Hockey dad acquitted of assault tries to move on

Westborough case fueled media frenzy, altered man's life

HOPEDALE - For nearly the last year and a half, Richard Rosenberger has been known as the "Angry Hockey Dad," the man accused of violently attacking a 10-year-old boy after a hockey game.

The case received national media attention as another episode of a parent gone wild at a youth sporting event. Less publicized, however, was Rosenberger's acquittal. On July 17, a Westborough Superior Court jury took less than 15 minutes of deliberation to find Rosenberger not guilty.

"It's finally over," Rosenberger said yesterday, seated on his living room sofa. "I breathed a huge sigh of relief."

Rosenberger's legal problems began in March 2007, after a "squirt" division hockey game at the North Star Youth Forum in Westborough. Top-ranked Franklin lost to the Tri-Valley Indians in a 4-0 upset. After the game, a young player on the losing team told his moth er he had been punched and kicked by a parent outside the rink. He said the man swore at him, and he showed police his bruises.

Life for Rosenberger has not been the same since.

Westborough police interviewed the boy and got a description of his alleged attacker. Police then spoke to Tri-Valley league officials, who identified Rosenberger as a possible match. Police showed the boy Rosenberger's driver's license photo, and he identified Rosenberger as his attacker. (The boy and his parents' identities have not been disclosed by police, and they could not be reached for this report.)

Rosenberger and his wife recalled the night he was arrested yesterday. They had just finished dinner when four police officers - two from Westborough and two from Hopedale - arrived at their doorstep. Theresa Rosenberger said she answered the door, the officers barged in, and then led her husband away in handcuffs. Their son watched in tears from the yard.

"It was like something out of [the TV show] 'Cops,' " she recalled.

The alleged assault drew comparisons to the fatal brawl between two hockey dads at a Reading arena in 2000. Thomas Junta of Reading was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the beating death of Lynnfield resident Michael Costin.

Yesterday, Rosenberger looked the part of a typical suburban father, dressed in elastic waistband shorts and sneakers with white gym socks. After the charges were filed, he spent several nights in jail, including a night in a maximum security cell at the Worcester County House of Correction. Both he and his wife said they are often nervous leaving the house because his photo had been on national TV as "The Angry Hockey Dad."

"It's been emotional," Rosenberger said.

"It's been emotionally, mentally, and financially draining," his wife interjected. "A nightmare."

Theresa Rosenberger, who works as a medical billing specialist, borrowed money from relatives to pay her husband's $5,000 bail bond. Upon release, Richard Rosenberger returned to his job at a Taunton-based ice cream company. He left the job a short time later, saying he felt uncomfortable around his coworkers. He took another job, working for a friend, but left it when word got out about the charges.

"It got to the point where I just lost a lot of the respect of my colleagues with this hanging over my head," he said. "It just wouldn't go away."

Prosecutors failed to find any witnesses to the alleged attack. Westborough police Chief Al Gordon said shortly after the arrest that he "didn't know how many people were there" because the assault happened in a remote corner of the arena. However, parents such as Sharon Constantin of Norfolk came forward shortly after the arrest to say that they had been at the arena at the time of the alleged beating and had seen no disruptions. Constantin, who testified on Rosenberger's behalf, said yesterday that she was never interviewed by police, though she was standing near the spot where the attack allegedly occurred.

"I just feel so bad for all this family has been put through," she said yesterday. "For it to take a year and a half to clear this guy's name? I mean, the jury deliberated 10 minutes."

Rosenberg said his son tussled with the boy who made the allegations but said he never interacted with him.

Rosenberg said three people testified against him at his trial: the boy, his mother, and the Franklin team's coach. Officials at the Worcester District Attorney's office could not confirm the details of the case yesterday because it was the weekend.

The trial, slated for two days, took one. And when the judge told Rosenberger he was free to go, his wife, standing behind him in the courtroom, hugged him.

He dreads the legal bills he has incurred, and is considering suing the police but would not elaborate. He hopes to return to his hobbies of rebuilding cars and boats.

On the night of his acquittal, Rosenberg said he enjoyed a carefree evening, watching his son play baseball at a nearby field.

"I could enjoy the game," he said.

Correction: Because of an editing error, Richard Rosenberger's surname was misspelled several times in a report in Sunday's City & Region section about his acquittal on charges that he assaulted a child at a hockey game.