Slaying suspect freed because of low IQ faces eviction

HAVERHILL, Mass. — It has been almost eight months since Eric Falardeau was released from jail.

Pelletier is Falardeau's landlord. He says Falardeau has been a nightmare tenant who hasn't paid a dime's rent since moving in last fall.

Pelletier will be rid of Falardeau on July 15 after a months-long fight in housing court to evict his tenant from his gray and blue triple-decker at 68 Broadway.

Falardeau's previous residence was jail. But he became a free man thanks to an unusual court decision that allowed him to beat a charge of second-degree murder without ever going to trial.

Falardeau, 30, had been charged with the beating death of Salem, N.H., resident William Beal outside the Calumet Tavern in Lawrence in October 2000, accused of hitting Beal even as he fell to the ground unconscious.

But a judge declared in February that Falardeau was too stupid to ever stand trial. Falardeau, who had been released from jail the previous November when it became clear trial was unlikely, was now in the clear to live his life with no check on his movements.

Pelletier said that, based on his experience with him, Falardeau isn't as dumb as all the psychiatrists and judges have said.

"He's a scam artist," Pelletier said loudly, sitting on his porch. "He has convinced everyone he is stupid, that he wouldn't be able to understand a court trial. ... That's not what I've seen."

District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett also disagrees with the judge who freed Falardeau. Blodgett is preparing an appeal.

Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead declared Falardeau incompetent to stand trial because Falardeau's low IQ of 70, bordering on mental retardation, left him incapable of assisting in his defense.

With no conviction and no trial on the horizon, jail wasn't an option for Falardeau. Neither was a home for the mentally disabled — the state Department of Developmental Services would not take him in since it does not consider him to be mentally retarded. And he couldn't be sent to a facility for the mentally ill because he wasn't found to be insane.

There were no programs out there for Falardeau and no money to start one. Whitehead said he couldn't continue to incarcerate him with no hope of a future trial after his case had lingered in the justice system for close to nine years already.

Despite a violent past, marked anger issues and records of assault and battery, Falardeau is out on the streets with what Beal's family called a "license to kill, to do whatever he wants."

Prosecutors filed a notice of appeal back in March, according to Blodgett spokesman Steve O'Connell, and are still working on it.

"It takes a while to get all the information together," O'Connell said. "There is a lot of research and paperwork involved."

Prosecutors argue that Falardeau is competent to stand trial, and even if he isn't, he should be monitored and evaluated until the day he is.

Falardeau was found competent to stand trial in New Hampshire and was convicted even as he was awaiting trial in Massachusetts. Back in 2002, Falardeau was sentenced to six months in jail in New Hampshire for nearly sideswiping a Salem, N.H., police cruiser, after an officer tried to pull him over for speeding a few months before the Lawrence slaying.

Falardeau told police he tried to flee because he knew if he got one more speeding ticket he could lose his license.

Falardeau received Bs and Cs in his senior year at Lawrence High School. While he did receive specialized instruction, he never failed a class. He could drive a car and take care of his finances — all arguments prosecutors have made for a trial, to no avail.

Pelletier said he's willing to help Blodgett's people in any way he can to establish that Falardeau is competent to stand trial.

Pelletier allowed Falardeau — a distant relative of his wife — to move in with a cousin of Falardeau's last fall at the urging of relatives.

"They said he just needed some help getting back on his feet," Pelletier said. "That's all I knew. Out of compassion, I let him in."

He said he was told Falardeau had been charged with murder stemming from a bar fight, but Pelletier thought he had been found innocent because the evidence didn't add up.

Pelletier, a contractor, initially had him do some work on his properties to offset the rent — he had been told Falardeau was a skilled drywall installer and taper.

He renovated Pelletier's bathroom, measuring out and laying down tile on the walls. He also had no problems adding up his time sheet down to the minute, Pelletier said.

"He could do it all," Pelletier said. "If he worked a few hours here, 15 minutes there, he added it up quickly and the math was fine. So how can he do that but then say he doesn't understand what a judge does or what it means to be guilty?"

He did not know about Falardeau's "incompetence" or his frequent violent outbursts until he read an Eagle-Tribune story in February. He said he was shocked, then disgusted.

According to court records, Falardeau told the nine psychiatrists who evaluated him over the years that he was unable to define the word "guilty."

When asked what role the defense attorney plays, he answered, "He sits and tells me everything looks good."

Evaluators said he suffered from a language processing problem, a difficulty expressing himself in words and a hard time focusing. They also found a drinking problem and anger issues.

Dempsey Hernandez, Pelletier's son-in-law and a second-floor neighbor of Falardeau, said he has heard things from Falardeau and Falardeau's cousin that make him think Falardeau does know the difference between guilty and innocent.

"He'll brag about how he has gotten away with all this, how he beat someone, how he hit a cop, a guard," Hernandez said. "He was always running his mouth up there."

Charges that Falardeau assaulted a jail guard in 2004 and punched and kicked EMTs while they were at his house on a medical call in 2006 were dismissed in February along with the murder charge.

After Pelletier ran out of work for his tenant to do, Falardeau couldn't keep other jobs and remains unemployed, according to Pelletier.

Pelletier and Hernandez said Falardeau sleeps most of the day now and only leaves the house to hit a liquor store or bar. Sometimes Falardeau's mother picks him up for a weekend here and there. His cousin left a while ago, unable to live with him anymore. He sits out on his porch sometimes, staring at nothing in particular for hours.

"That creep stands out there and laughs at us all the time," he said. "Just standing there and laughing."

They are not sure how Falardeau supports himself or scrapes up enough money to make runs to a liquor store a few blocks down the street, Pelletier said.

A reporter observed Falardeau make the liquor runs Pelletier spoke of on two occasions in the span of three days.

When approached to comment for the story, Falardeau yelled at a reporter, "I'm not interested," and slammed his apartment door.

His former defense attorney, Raymond Buso of Salem, Mass., did not return calls for comment

Pelletier said once he read the pleas for justice from William Beal's widow, Lisa Carter, in The Eagle-Tribune, he wanted her to know what was going on and that he was willing to help her.

"I really feel for that family," he said. "They need to know what he's doing. ... And I hope other landlords read this."

Carter said she wasn't surprised to hear that Falardeau has been causing trouble again.

She repeated what she has said many times since February: that Falardeau belongs in jail for life, that the 1,222 days he served awaiting trial do not make up for what her family has lost.

She is patiently waiting for the appeal to be filed. She has kept herself busy with several jobs and a new grandchild who takes after her late husband.

"I just want him behind bars," Carter said in a phone interview. "I haven't heard from anyone. ... The District Attorney's Office promised to call if he got in trouble again. ... I don't want this happening to anyone else."

Pelletier said for now he's counting the days until Falardeau needs to be out. He is angry that he's lost out on thousands of dollars in rent money and is frustrated at a system that he believes gives more rights to a deadbeat tenant than a landlord.

In housing court documents, Falardeau said he was disabled and was discriminated against by his landlords. He wrote on one form: "Help me to stay in my apartment until I can get on my feet."

Pelletier said he cannot wait to see children playing in the backyard again. While the house is full of children, they have rarely used the slide or play area Pelletier set up because Falardeau's back deck overlooks it.

Pelletier's daughter has children, and a third-floor tenant also has young ones. Even when Falardeau is finally gone, Hernandez said, there are certain images that will always be etched in his brain.

"There's this complete dead zone in his eyes," Hernandez said. "I would drive him to work and he'd just stare ahead, not saying anything. I thought at the time that he was just a quiet guy. It was scary, like 'The Shining.'"

June 2004 - Judge finds Falardeau incompetent to stand trial for first of three times

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Photos

Paul Bilodeau/Staff photo Eric Falardeau, the man accused of killing William Beal in 2000, stands on his porch at his home at 68 Broadway in Haverhill. Staff Photographer

Eric Falardeau's landlord, Michel Pelletier, left, and neighbor Dempsey Hernandez stand outside their apartment building in Haverhill, Mass. They say Falardeau is competent to stand trial for murder. Staff Photographer