victim, her husband, and their friends that Christopher MacKenzie was extremely intoxicated, and had driven his department vehicle to the bar,” the documents said.
When the group decided MacKenzie was unfit to drive home, the victim reportedly offered to drive him home in his department-issued vehicle. Another designated driver is said to have followed behind to return the victim to her husband, who stayed behind at the bar.
At one point during the ride, MacKenzie “leaned over the center console and grabbed the victim’s vagina,” the documents said.
The victim reportedly told police that she had to hold MacKenzie’s hand away and drive the car with one hand to “prevent him from doing it again.” When the tension lightened and the victim released MacKenzie’s hand, he allegedly grabbed her thigh and stated that his “wife was away for the weekend.”
The victim immediately told her friends and husband about the alleged assault. Her husband was reportedly “bothered” by the incident but was unsure of what to do because MacKenzie was his boss. The assault was reported to Walpole Police Chief John F. Carmichael Jr. in July.
In a statement to Carmichael, MacKenzie claimed that he didn’t remember the ride home because “booze got the better of him.”
MacKenzie was placed on leave before he ultimately negotiated his resignation.
A special prosecutor from the district attorney’s office has been assigned to handle MacKenzie’s case, according to Carmichael.
MacKenzie has denied the sexual assault allegations.
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