June 2003: Macomb County Commissioner Roland Fraschetti
Macomb County official to undergo counseling
Detroit Free Press
December 23, 2003
BY ALEXA CAPELOTO
http://www.freep.com/news/locmac/comm23_20031223.htm
A Macomb County commissioner is to spend 30 weeks in domestic violence counseling under a plea deal stemming from a June confrontation with his girlfriend that ended in a car collision.
Roland Fraschetti, a St. Clair Shores Republican, pleaded guilty Friday to reckless driving, a 90-day misdemeanor. The charge will be reduced to careless driving, a civil infraction, if he successfully completes the counseling.
Fraschetti was accused of backing his SUV into his girlfriend's Saturn sedan with such force that it rolled onto the hood of the smaller car. The two had just argued and were in the driveway of a St. Clair Shores home owned by Fraschetti. No one was seriously injured.
"The victim didn't want me to charge him at all," said Joseph McCarthy Jr. of the St. Clair County Prosecutor's Office, which handled the case because of Fraschetti's position in Macomb County. "I told her I have to do something to make sure this doesn't happen again."
A judge will take Fraschetti's guilty plea under advisement while the commissioner attends weekly group counseling sessions run by Catholic Social Services of St. Clair County. Any failure to finish the program could result in a reckless driving conviction.
Sebastian Lucido, Fraschetti's attorney, said his client considers the deal a proper end to what essentially was a car accident. "They got into an argument and it got heated, but he never laid a finger on her," Lucido said. "The man does not have a violent bone in his body."
What really happened, Lucido said, is that "she was in a car behind him and just pulled up. When he hit the car, he was at fault."
With the careless driving infraction, Fraschetti faces three points on his driving record and a $100 fine. He must also pay $750 for the counseling program, which is the same one Commissioner Kurt Kramer was ordered into after pleading no contest to assaulting his wife in June.
Contact ALEXA CAPELOTO at 586-469-4935 or capeloto@freepress.com.
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