As of press time on Wednesday night, there was no verdict in the Hargreaves-Biery stalking case, the result of an alleged series of events that culminated in an October 10 incident that occurred in Pemigewasset Hall.
After an hour of testimony that consisted of Lisa Hargreaves’ sworn statements, her cross-examination by the defense, and the redirection back to her attorney, Judge Rappa felt that he was not qualified to make a decision at that time and would issue a verdict in writing at a later date.
As stated by both the defense and the prosecution, Biery and several friends dressed as clowns and participated in an alleged incident where they danced around to carnival music, threw confetti, blew noise makers, and generally acted “silly.”
Hargreaves claims that it was an attack directed specifically at her based on a previous conversation where she had that mentioned her fear of clowns. Biery and the other participants in the alleged incident claim that Hargreaves was never a target, it was simply a harmless prank that has been blown out of proportion.
Capello’s boyfriend, Brian Moriarty, who claims to be the “ringmaster” behind the alleged incident, informed Capello of what he intended to do. Capello thought that Hargreaves would be fine with it, and she said, “I thought I knew my best friend well enough to know that she would be ok.”
Capello said that she specifically remembers the day that she and her friends found out about Hargreaves’ clown fear. She said that they were watching an episode of “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” that involved clowns, and Hargreaves mentioned that she didn’t like them. However, Capello said that was all Hargreaves said on the matter. She claimed the others in the room, including herself and Moraiarty, started to joke with Hargreaves about her fear. Capello continued that Hargreaves laughed and joked with them, but never told them to stop, knock it off, or that they had gone too far.
According to Capello, Moriarty, Biery, and the two other partici-pants in the incident, Ryan Nicolson and Takuya Yoshida, these are the events that transpired on October 10. Beiry, Nicolson and Yoshida put on clown makeup and prepared their joke for Capello and Hargreaves. Once they were settled in, Moriarty called Capello and told her they were all set. Capello then told Hargreaves that Moriarty wanted to talk to her about Biery in his room, and the two ventured across the hall to where Moriarty, Biery and Nicolson all lived.
Once Capello and Hargreaves were in the room, which was dark, Moriarty began talking to Hargreaves about Biery. Soon after, carnival music began to play as Nicolson turned on the lights, Biery and Yoshida came out of hiding blowing noise makers and all three began to dance, dressed as clowns.
Hargreaves’ story differs only slightly. According to her testi-mony, she believes that the alleged incident was not a joke but a scene aimed solely at her to frighten and upset her. She declined any further comment.
Check The Clock’s website at www.theclockonline.com for fur-ther updates on this story as they are received.