By Mike Beaudet & Producer Kevin Rothstein
BILLERICA, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A Billerica man heads to trial next week on felony assault charges because, police say, he took matters into his own hands.
But he says he had to because he didn't think authorities would keep his family safe after an alleged road rage incident involving his wife and the relative of a high-ranking Billerica police officer.
It all started in October 2012 when Amy McCarthy was driving home from her in-laws. She put on her turn signal late, she admits, to make a right turn, and a motorcyclist waiting at the intersection yelled at her.
McCarthy says she threw up her hand -- the motorcyclist says she stuck up her middle finger -- and then the motorcyclist started chasing her.
She called police on her cell phone.
"He's following me and harassing me and I'm getting pretty nervous," she says in the recorded call to Billerica police.
Pretty nervous turned to terrified.
"He was making threats to me threatening to kill me he was getting very close to my vehicle," she told FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet.
The chase ended when McCarthy pulled into a fire station in North Billerica. The motorcyclist followed her in, yelling his name before taking off. He can be heard on the emergency call.
"My name is Ronald J. Stoddard," he yelled.
Stoddard also yelled something unusual, according to McCarthy: that he was related to a Billerica police lieutenant. So when police told McCarthy that they talked to Stoddard, but sent him on his way with a warning, she was suspicious and afraid to return home.
"I was in fear for my life," she said. "He was making reference that he was a relative of a police officer....I just didn't want to be home. I felt as though I couldn't protect myself."
That's when her husband David stepped in.
"I tried to reassure her everything will be fine. I said, 'Relax, calm down, tell me what he said, tell me what his name is. I'll go by and talk to him,'" David McCarthy recalled in an interview.
What happened next, according to David, was that both men threw some punches.
But police say it was a beating delivered by McCarthy. Stoddard suffered fractured facial bones, and McCarthy was charged with aggravated assault.
To the McCarthys, it was more evidence of unequal treatment. Their suspicions grew when they obtained a recorded call between the dispatcher and a responding officer.
"It's Eddie O'Mahony's cousin," the dispatcher said.
"OK," the police officer responded.
"I don't know if you want to do anything with it," the dispatcher said.
"Yeah, well, I'll try to learn what the (expletive)'s going on," the officer responded.
The motorcyclist is actually the brother-in-law, not cousin, of Billerica Police Lt. Edward O'Mahony.
Billerica Deputy Police Chief Roy Frost told FOX Undercover the call shouldn't have happened but there's a plausible explanation:
"The information was relayed to the dispatcher to contact the officer and let the officer know that this person is somebody who is trackable. He's related to somebody in this particular department and we can get in touch with him," Frost said.
"What did the dispatcher mean when he said that to the officer?" Beaudet asked him.
"I can't get into the person's mind. I can only tell you the way the call was handled in my opinion was appropriate based on the information that we had," Frost replied.
But the McCarthys believe the relationship explains why Stoddard has never been charged.
Billerica police did file an application for a criminal complaint, hoping to charge Stoddard with threatening to commit a crime and assault. But the clerk magistrate declined to press charges and has refused to reconsider, despite the McCarthys' repeated requests.
"I'm very confident that if it was the lieutenant's wife and his baby that got chased down, I don't think for a second they'd have a problem getting a complaint issued at Lowell District Court. But for some reason we do," David McCarthy said.
That's not the police department's fault, according to Deputy Chief Roy Frost.
"This department investigated the case appropriately. The charges that were appropriate were brought and the system worked," Frost said.
"Sitting here right now, do you still believe Stoddard should have been charged?" Beaudet asked him.
"Yes," Frost replied.
The deputy chief questions the timing of the McCarthys' speaking out now, saying they're looking for someone to blame.
The McCarthys say they're speaking out because they believe they have been wronged, and because of that now David McCarthy could be going to jail.
"Are you worried he could go to jail?" Beaudet asked Amy McCarthy.
"I am worried that in less than a month from now my life will change," she said.
Justice, of course, depends on who you ask. We asked the motorcyclist, Ronald Stoddard, what happened that day. He denies committing any crimes, and blames Amy McCarthy for starting the incident.
Stoddard, like the McCarthy family, is unhappy with the Billerica police, telling us that David McCarthy should be charged with even more serious crimes for allegedly assaulting him.
As for the McCarthys' frustration at not getting the court clerk to issue charges, the clerk magistrate at Lowell District Court did not respond to a request for comment.