ANDOVER - A local lawyer who announced his candidacy for state representative this week was arrested Wednesday afternoon for allegedly getting into a drunken scuffle with police.
Peter Cotch denies he was drinking or that he became combative with police when officers approached him on School Street about 3 p.m. He was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
"That's all malarkey," said Cotch, 59, of 297 Salem St. "I read the police report myself and it's fiction."
But police Lt. James Hashem said police received several calls reporting an intoxicated man walking into traffic on Railroad and School streets.
Hashem said Sgt. Charles Heseltine and Officer Kyle Kiberd responded and found Cotch in the middle of the road on School Street, not far from his Essex Street law office.
"People thought he was going to get hit," said Hashem. "He was clearly intoxicated. He was actually holding himself up on the parked cars."
Hashem said Heseltine and Kiberd were attempting to place Cotch in protective custody and escort him home when he became "belligerent and combative" and refused to get out of the middle of the road.
"Once he began to fight it became a criminal matter," said Hashem. "They ended up wrestling him into custody."
Cotch, who police said was released into the custody of a friend at 5:43 p.m., has an entirely different take on the incident.
"When I read the police report (yesterday), I couldn't believe my eyes," he said. "This stuff was just outrageous. What they claimed was simply not true. Period."
Cotch said he left his office Wednesday afternoon to buy food at Whole Foods Market on Railroad Street. On his way back, he said he was approached and interrogated by police.
He said he hadn't been drinking and did not become confrontational, but simply asked the officers what their reasonable suspicion was to stop him in the street.
"However, that didn't keep them from knocking me down to the ground," said Cotch, who said he was handcuffed on School Street. "I guess they were offended by me asking them that question."
Cotch said the incident was his first run-in with Andover police. He has lived in town for 15 years and is a member of Andover Rotary Club and Andover Republican Town Committee.
In yesterday's Andover Townsman, a sister publication of The Eagle-Tribune, Cotch announced he will run against state Rep. Barbara L'Italien next fall. L'Italien has been 18th District representative for Andover, Boxford, Georgetown, Haverhill, Methuen and North Andover since 2003.
Cotch told the Townsman that he would run to offer voters an alternative to the status quo.
"I'm offering myself as a better alternative, for everybody," he told the weekly paper. "It's not about partisanship, it's about accountability, and seeing this district get its due."
In 2008, Cotch ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Andover Board of Selectmen, losing to incumbent Mary Lyman.
Though he has yet to pull election papers with the town clerk making his candidacy official, Cotch said he still intends to run for state office despite Wednesday's arrest.
"It's unfortunate, but I have no control over something like this," said Cotch. "I'm confident that I'll be exonerated ... I'm perplexed by all of this, but it's not going to keep me from conducting my day-to-day business or anything else."
Cotch was arraigned in Lawrence District Court yesterday and will appear again for a pre-trial hearing Feb. 3.
