MAYNARD — On Thursday, August 28, 2025, at approximately 10:22 p.m., Officers Leon Muraguri and Rick Seeley of the Maynard Police Department were dispatched to 5 Maple Street following a 911 call reporting an apparently intoxicated man outside the residence.
(The account and quotations in this article were sourced from the printed Personnel Narrative of Officer Leon Muraguri and do not reflect any political perspective or personal opinion of News Link Live, which is strictly a business entity.)
“[The reporting party] described the male as approximately 5’9’, weighing about 160 lbs,” Officer Muraguri said. “[He] noted that the male was wearing a black hoodie with jeans.”
Officer Muraguri said that he and Officer Seeley arrived simultaneously at the scene.
Upon arrival, Officer Muraguri observed a man supporting another male individual who was leaning forward. According to Officer Muraguri, the man was preventing the other individual from falling face-first to the ground.
Officer Muraguri said that Officer Seeley informed dispatch of their location before the two officers approached the man and the other male party involved.
“Upon nearing them, it was immediately evident to me that the other male was James Bailey,” Officer Muraguri said.
According to police, James Bailey, 63, is a resident of Maynard, MA.
“It is pertinent to note that I have previously interacted with James regarding a similar report, and I am familiar with his typical manner of communicating with law enforcement,” Officer Muraguri said. “From prior encounters, I observed that Mr. Bailey often repeated the phrase, ‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ ‘Why are you doing this,’ and used these responses to answer straightforward inquiries.”
At this time, the man supporting Bailey asked him about his intended destination.
“At this moment, James responded, ‘Home,’” Officer Muraguri said. “Nonetheless, he was unable to indicate the direction of his residence.”
Officer Muraguri said that he then observed Bailey point towards the sky and assert that he was heading home.
“James was unsteady on his feet, and his speech was slurred, rendering it difficult at times to comprehend his mumbling,” Officer Muraguri observed. “I asked James whether he lived alone or if someone was at home who could assume custody of him, but he remained silent. Due to James’ significant unsteadiness, Officer Seeley supported him by holding his left arm in an escort position to provide stability. Officer Seeley asked whether James had his wallet with him, to which he responded affirmatively but appeared to have difficulty retrieving it. While Officer Seeley was holding James’ hand in the escort position, James seemed helpless, unable to stand or regain coordination to retrieve his wallet from the front pocket of his black hoodie.”
Based on Officer Muraguri’s observations, Bailey was very unsteady on his feet and required support to walk. He was slurring his speech, emitted a strong odor of alcohol, and was unable to answer simple questions.
“He had no one at home to assume custody of him, so I deemed James to be incapacitated and placed him under protective custody,” Officer Muraguri.
Bailey was escorted to a cruiser, handcuffed, and searched before he was placed into the cruiser for transportation to the police station.
“At the station, James was unable to walk by himself, so Officer Seeley and I escorted him, holding his shoulders, to the booking intake area,” Officer Muraguri said. “During booking, James was not able to stand without support from Officer Seeley and me, and I deemed him unsafe to be booked for fear of him falling and getting injured.”
Sergeant Eric Davoll then told Officer Muraguri to take booking photographs and place Bailey in a cell for a few hours to allow his blood alcohol content to decrease.
“At approximately 1:30 a.m., during a cell check, I noticed James seemed to have sobered up, and I asked if he wanted to take his breathalyzer,” Officer Muraguri said. “James agreed and was given Seq. Test #954, which showed a BAC [Blood Alcohol Content] of 0.21%. James was placed back in cell #1 to sober up further.”
Bailey was released on August 29, 2025 at 10:05 a.m.
Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story took place in August, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to obtain the court documents. FOIAs are time-consuming.
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