[copchika911]

This is distrubing..I KNOW HIM! I've been out for drinks with him with Peabody cops I know. He always "seemed" very nice and low key. But I always had a gut feeling he was a little strange..like too nice... This just makes you want to throw up. What a Sick Bastard! Who beats up their own mother?!?.

 

[copchika911]

Family, friends 'dumbfounded' by beating of police officer's mother
By Jamie Jamieson
Staff writer


PEABODY — Friends and family of Melpomeni Sideris spent a watchful weekend praying the 73-year-old woman would recover from injuries inflicted by her son, George Sideris. The 33-year-old Peabody police officer remained under suicide watch at Middleton Jail, after being arrested Friday and charged with assaulting his mother.

Melpomeni Sideris remained in a coma at Salem Hospital last night.

At St. Vasilios Greek Orthodox Church in Peabody, the Rev. Andrew Demotses said parishioners who knew Sideris and her son, George, were "dumbfounded" by the news.

"It seemed so entirely out of character for him and entirely implausible that there would be any problem between George and his mother," Demotses said. "It was like a bolt of lightning really, out of the blue."

On Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving Day attack, Demotses met George Sideris and Minas Dakos, a cousin who is close to both family members, at Salem Hospital. The three stood next to Melpomeni's bed and said a prayer. Then Demotses asked the younger Sideris what happened.

"He said, 'I can't lie to you, this is what happened,'" Dakos said. "And we both said, 'You know what you have to do now.'"

Dakos accompanied George Sideris to Peabody police headquarters, where he made a statement admitting he had been beating his mother since last March.

His abuse had sent her to the hospital before. But the most damaging beating came Thanksgiving Day, when Sideris told police he hit his mother on the back and on the right shoulder and she fell to the ground. When his mother was unresponsive to his questions, and her breathing became shallow, the police officer of the last four years called 911.

Friends close to the Sideris family say they saw no evidence the son, whom his mother called "Georgie," would be prone to such violence.

Demotses described George Sideris as a "quiet, gentle, extremely respectful young man" who had always wanted to be a police officer.

"I remember writing a letter of recommendation for him; I did it happily," he said. Police officers who worked with him "are as shocked as the rest of us," he said.

"Some people are grieving. Other people are still trying to digest what has happened and trying to come to terms with it," Demotses said.

Parishioners at Demotses' church were similarly shocked by the news, some learning about the assault for the first time at Sunday morning services. As he walked out of church yesterday morning, Nick Korkaris said he and his wife had known the Sideris family of Ellsworth Road for 35 years.

"We know them as a very good family, and we were surprised when we heard this happened," he said.

Korkaris was one of only a few friends to visit Sideris in the hospital over the weekend. He said he was doing his best to remain optimistic.

"She didn't look too good," he said, "but we hope for the best."

George Sideris is Melpomeni's only son. She raised him on her own after her husband abandoned the family and returned to Greece.

While those who know the family expressed sympathy for George, as well as his mother, those who do not were less charitable in their opinions.

"He deserves everything he's going to get," said George Couris, a retired Peabody police officer and owner of the Barber Shoppe on Foster Street in Peabody Square. Police officers must take a psychological test when they are hired, Couris said.

"I can't imagine it happening, and to a mother! It's really, really, really bad," he said.

State Rep. Joyce Spiliotis said the incident was the talk of the Football Hall of Fame dinner Friday night. "It's awful these things happen on holidays," she said. "I worked in the courts and I did see it would happen. Many times after the holidays we would be so busy, and it would be a lot of family disputes. It's just so sad."

Sideris will be remain in jail at least until Tuesday, when a hearing will be held to determine whether he poses a danger if released on bail.
______________________________________________________________

This is just craziness! I can't even fathom how people feel bad for him. He's been beating her up since March. And this crap about him being insane makes me laugh. He's been a normal police officer functioning just fine on a daily basis but a closet psycho on the side. He NEEDS to be made an example out of. This poor women might die.. and if that happens.. I'd like to see nothing but Murder one. What a sin!

 

[copchika911]

New details emerge in elder-abuse case against Peabody cop

By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

PEABODY - Suspended Peabody police officer George Sideris blamed job stress for a series of assaults on his elderly mother, the last of which, on Thanksgiving, left her in a coma for several weeks.

This and other new details emerged yesterday during a hearing at Salem Superior Court to determine whether Sideris, 33, is too dangerous to be released on bail while awaiting trial. He has been held without bail since he turned himself in to police after the Thanksgiving Day beating.

The hearing gave a more complete picture of what happened over the past six months inside the home Sideris shared with his 73-year-old mother and at the Peabody police station where he was allegedly teased repeatedly by coworkers.

Judge David Lowy began hearing evidence yesterday and will continue the hearing on Tuesday with testimony from a priest to whom Sideris first confessed on the day after Thanksgiving.

"Father Andrew (Demotses) came and asked how this happened," Sideris told police in a statement. "I couldn't lie to him."

Until that point, Sideris had been telling fellow officers, hospital staffers and relatives that his mother had fallen and may have choked on a banana.

But on the morning of Nov. 26, at the urging of his priest and a cousin, Minas Dakos, Sideris confessed to abusing his mother for months.

"I hit my mother several times leading up to when she went to the hospital in March. ... I had slapped her and kicked her once in the leg," he told police.

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, he said, "we had arguments. On Nov. 19, probably the afternoon time, I punched her in the right forehead. I saw it swell up. ... I started to get medical help. She did not want it and didn't complain about any pain. I monitored her and asked her not to report it."

Days later, on the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Sideris said he slapped his mother on the face and hit her in the back with the side of his first.

Then, on Thanksgiving, "I again hit her back and right shoulder. Then she (lay) down. I gave her a banana, which she ate with our dog. Then, she lay there. She couldn't answer me."

Sideris, now worried, gave his mother two or three "rescue breaths," then called 911.

Claimed she had fallen

But when fellow officers arrived at his home on Thanksgiving, Sideris told a different story.

Patrolman James Christman told an investigator he noticed a large bruise on her right temple. "George said he's mad at himself for not taking her to the hospital, but she didn't want to go when she fell last week," he reported.

Patrolman Daniel Jenkins also noticed the bruise on her face and a bump on her head. "George said she had fallen down within the past week," he said.

Sideris went on to say that she had gotten up to do laundry that morning and "didn't look very well." He said he gave her a banana, thinking her potassium was low. "After he gave her the banana, he said he thought she might have choked on a piece of the banana and that is what is causing the airway obstruction."

Sideris went back and forth between the hospital and a cousin's home. The next day he went to the hospital with Dakos. A short time later, the Rev. Demotses showed up to pray.

"At the conclusion of the prayer, he asked George what happened," Dakos told an investigator.

"I hit her and I'm responsible for her being here," Sideris replied.

Demotses and Dakos convinced Sideris to turn himself in, and they drove to the police station, where he wanted to speak directly with Chief Robert Champagne. But when the chief wasn't there, he asked Dakos to drive him to Lt. Edward Bettencourt's home. Bettencourt wasn't home, so they went back to the station, where they met Capt. Scott Carriere.

"He cried and said he was sorry for what happened," Dakos told State Police investigator Robert LaBarge Jr.

Sideris also told Carriere that he had been experiencing job stress, concern about his mother's health and concern that she wasn't doing certain things around the house. "Mostly it was job stress," Dakos told the state trooper.

Sideris wept at several points during yesterday's hearing, at one point crying openly as his lawyer questioned the Peabody captain about some of the reported taunts.

Taunted at work

Defense lawyer Edward O'Reilly honed in on that issue during his cross-examination of LaBarge and Carriere, introducing statements from fellow officers that suggested Sideris was not fitting in with other patrolmen on his overnight shift.

Sgt. Rick Sims told State Police Sgt. Dennis Marks that back in March, he learned of a dispute between Sideris and another sergeant, Richard Lee. Sideris told Sims he wanted to quit the force, but "my mother will not sign the papers to the house if I'd sell it now and get out of here right now."

Sims said Sideris was more sensitive than other officers, going back to when he worked as a dispatcher. "Others were picked on, but they shot right back. George never did," Sims said.

There were "a lot of jokes behind his back" about his mother, his lack of a social life or girlfriend and camping trips he took alone, Sims acknowledged.

A fellow patrolman, James Dickinson, described Sideris as "a little slow, timid, quiet, loner."

"George would be called dumb if he screwed up a call," Dickinson said. "The remarks were internalized more by George."

Yet, on patrol, "George seemed to be the nicest guy," Dickinson said.

It was not an assessment shared by everyone.

One neighbor questioned by police said Melpomeni Sideris was devoted to her son and would "wait on him hand and foot."

But Ellen Burke said she saw Sideris do little to reciprocate. She would often see Mrs. Sideris at the door to greet her son when he returned home at 8 a.m. He would hand his coat to her and many times would leave his bag for her to drag into the house, she said.

"As far as helping her around the house, I never saw him do anything," Burke told an investigator. "I would see her in her garden, working. I never saw him help in the garden," until about two weeks before she went to the hospital, when she said she was surprised to see Sideris helping rake leaves.

Awakened from coma

Though Mrs. Sideris initially appeared unlikely to emerge from her coma, she awoke on Dec. 15, ironically right after a meeting between family members and a doctor.

A cousin, Sharon Bainbridge, said she believes the mother and son had a loving relationship and said Mrs. Sideris has asked to see her son.

But she struggled when Lowy, the judge, asked how she reconciled her view of the mother and son's relationship in light of the charges against George Sideris.

"I don't know," she said after a long pause. "I've been going through mixed emotions. I just think he's sorry."

 

[copchika911]

Re: New details emerge in elder-abuse case against Peabody c

Yea..sorry i noticed that afterwards...I didn't put anything in the discription box so I think it just re-directed it else where....

 

[copchika911]

Peabody cop released

Peabody cop charged with beating his elderly mother is released
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

PEABODY - A Peabody police officer charged with beating his elderly mother into a coma last month was released yesterday on personal recognizance, but with a warning that he stay away from his mother, who remains hospitalized.

Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy concluded that while George Sideris poses a danger to the 73-year-old woman, she would be protected by a no-contact order and other conditions, including that he possess no firearms, that he report to a probation officer three times a week and that he undergo a psychological evaluation by the court clinic.

What remained unaddressed is whether Sideris, 33, a four-year veteran of the Peabody Police Department, poses a danger to himself.

That was a concern raised by the Rev. Andrew Demotses, pastor of St. Vasilios Greek Orthodox Church, who testified yesterday about Sideris' confession to him after he was called to the hospital to give the last rites to Sideris' mother.

After the prayers, Demotses said he turned to Sideris and asked what had happened.

"He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'Father Andrew, I cannot lie to you," Demotses recalled. "I hit my mother."

Sideris was "overwhelmed with remorse," Demotses said. The police officer, whom the priest had baptized 33 years earlier, was shaking and crying and unable to stand.

"George was so sorry and so remorseful, I was very afraid he might hurt himself," Demotses said.

But that's a concern the judge said he could not consider in deciding whether to deny bail for Sideris, though prosecutor Karen Hopwood said she feared that if he is intent on harming himself, Sideris could also harm others who happened to get in his way.

"You don't have to convince me he is a danger," said Lowy. "The incident itself shows me he's a danger, the horrific incident."

Other ways to protect

But what the prosecutor had not shown, Lowy said, was that there was no way to protect Mrs. Sideris other than denying bail to her son. The alternative would include restricting his access to her and confiscating his weapons.

Hopwood countered that people ignore court orders and obtain weapons every day. And she questioned how such orders could be enforced.

But Lowy was unpersuaded, saying he believes the orders could be enforced and would protect Mrs. Sideris.

The judge rejected a suggestion by defense lawyer Edward O'Reilly, however, that Sideris be allowed to visit his mother in the hospital accompanied by an armed police officer.

Lowy's decision meant that Sideris was released immediately and will be allowed to return to the Ellsworth Road home he and his mother had shared for years.

Demotses said yesterday that Mrs. Sideris has asked to see her son at least three times since she emerged from the coma, but has not been told why he has not visited. He suggested it might be "helpful and reassuring to her" to see her son - though for now that is not allowed.

The two were dependent on each other, said O'Reilly.

"He had no father in his life and she had no husband," O'Reilly told the judge. "He was almost a husband to her, financially and emotionally." Because of that, Sideris was "almost trapped" by his mother's dependence on him and her pride in his job as a police officer - a job he had come to see as "torture," because of harassment from some colleagues, according to his lawyer.

Tearful defendant

Sideris cried throughout the hour-long hearing, tears streaming down his cheeks and at times landing on the defense table in large drops until a court officer handed him a paper towel and then some tissue.

"I was really quite incredulous," Demotses told the court, recalling Sideris as a "gentle soul" who was devoted to his mother.

Yet he had already heard from a friend of Mrs. Sideris that there were suspicions that her son had hurt her.

"I didn't believe it at the time," Demotses said. "It is in the nature of my job to hear gossip and things that were untrue. I couldn't believe such a thing was true."

Still, Demotses said, he believes Sideris is truly sorry for what happened on Thanksgiving morning.
________________________________________________________

WHAT?!!?!?! :evil:

 

[copchika911]

Peabody Cop will be allowed to visit mother he assaulted

Cop will be allowed to visit mother he assaulted
By Julie Manganis

SALEM - A Peabody cop charged with beating his mother into a coma last Thanksgiving will be allowed to visit the elderly woman in the nursing home where she now lives, a Salem Superior Court judge said yesterday.

But Judge David Lowy said he was concerned more about the woman's wishes than those of George Sideris.

"I'm not doing it for him, I can assure you of that," Lowy said.

As a result of the change in bail conditions, Sideris can have supervised visits with 73-year-old Melpomeni Sideris at a Lynn nursing home if accompanied by a police officer.

Sideris, 33, is facing charges of assault and battery on a person over 60, stemming from the beating. Sideris was deemed a danger to the community during a hearing last December. Though deemed a danger, he was released on a series of strict conditions, including that he not see his mother.

Sideris' lawyer, Edward O'Reilly, said Mrs. Sideris, who has emerged from the coma, has repeatedly been asking why her son had not visited. The assertion was backed by Theodora Gikas, a longtime friend of the elderly woman, who said she has been asked again and again, "When come my Georgie?"

And O'Reilly pointed to an evaluation by a court psychologist who believes Sideris no longer poses a danger to his mother.
Prosecutor Karen Hopwood objected to the request, saying the woman's legal guardian had not been given an opportunity to determine whether visits would be in the woman's best interest and said the nursing home staff is also concerned.

But Lowy said he could not factor those things into his decision. He could only consider whether the woman could be kept safe, which he felt was possible with the presence of a police officer.

"My current concern," Lowy said, "is whether this could be done in a way that protects her safety and the safety of the community.

"A woman wants to see her son," he said. "It seems cruel not to let her see him."

Lowy said he does not believe Sideris is going to harm his mother in the presence of a witness.

Hopwood also argued that there was no basis for the judge to reconsider the bail conditions, arguing that little has changed since Sideris was first charged. But Lowy said that the mother's request, as well as the evaluation, were new developments that warranted consideration.

Sideris admitted to police after the Thanksgiving Day incident that he had been hitting his mother for months, and that the assaults had escalated until the day he punched and slapped her in the head and punched her back. He told police she lay down and then became unconscious.

During subsequent court hearings, Sideris' lawyer said his client had been under stress from being harassed by fellow Peabody police officers.

O'Reilly, however, said that a number of colleagues from the department have offered several times to let him know if they can help Sideris, suggesting that they would volunteer to accompany him to the nursing home.

Sideris remains suspended without pay from the Police Department while the charges are pending.