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Police say man on run spent 2 days in sewer
MANSFIELD - A Phish fan looking to dodge the cops last month may be rethinking his decision to squirrel away in a sewer drain after he got stuck and was forced to crawl through the cramped pipes for two days.
Barton Gray, 31, of Ivoryton, Conn., apparently spent the days crawling through the drainage system below Stop & Shop supermarket on Chauncy Street after he climbed into an opening behind the store while running from police, Patrolman Roy Bain said.
Bain said Gray, who was in town for a June 22 Phish concert at the Comcast Center, told him he had crawled through the pitch-black sewer system trying to find a way out, and that he was unable to turn around because the pipes were too small.
The pipes are about 2 feet in diameter, Bain estimated.
Gray was freed from the sewer after he crawled toward light and began heaving a manhole cover up and down, attracting the attention of a woman pumping gas at the supermarket's gas station, Bain said. The woman alerted a store manager who removed the manhole cover and helped Gray out of the sewer, Bain said.
Store personnel sent Gray on his way, but when the man later returned, they called police, saying there was an intoxicated man on the premises.
Bain, who responded to the call from Stop & Shop on June 25, said Gray was "extremely disheveled" and speaking nonsense.
The officer added that the man was dirty and was cut or scraped everywhere his T-shirt, shorts and shoes didn't cover.
"It looked like he'd been dragged through a briar patch," Bain said, adding that Gray's fingers were severely blistered, most likely from crawling through the piping.
Bain said Gray was very shaken up, a result, the officer believed, from being underground in the dark for so long. The officer took Gray to Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro for evaluation.
It wasn't until Bain and Officer Ken Wright, the department's court prosecutor, were discussing the odd event that a connection was made to a incident in the early hours of June 23 in which a suspected drug dealer assaulted a police officer in the Red Roof Inn parking lot on Forbes Boulevard.
The suspect had allegedly been selling balloons filled with nitrous oxide or some other intoxicating gas, and threw rocks and other objects at the approaching officer before running into the woods, Bain said.
Police set up a perimeter, but were unable to find the suspect, Bain said.
Wright noted that the clothing Gray was wearing matched that of the suspect in the earlier incident, Bain said.
Bain said he did not believe the department will seek charges against Gray.
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Someone may have a First Amendment right … to view pornography, but what about my First Amendment right to not view it?
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