Commonwealth v. Knowlton

After a jury-waived trial in Middlesex Superior Court, the defendant, a former police officer in the town of Groton, was convicted of three counts of pequry and one count of subornation of pequry. An indictment for conspiracy to suborn perjury was filed without a change of plea. He was sentenced to four months of house arrest and two years probation.

The underlying dispute began in Groton in April, 1995, when a “very large” dog owned by Edward D. Canto, Jr., a close friend and fellow police officer of the defendant, bit a puppy belonging to Canto’s neighbors Maryann and Thomas Rooney. There…