Sullivan said a review of the evidence in the case showed the state did not anticipate being able "to prove the allegations" and win a conviction.
NORTHAMPTON - Prosecutors opted to drop all charges against two Northampton people accused of accosting a 9-year-old girl and tying her to a tree because a lack of evidence to support the charges, Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan said.
The Northwestern District Attorney's Office on Thursday formally dropped all charges against Lance M Gouvan and Megan Bonny in connection with a July 19, 2012 incident in a field off Pomeroy Meadow Road. A 9-year-old girl told police that Gouvan and Bonny attacked her and tied her to a tree with her own jump rope.
The girl, who has never been publicly identified, was at the time a student with the Cutchins Programs for Children and Families, which operates the New Directions School nearby. The Cutchins Program for Children and Families, according to its website, works with children who are experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties.
Gouvan, 35, and Bonny, 27, were initially charged with attempted murder, kidnapping a child, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault and battery. The attempted murder and kidnapping charges were dropped a year ago, but prosecutors until Thursday intended to go ahead with prosecution for the assault and battery charges.
"After a careful review of all available evidence, the Commonwealth concluded that it did not reasonably anticipate being able to prove the allegations against Mr. Gouvan and Ms. Bonny beyond a reasonable doubt," Sullivan said in a prepared statement.
"Therefore, the termination of these prosecutions was consonant with the interests of justice and with the standards of prosecutorial ethics," he said.
The 9-year-old, told police she was skipping rope in a field when Gouvan and Bonny emerged from the woods and attacked her. The girl told police that Gouvan, at Bonny's direction, tied one end of the jump rope around her neck and the other end to a tree.
Gouvan denied he ever assaulted the girl but he did admit to yelling at her.
He said on Wednesday that the charges have ruined his name. At the time, he was organizing homeless people to clean up in the homeless camps.
“Because of this case, the positive things I was doing in Northampton were taken down. I need my name to be cleared to go back to the way it was," he said.