By THOMAS GRILLO
CHELSEA — A second Revere police officer is facing charges of child abuse, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley.
Angela Halcovich, 31, of Revere, was arraigned Friday in Chelsea District Court on charges of physically abusing her two children. Halcovich is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and two counts of allowing another person to commit assault and battery on a child.
She pleaded not guilty, according to her attorney, Robert Boncore.
Halcovich was ordered to abide by any conditions set by the Department of Children and Families and have no unsupervised contact with the children. She is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 24.
Alissa Goldhaber, an assistant district attorney on the Child Protection Unit, told the court that Halcovich is accused of allowing her boyfriend, fellow Revere police officer Marcos R. Garcia, to beat the children on Jan. 12 and beating them herself months earlier.
Garcia, 32, of Saugus, was arraigned last week on charges of physically abusing a young child. He pleaded not guilty. He is charged with assault and battery on a child causing injury and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Judge Michael Patten ordered Garcia to stay away from and have no contact with the victims and witnesses in the case and have no contact with children under the age of 18, except his own child, without the knowledge of a parent or guardian.
Goldhaber told the court that Garcia had been in a romantic relationship with Halcovich, mother of the 5-year-old victim. On the evening of Jan. 12, when the child did not eat dinner quickly enough, Garcia allegedly sent the child to a bedroom, placed him in handcuffs and beat him with his hands and a belt, she said.
Garcia allegedly told the child to shower and rubbed ointment on wounds sustained in the beating. Prosecutors said Garcia told the victim and the second child who was present in the home at the time to tell anyone who asked that the injuries were the result of falling down a flight of stairs, prosecutors said.
The following day, the victim attended school and asked the nurse for a Band-Aid. The nurse observed bruises on the front and back of the child’s torso, arms and neck. The victim was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital for treatment. Clinicians also detected elevated liver enzymes, which are sometimes caused by abdominal trauma, Goldhaber said.
After initially stating that the 5-year-old had fallen down the stairs, the victim and the second child later said they wanted to “tell the real truth” and participated in separate multidisciplinary interviews, Goldhaber said.
Garcia, who was represented by attorney Chris Coughlin, is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 23.
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Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].