Jacques, who testified in a pre-trial hearing, is expected to take the stand in his own defense.
Michael F. JacquesSPRINGFIELD – Another day, another Mazza.
After hearing a week’s worth of testimony from state trooper Michael S. Mazza, jurors in the Macedonia Church of God in Christ arson trial met another Mazza Wednesday - this one a self-described ex- stoner, with symbols etched in his hair and tattoos rippling from his elbows to his wrists.
Testifying as a prosecution witness, Anthony R. Mazza described the rowdy, and sometimes racist, behavior of defendant Michael F. Jacques, the Springfield man charged with burning down the Tinkham Road church on Nov. 5, 2008 to protest Barack Obama’s election.
A former auto-body shop employee, Jacques is standing trial in U.S. District Court on civil rights and church arson charges, and faces at least 10 years in prison if convicted. Two others - Benjamin J. Haskell, 26, , and Thomas Gleason, 25, have pled guilty.
During his testimony Wednesday, Mazza said he met the defendant while hanging around with Haskell’s sister, Taylor. He recalled that Jacques, as a close friend of Benjamin Haskell, was at the house “24-7,” and made no secret of his disdain for blacks.
Besides routinely using racial slurs, Jacques trained Haskell’s rottweiller Sasha to attack at the phrase ‘get the (racial slur)’, according to Mazza, who said Jacques sicced the dog on one of Mazza’s friends one day.
“We just all laughed it off as a joke,” Mazza said, adding he was troubled by the incident.
Haskell also triggered a melee at the Big E by using a racial slur after accidentally stepping on a black customer’s sneaker, Mazza said. “There was a huge brawl in the parking lot - there were 15, 20 people; everyone got handcuffed,” he said.
Later, Haskell and Jacques, who threw punches in the fight, both bragged about it, he said.
Mazza acknowledged holding a grudge against Jacques, who he blamed for vandalizing his car several years ago. “I heard Ben and Mikey were bragging about it later,” he said.
On cross examination from defense lawyer Lori H. Levinson, Mazza acknowledged that both men often exaggerated or lied about their exploits to appear, in Levinson’s words, “really tough and cool.”
Mazza admitted that he sometimes smoked marijuana and drank alcohol with Jacques and Haskell, but said his memory of was not clouded by the intoxicants.
When Levinson asked if he still smoked marijuana, Mazza said he quit two years ago.
When she presented the witness with an online posting suggesting that he often smoked marijuana at his old job, Mazza corrected her. “I always did it (smoke marijuana) before work.”
Levinson also took exception to the claim that Jacques was always around Haskell’s house, noting that her client worked mornings as a personal care attendant for his father.
To clarify, Mazza said his use of the phrase “24-7” referred only to the hours after Mazza woke up, which was usually around 2 p.m.
After several more spirited exchanges with Levinson, Mazza left the witness stand – making his testimony was roughly 16 hours shorter than trooper Michael Mazza, who spent five days answering questions about the confessions he and FBI agent Ian Smythe extracted from Jacques and the other defendants.
Jacques, who confessed after a 6½-hour session, later recanted, claiming he was pressured and was suffering withdrawal symptoms from the painkiller Percocet.
Two other prosecution witnesses – David Milne, deputy U.S. marshall, and Meredith Passa, an intake nurse at the Hampden County House of Correction - testified that they saw no signs of drug withdrawal in the hours after Jacques was taken into custody.
With the trial in its third week, the prosecution plans to rest Thursday; Jacques, who testified a pre-trial hearing, is expected to testify in his defense in the next few days.