SALEM, Mass. (Court TV) — A Massachusetts police officer is fighting a judge’s decision to revoke her bail and place her back behind bars after she could not comply with the rules of her release.
Kelsey Fitzsimmons waves to the gallery as she leaves court at a Nov. 2025 hearing. (Court TV)
Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 29, is being held without bond on a single charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. Fitzsimmons, a North Andover police officer and former corrections officer, was charged after allegedly pointing a weapon at one of her colleagues while they were serving a restraining order.
Fitzsimmons was home with her 4-month-old infant at the home she shared with her fiancé, Justin Aylaian, on June 30 when three members of the North Andover Police Department came to her door and demanded she surrender her firearms to the police and her child to her fiancé. Prosecutors say Aylaian was granted an abuse prevention order after he alleged that Fitzsimmons physically assaulted him the previous weekend; in his affidavit, Aylaian said he was in fear of her and for the safety of their child.
Prosecutors say that Fitzsimmons reacted by threatening one of the officers at her home with a weapon, while Fitzsimmons’ defense says she raised the gun to her head as if to harm herself. Sensing a threat, one of the North Andover officers fired a shot that hit Fitzsimmons, causing a collapsed lung, broken ribs and liver damage.
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After her release from the hospital, Fitzsimmons was taken into custody. She was then released on bond in September, but was told she would need to comply with conditions, including blowing into an alcohol monitoring device (SCRAM). But the device requires her to blow “intensely” into a tube several times a day, which she found very difficult and reported causing extreme pain because of her injuries.
When Fitzsimmons returned to court seeking to modify the release conditions to replace SCRAM monitoring with an alternative, such as a urine test, the judge denied the request. “I’m telling you it’s not a simple adjustment,” Judge Kathleen McCarthy said in her decision. “One of the reasons she was released, and one of the reasons to ensure the safety of the community, was for her to be alcohol free. If she cannot do that, or will not do that, that changes everything.”
Fitzsimmons’ defense argued that alcohol is not alleged to be a factor in the June 30 incident, but prosecutors say alcohol has been an issue for Fitzsimmons previously, noting an incident at her bachelorette party days before the order of protection was filed.
Prosecutors accused Fitzsimmons’ defense attorney, Tim Bradl, of trying the case in the court of public opinion as the appeal makes its way to Massachusetts’ highest court. “Ten weeks have passed since the defendant was remanded to custody, and it is incredible to believe that her medical condition has not improved so that she would be able to breathe adequately into a SCRAM device,” prosecutors wrote. “But rather than file a motion to reconsider… defense counsel chose to utilize the somewhat protected appellate process, perhaps to garner additional publicity and sympathy for his client.”
The parties are due back in court on Dec. 16 to argue motions related to discovery.
