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A former New Bedford firefighter with a long history of arrests pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct in Quincy Thursday, after the prosecutor agreed to drop a charge of assault and battery on a police officer.
But Manuel Mota Jr. will have to face trial on a separate disorderly conduct charge from Fairhaven, a judge in New Bedford ruled Wednesday.
Mota was arrested twice this past winter in unrelated incidents in Quincy and Fairhaven — his seventh and eighth arrests since 2000.
Mota had been charged with one count of assault and battery on a police officer and one count of disorderly conduct after he was arrested in a Quincy restaurant last December. Per the plea deal, a Quincy District Court judge agreed to dismiss Mota’s assault charge and sentenced Mota to pay a $100 fine within 30 days, Mota’s attorney, Ahmed Farouk Ahmed, said.
Disorderly conduct is a much lighter charge than assault on a police officer, which carries a minimum sentence of more than 100 days in prison. Both Ahmed and the prosecuting attorney declined to comment further for this story.
In the Quincy disposition Thursday morning, Mota affirmed that he had been asked to leave a restaurant multiple times last Dec. 6, first by the owner, then by a police officer. He also verified that a female restaurant patron had complained about his conduct prior to his arrest.
According to the account of police officer John Hubbard, Mota requested to be allowed to pay his bill, then started “shouting obscenities to the bartender such as ‘f— you’ several times.” Hubbard grabbed Mota’s arm and Mota then “pushed him when he grabbed his arm,” according to the officer’s account.
The Quincy police department did not respond to a request for comment.
Thursday’s plea deal follows a string of dismissed or watered-down charges against Mota dating back to 2000. Mota retired from the New Bedford Fire Department with a full pension this past June, hours before a scheduled termination hearing. He had been placed on administrative leave in February. In March, a New Bedford Light investigation found that he had been arrested at least eight times, including twice this past winter. Past arrests have been on charges of assault and battery, leaving the scene of property damage, resisting arrest, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, operating under the influence, trespassing, disturbing the peace, and disorderly conduct.
Yet Mota has not faced discipline beyond a $200 fine or a 45-day loss of license.
On Wednesday, Mota represented himself at a pretrial hearing in New Bedford District Court, where he faces a separate charge of disorderly conduct from Fairhaven this January. Judge Joseph P. Harrington, Jr., ruled that the case must go to trial, citing Mota’s history of arrests.
Mota said his past charges had all been dismissed.
“We’ve been down this road a couple of times,” Harrington said. “Typically [judges] might do that on the first offense, but when they start racking up, they stop recommending that.”
A police report about Mota’s January arrest for disorderly conduct in Fairhaven indicates that the then-firefighter was involved in a bar fight and repeatedly used racial slurs to demean arresting officers of the Fairhaven Police Department.
Mota declined to comment on the details of either case, but defended his character to a Light reporter after Wednesday’s hearing.
He defended his use of the N— word, saying that the racial slur was commonplace when he was growing up in New Bedford, and did not necessarily connote any offensive intent.
“Everybody said it,” Mota said.
He added that his past behavior should not discount the decades he spent as a productive member of the department and implied that the scrutiny his conduct had received in the department was the result of personal disagreements.
Mota repeatedly asked why the Light never reported on the good things he had done.
In 2021, Mota was part of a group of New Bedford firefighters that were awarded for their heroism.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 22.
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org
Feed the pore heal the sick be compassionate.
God bless you sir.
For Manuel Mota, why doesn’t anyone suggest an alcoholism Rehab.???
Thank you for the kind thought Mr Grachek. My drinking wasn’t a problem at work. I did my job well. That doesn’t count when uninformed public opinion and department bias is involved.