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NEW BEDFORD — A retired New Bedford firefighter with a long history of arrests faces a jury trial April 7 over a barfight in Fairhaven last year.
New Bedford District Court Judge Joseph P. Harrington Jr., set the trial date Friday on a disorderly conduct charge against Manuel Mota Jr.
Prosecutors offered to resolve the case for a guilty plea and a $150 fine; Mota declined.
“The Commonwealth is not going to dismiss the case,” Harrington said when Mota declined. “So the case is going to trial.”
The Fairhaven arrest was Mota’s eighth since 2000. He pleaded guilty in November in Quincy District Court to one count of disorderly conduct and was fined $100 related to an incident in a restaurant in Quincy in December 2024.
The maximum penalty for a first offense of disorderly conduct is a $150 fine. But second and subsequent disorderly conduct offenses can be punishable by up to six months in jail, a $200 fine, or both.
Mota declined to comment to a Light reporter after the hearing. The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A police report about Mota’s January arrest on the disorderly conduct charge 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.
Prosecutors handed Mota dashcam video from the incident in court Friday.
Prosecutors said they plan to call two police officers and a bartender to the stand at the trial. Mota said he planned to call two witnesses at trial, but that he did not have their names, addresses, or date of birth, as required by procedure. The moment annoyed Harrington, who gave both parties until Feb. 27 to provide full discovery of evidence and witnesses. He then turned to Mota.
“You are representing yourself,” he said. “And you will be held to the standards of any attorney moving forward.”
In the previous seven cases, Mota has not faced discipline beyond a $200 fine or a 45-day loss of license.
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. 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.
Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org
