Current Court Report – March 9, 2022

An island resident who was arraigned on two counts of child rape in January was back in court on Monday to be arraigned on new charges that allege he possessed child pornography.

Adrian Bacchas, 35, of Nantucket, was arraigned on Dec. 20, 2021 charges of distributing material of a nude child, possessing child pornography, and dissemination of obscenity to a minor. He had not-guilty pleas entered on his behalf and his bail remained at $15,000, which he paid at his January court date.

According to the statement of facts provided by the court, Bacchas’ iPhone was taken by Nantucket Police at the time of his arrest and was eventually searched by Detective Derek Witherell and Detective Amanda Schwenk after a search warrant was granted by Nantucket District Court Clerk Magistrate Don Hart.

Witherell said he observed a video in Bacchas’ “recently deleted” folder of the alleged victim performing a sexual act. Witherell said the man’s face is never seen in the video, which is 59 seconds long and timestamped as December 20, 2021 at 3:51 p.m.

Another search warrant was later granted on January 20 by Hart for the police to search for any and all information in Bacchas’ phone that pertains to the crime of possessing child pornography.

Schwenk performed the second search, but did not find any other videos. A still shot of the alleged victim’s face was taken and shown to Student Resource Officer Keith Mansfield, who identified the female in the video as the alleged victim in the case.

The phone is currently in the custody of the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit in Barnstable, MA for further analysis, Witherell said.

The alleged victim told Witherell that she knew Bacchas took the video of her. She added that Bacchas allegedly took two videos, one on her phone and one on his. She said she observed the video on her phone but later deleted it. She said she was not forced to watch the video by Bacchas and is unsure if he sent it to anyone else.

In other Nantucket District Court news this week, Mason C. Kennelly, 37, of Nantucket, was arraigned on a March 2 charge of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. He had not-guilty pleas entered on his behalf and was ordered to return to court April 11 for a pretrial hearing.

An Oct. 24, 2021 charge of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol will be continued without a finding for one year against Pedro Tejada, 52, of Nantucket. He was ordered to complete a driver-alcohol education program and forfeit his license for 45 days. He was ordered to pay a $250 program fee, $250 head-injury fee, $50 OUI assessment fee, $50 victim-witness fee, and $65 per month in probation fees. A negligent operation of a motor vehicle charge stemming from the same incident was dismissed.

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