Crime & Safety

Police Chief: Charges 'Appropriate' for Suspect in Foxborough Explosives Case

Foxborough Police Chief Edward O'Leary said the charges against Stephen A. Mudge Jr. following the July 13 incident involving explosives at America's Best Value Inn are "appropriate" despite reports that the devices were fireworks.

Police reports in the case involving – state the eight “homemade devices” allegedly found in Mudge’s backpack were “M-80-type fireworks.”

Mudge Jr., 41 of Easton and Taunton, was arrested on July 13 on two outstanding warrants for breaking and entering in Easton and Raynham and arraigned in Wrentham District Court on July 16, where he to nine additional charges from the July 13 incident at off Route 1 on Washington Street in Foxborough, court documents said.

According to a July 17t article in The Sun Chronicle, Mudge’s attorney, Nancy Winn, claimed police “may have overreacted out of caution” when they arrested her client on explosives charges on July 13 because police reports state the devices were fireworks.

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“It would appear it was blown out of proportion. It was just fireworks," Winn said, as quoted in The Sun Chronicle, during the July 16 bail hearing in Wrentham District Court.

Click here to read The Sun Chronicle’s full story.

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Whether it was homemade explosives or “just fireworks” found in Mudge’s possession at America’s Best Value Inn, Foxborough Chief of Police Edward O’Leary says both are illegal in the state of Massachusetts and is confident the charges, which includes eight counts possession of a destructive or incendiary device, accurately fit the situation.

“[Foxborough Police] Detective [Thomas] Kirrane conferred with the bomb squad with regard to those devices and they were the ones that suggested very strongly, given the nature of [the devices], [those charges] would be appropriate for what he was charged for,” O’Leary said. “As to the breakdown of what may have been considered fireworks … they are all illegal in Massachusetts and the combination of the items together at a hotel further raise the risk.”

Detective Kirrane told Foxborough Patch on scene of the July 13 incident that one of the explosives found in the hotel room would have caused significant damage if it went off.

"[The Massachusetts State Police] said the large device, the M-1000, would have killed all of us in the room had it gone off and taken probably a quarter of the hotel out," Kirrane said.

Police reports describe the larger device as being “three inches round by five inches long.”

In addition to Mudge’s warrant arrest on daytime breaking and entering charges, the 41-year-old has also been

In addition to pleading not guilty to the eight counts possession of a destructive or incendiary device, Mudge pleaded not guilty to one count possession of a Class B drug after Foxborough Police allegedly found “six Methadone pills” in Mudge’s backpack, according to police reports.

According to court documents, Mudge was ordered to be held in jail on $1,000 cash bail and will appear again in Wrentham District Court on Friday, Aug. 10.


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