
SOMERVILLE – On Thursday, January 5, 2023, at approximately 10:38 a.m., Somerville Police Officers Paul Beckford and Robert Anaya were dispatched to Sathi Convenience Store on 153 Highland Avenue following a reported shoplifting incident.
Upon arrival, the officers encountered the two suspects, Rose Sheehy, David Laperle, and a reluctant store clerk who hoped to resolve the situation without police intervention. Despite attempts to de-escalate, Sheehy remained hostile and uncooperative, eventually assaulting Officer Anaya.
According to police, Sheehy is 41-years-old and a resident of 14 Chapel Street in Somerville.
Surveillance footage revealed Sheehy’s attempt to steal Chore Boy scrubbers by concealing them in her jacket while Laperle tried to distract the clerk with small talk. When Officer Beckford took Sheehy aside to show her the surveillance footage, she denied being in the video.
Officer Anaya then told Sheehy he was going to search her jacket for the stolen items. She replied by saying, “You’re not going to touch me!” and open hand shoved Officer Anaya, who lost his footing.
When Officer Beckford told her that she was under arrest for assaulting Officer Anaya, Sheehy said, “F$ck you! I’m not going to jail.” As the officers tried to place handcuffs on her, she escaped their grasp, but the momentum of her escape caused her to go head first into the wall of the store.
Officer Beckford and Anaya made a second, successful attempt at placing Sheehy into handcuffs, but that didn’t stop her from resisting. Officer Beckford said Sheehy was so out of control, that with the handcuffs on, she jumped into the air and slipped. Unable to brace herself because her hands were cuffed, Sheehy fell face-first onto the floor, cutting the area above her right eyebrow.
Officer Beckford attempted to call for medical assistance, but Sheehy refused medical treatment.
Sheehy was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, shoplifting by concealing merchandise, assault and battery on a police officer, and shoplifting by asportation, second offense. The charges against Laperle – if any – were not included in the public information request obtained by News Link Live.
On Sheehy, police found three Chore Boy scrubbers stolen from Sathi Convenience Store and 10 Mike’s Hard Lemonades stolen from the Get-N-Go convenience store across the street.
Sheehy’s bail was set at $500.
She was arraigned in Somerville District Court on January 17, after which she was released on her own personal recognizance. On February 17, she had a pretrial hearing, which was continued to February 24.
A disposition was held for Sheehy on March 13. The disposition was continued until April 21.
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Disclaimer 2: If you are wondering why the incident in this story was from January, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to get the court documents for the incident. FOIAs are time consuming.