Police: Attacker had 'mental health,' 'anger' issues

Mar. 7—HAVERHILL — The man who police said attacked a woman and her pregnant daughter as they walked in their neighborhood last week, injuring one of them critically, was previously charged in three criminal cases — one involving violence against his girlfriend.

The man's parents told investigators he has "mental health issues and anger issues," according to a police report detailing the case about the girlfriend.

The previous criminal charges against Jake Kavanaugh all came in the last three years and were dismissed for various reasons, according to court records. They involved the alleged girlfriend assault, a drug possession case, and a charge that Kavanaugh crashed a car into a parked vehicle and then fled the scene, the records show.

Carrie Kimball, spokeswoman for the Essex District Attorney's Office, said the cases against Kavanaugh were dismissed for a variety of reasons, including the girlfriend deciding not to cooperate after she called them for help when he assaulted her. Kimball said the district attorney was unable to proceed in that case without the victim's testimony.

In what investigators called a "horrific" incident that shocked the community last week, Kavanaugh, 23, purposely drove his car into Janet Blanchard, 54, and her pregnant daughter, Geena Sindoni, 26, as they walked their dog Wednesday afternoon in Blanchard's Fairview Farm Road neighborhood where Kavanaugh also lives, police said.

Kavanaugh also cut Blanchard's throat and eyes with a box cutter, causing critical injuries and leaving her in a Boston hospital, police said. Sindoni is home recovering from leg injuries and her unborn child is healthy, a relative said.

Blanchard has undergone surgery and remains in critical condition at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, according to relatives and family friends.

At Kavanaugh's arraignment last week in Haverhill District Court, a judge ordered that he receive a mental health assessment to determine if he is competent to face charges. They include armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, mayhem, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.

Kavanaugh is expected to be evaluated at Bridgewater State Hospital, said his defense lawyer, Timothy Connors. The judge granted the request for a mental health evaluation of Kavanaugh and set a next court date of March 23 for a probable cause hearing.

Few facts were read into the court record during Kavanaugh's brief arraignment, though Assistant District Attorney John DePaulo said the victims knew Kavanaugh "a bit" from living in the same neighborhood. The Blanchard home is at 12 Fairview Farm Road. The Kavanaugh home is at 15 Fairview Farm Road. The neighborhood with expensive houses is in the northwest section of Haverhill, near the Salem, New Hampshire border.

"Police are still trying to determine if there is a motive or if this is a random attack," DePaulo said.

Girlfriend backs out of assault case

According to documents in Haverhill District Court, Kavanaugh was charged on April 29, 2019, with assault and battery on a household member. A police report on file at the court says Kavanaugh's girlfriend called 911 on the night of April 26, 2019, to say he aggressively grabbed her wrist during an argument and dug his nails into her skin.

The report said officers were sent to Kavanaugh's home at 15 Fairview Farm Road and questioned his parents, Thomas and Sheryl Kavanaugh, about what happened. They said their son and his "on again and off again" girlfriend were in the driveway, and that the parents did not see or hear anything happening outside. They told police their son has "mental health issues and anger issues," according to the report.

Asked if their son was home, his parents told officers he had come "storming into the house" when the girlfriend left in her car and then he "stormed back out on foot," according to the report.

The report said the girlfriend, a 21-year-old Beverly woman, stopped at the police station to explain she and Kavanaugh had been separated for several months and that she visited his home to pick him up to go for a drink together. She told police that when Kavanaugh got into her car, he started rummaging through her purse and glove box, then he grabbed her by the wrist and dug his fingernails in, the report said. The woman told police that he had been abusive to her in the past and "no one does anything about it," the report said.

The woman told police she didn't want to see Kavanaugh get into trouble and asked that police just give him a warning, the report said. She also told police she would not appear in court if they decided to bring charges against him, according to the report. Police eventually found Kavanaugh at his home and arrested him, the report said.

During his arraignment, Kavanaugh was released on conditions that he have no contact with the woman, and that he be evaluated immediately by a court clinician and participate in behavioral health treatment, court records show.

According to court documents, the assault and battery case was dismissed Sept. 3, 2019, for "failure to prosecute." Kimball explained the District Attorney's Office was unable to proceed without the victim's testimony.

Police: Kavanaugh crashed car at Blanchard home

In another previous case against Kavanaugh, he drove his car into a vehicle parked in front of the Blanchard home, 12 Fairview Farm Road, on the evening of Feb. 14, 2020, according to a police report.

The report said a 30-year-old Plaistow man told officers he was visiting his girlfriend at the Blanchard home and that he parked his 2012 Lexus CT200H out front. The man said he later was in the house and heard a loud bang, then went outside and saw Kavanaugh getting out of a car which had hit the Lexus, the report said.

Police said that when they arrived at the scene, Kavanaugh was not there but they spoke to his father, Thomas Kavanaugh, at his family's15 Fairview Farm Road home. He told them his son was driving his 2013 Toyota Avalon during the crash and that someone had since driven his son to a medical facility in Windham, the police report said.

Police said Thomas Kavanaugh would not tell them if his son was injured or where specifically he had been taken. The father refused to give police any other information, other than to say he would have his son contact them, according to the report.

Police later summonsed the younger Kavanaugh to court for leaving the scene of property damage. According to court documents, sufficient facts were found, but the case was continued without a finding and later dismissed.

Kimball, the spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, explained admitting to sufficient facts means a person who is charged takes responsibility for their actions. She said that in such cases, if the person does not get into further trouble and pays restitution to the victim, the case can be dismissed and there is no guilty finding.

Accused attacker faced drug charges

In one other previous criminal case, Kavanaugh was charged on Feb. 22, 2018, with possession to distribute a Class C drug (THC oil) and a Class E drug, alprazolam (a tranquilizer), according to court documents. Those charges were later amended to possession of Class C and E drugs, with the distribution charge dropped, according to the documents.

A police report detailing the case shows that on Feb. 21, 2018, police were investigating illegal drug sales at 6 West Meadow Road.

Police said they had received complaints from the West Meadow Road condominium association about drug activity at that address. After watching a boy slip a bag of pills into his mother's pocketbook in front of 6 West Meadow Road, officers followed the woman in a car in which she was a passenger, then stopped the car when it ran a stop signal, police said.

The woman told police she had just obtained Xanax pills from her 16-year-old son. Police said she had a bag containing 140 pills. Xanax is a brand name of the tranquilizer alprazolam.

Police used a search warrant at 6 West Meadow Road, the home of the woman's parents, and found Kavanaugh and a 16-year-old boy in an upstairs bedroom, according to a police report.

Before Kavanaugh was allowed to leave, police checked his backpack and found two digital scales, three jars of THC oil, some wax paper with THC oil, nine THC cartridges and one yellow pill believed to be Xanax, according to the report. The prosecutor in the case later said officers also found a blow torch and a bong — a device used by some people to smoke illegal drugs.

Kimball said although sufficient facts existed to find Kavanaugh guilty of drug possession, the case against him was continued without a finding for a year.

Before being released, Kavanaugh was ordered to remain free of drugs and alcohol and also to undergo testing, according to court documents. After he complied with the order, his case was dismissed with a not guilty finding, court documents show.