As fugitive, teacher hid in plain sight

But prosecutors say the 40-year-old has been a fugitive for 22 years. After being arrested in December, she pleaded guilty yesterday in Peabody District Court to charges that she stabbed a man in the back during a fight at a Route 1 motel when she was 18.

Everyone agrees that Spoon did the stabbing. But there the stories diverge.

Her lawyer, Randy Chapman, depicts a young woman who led a desperate life, pregnant by a boyfriend who controlled her and insisted that she defend him if ever he was in a fight, which was what she was doing on June 12, 1988.

Her former boyfriend, Alan Pullino, 48, of Salisbury, said in an interview that Spoon is now concocting a tale. He asserts that he never controlled Spoon and that on the night of the stabbing it was Spoon who began the fight with the other man and that he had tried to stop it, at which point Spoon grabbed a knife and stabbed the man.

As part of yesterday’s plea deal, Spoon was permitted to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery, rather than the felony with which she had originally been charged: assault and battery with a deadly weapon. She will be placed on three-years probation.

She remains on suspension from the teaching job at Briscoe Middle School in Beverly, according to her attorney. Officials at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education did not return a phone call yesterday.

Spoon could not be reached for comment.

Steve O’Connell, spokesman for the Essex district attorney’s office, said leniency was afforded Spoon because she was a teenager at the time and “she has led an exemplary life since then.’’

Also, he said the victim was in agreement with the case disposition, and prosecutors were not sure they could win a case before a jury on the felony charge.

Peabody District Court issued a default warrant for Spoon’s arrest on June 21, 1988, after she failed to appear for her arraignment. Her attorney says Spoon did not skip out on the warrant, and never received notice of it.

O’Connell said last night that it is standard procedure for defendants to be notified of arraignments, but he not know if Spoon received her notice.

The incident is now coming to light because of a state trooper who was investigating outstanding warrants last year and discovered the warrant for Spoon.

According to Chapman, Spoon grew up in a dysfunctional household. Her father left the family when she was 13, and she lived with her mother, who suffered from bipolar disorder, he said. To make some money, the mother took in boarders, one of whom was Pullino, Chapman said. When Spoon was 17, she began a relationship with Pullino, who was eight years older.

They moved into the Belleview Motel on Route 1 in Peabody, and she became pregnant. Later, when they were fighting at the North Shore Mall and a man “got in the middle of it,’’ Spoon used a pair of scissors on him, Chapman said. That case ended with her being placed on probation, he said.

When she was seven months pregnant, the Belleview Motel owners’ son, Mark Paglia, got into a fight with Pullino in the motel parking lot. Spoon jumped from the car and stabbed Paglia in the back, Chapman said.

Chapman said she was obeying Pullino’s order that she defend him if he ever got into a fight.

Pullino said he never directed her to defend him, and he insists that she was the instigator of the fight.

Paglia said yesterday: “I don’t hold a grudge, but she did almost kill me, and as long as I get my restitution and she does what the program says, that’s all well and good.’’ The court has ordered her to pay $701 in restitution.

In her statement to police, Spoon recalled “sitting in the car when the two were fighting.’’

“She recalls holding the knife but does not remember stabbing or hurting anyone,’’ according to a police report.

Since the stabbing, Spoon earned a bachelor’s degree from Bradford College and a master’s in education from Salem State College, Chapman said. She worked as a special needs teacher and now teaches sixth-grade math. She has a 22-year-old daughter with Pullino and two children, ages 2 and 5, with her husband.

Around her Beverly neighborhood yesterday, residents were trying to piece together the long-ago incident and connect it to the woman they know today.

“We thought she had been laid off from her job,’’ said Fran Champlain, the mother of her next-door neighbor. “We didn’t ask questions. It wasn’t anyone’s business.’’

“She’s a sweet, sweet woman, and I am so glad she is my neighbor,’’ Champlain said.

John M. Guilfoil of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. Sarah Schweitzer can be reached at schweitzer@globe.com.