SWAMPSCOTT, MASS. (WHDH) - A Haverhill man is facing criminal charges after police say he assaulted an 80-year-old woman who was in attendance at a rally against Gov. Charlie Baker in Swampscott over the weekend.

Ernst Jean-Jacques, 32, was arraigned Monday in Lynn District Court on charges including assault and battery on a person over 60, according to the Swampscott Police Department.

Jacques allegedly struck the elderly woman in the chest when a group of protesters and counter-protesters clashed during the rally on Saturday morning.

Additional details were made public in a release issued by Jean-Jacques’s attorney Monday evening.

According to the release, Jean-Jacques was dancing as part of a counter-protest to the initial rally when the alleged victim walked over to get a water bottle and allegedly threw “a large amount of water on him.”

His attorney said he tried to grab the water bottle from the woman at which point various members of the “MAGA-chusetts” rally demanded police arrest him claiming he punched her.

Bystanders recorded part of an interview the victim gave to investigators in which she said, “I was drinking my water and he was gyrating in front of me and I was getting mad and I did get water on him. I don’t want to lie.”

When a bystander asked her if she thought her actions made her the aggressor, she is filmed saying, ” “Oh, why don’t you [explative] off. . . You are not America, you are not America.”

Jean-Jacques’s attorney said he did not punch her but that he did try to take the water bottle from her with an open hand.

Courtesy: Erkan & Associates, LL

In court, prosecutor Danielle Doherty-Wirwicz stated that the woman propelled the water onto Jean-Jaques due to “essential tremors disorder.”

An investigation remains ongoing.

The matter will return to court Feb. 24 for a pre-trial hearing.

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