Thomas’ Lawyer Asks For Gag Order

The lawyer for Matthew C. Thomas ’06-’07–the Harvard football captain who faces assault charges relating to a June 5 incident with his ex-girlfriend–asked a judge on Wednesday to place a gag order on the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

The judge in the case postponed a decision on the gag order until today, when the pre-trial hearing will resume. Thomas was not present in court Wednesday, and has yet to enter a plea in the case.

Thomas is charged with assault and battery, breaking and entering, and destruction of property relating to the alleged assault of his ex-girlfriend in her Currier House room.

Michael J. McHugh ’73, Thomas’ lawyer, told Cambridge District Court Judge George R. Sprague ’60 that he was concerned about the effect of widespread media coverage on the case.

The Crimson first reported Thomas’ arrest on June 22. The Boston Globe and The Associated Press–among other national media sources–picked up the story on July 8, after a detailed police report was made publicly available by the District Court.

“That Globe article triggered widespread media coverage,” McHugh said at Wednesday’s pre-trial hearing.

“We would ask that the DA’s office be ordered not to comment,” he said, adding that he wanted the gag order to apply to HUPD as well.

Sprague expressed concern at the hearing about “potential first amendment [issues]” if the gag order was put in place.

Sprague is the judge who earlier this year dismissed the cases of four Harvard undergraduates charged with possessing marijuana in a DeWolfe dorm room.

When approached by The Crimson during the hearing, McHugh declined to comment on the case.

According to the released police report, a heavily inebriated Thomas entered his ex-girlfriend’s dorm room on June 5 by breaking the door down. When the ex-girlfriend returned to her room, they began to fight, and witnesses found Thomas “strangling her with one hand.” He then “suddenly lifted her and drove his knee into her chest,” according to the report, and the ex-girlfriend was later taken to Mt. Auburn Hospital to be examined.

If found guilty, Thomas faces punishments ranging from fines to prison time.

Harvard coach Tim Murphy has said that Thomas—a first-team all-Ivy League linebacker last season—will be dismissed from the football team if the allegations prove true.

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu.