Lawyers Push to Move Rachelle Bond's Case to Another Court, Dismiss Charges

BOSTON, MA — A Suffolk Superior Court judge is considering requests to relocate court proceedings or dismiss the case against the mother of Bella Bond, charged as an "accessory after the fact" in the Boston toddler's 2015 death, according to reporters in the courtroom Tuesday.

Attorneys defending Rachelle Bond argued during pretrial hearings Tuesday that the case should be moved to another court. It's an attempt to secure a jury that, Bond's defense team claims, would not be poisoned against their client by the tide of press coverage that accompanied the discovery of her daughter. The revelations followed a months-long campaign by police to identify the unknown "Baby Doe."

The two-year-old's body washed up on Deer Island Beach in summer 2015, wrapped in a plastic bag. Her mother's boyfriend, Michael McCarthy, was charged with murder three months later, accused of punching the little girl to death for being "unruly."

Bond has been indicted as an accessory after the fact of murder. She was additionally indicted for larceny over $250 for allegedly continuing to accept public assistance after she knew of her daughter’s death.

Both Bond and McCarthy have pleaded not guilty.

The story has incited public outrage, vitriol evident in comments on Patch's own stories, including one reader who suggested both Bond and McCarthy should be killed in prison before reaching court.

It's comments like that her defense team reportedly pointed to as it sought to move Bond's case from Suffolk Superior Court to Berkshire County for trial.

However, it seems Superior Court Judge Christine Roach wasn't buying it Thursday.

Prosecutors opposed the move, which Judge Roach is taking under advisement, along with the call to dismiss the charge.

That motion comes from the defense team's contention that Bond's actions do not meet the legal definition of "accessory after the fact," the Boston Globe reports.

Bond is scheduled to return to court Jan. 26, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said.

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