Thursday, 4:30 PM
Father charged with abuse says daughters wanted to be in car trunk
(Robert E. Klein for The Boston Globe)
Michael Fekete, 48, pleaded not guilty today in Wrentham District Court.
By April Yee, Globe Correspondent
A lawyer for a man accused of child abuse for closing his two daughters in a car trunk in 90-degree weather told a judge today that the girls liked playing in the darkness in the rear of the Chevy Cobalt.
"I'm not excusing an exercise in bad judgment," defense attorney Samuel M. Hausman said today in Wrentham District Court. "But the kids actually wanted to be in the trunk."
The girls, 9 and 11, told police that they liked going in the trunk "so they could play" with a glow-in-the-dark release lever inside, according to a police report. A witness called police when the girls were spotted climbing into the trunk of the sedan outside a nursing home in Foxborough.
The girl's father, Michael Fekete, 48, pleaded not guilty today to two counts of reckless endangerment and assault. Fekete, a technology contractor for the Department of Justice who lives in Washington, was released without bond.
According to police and prosecutors, Fekete and his brother, Joseph Fekete, had driven to visit their mother in a nursing home in Foxborough. According to prosecutors, the two girls were in the closed trunk for five minutes while the brothers were inside visiting their mother. Hausman, the defense attorney, said the girls were only in the trunk for 30 seconds.
Police alerted social service officials, and workers took the children into custody. The children were later released to family members who live in Massachusetts. Fekete is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 15.
