Judge extends restraining order to wife of psychiatrist charged with raping her

March 7, 2012

A District Court judge ordered a Marblehead (Massachusetts) psychiatrist charged by town police with raping and assaulting his wife on Feb. 22 to stay away from her through September.

Attorneys for Christopher Palacios, 36, and his wife agreed to extend a restraining order the woman sought and was granted on Feb. 22 from March 7 to Sept. 7. Judge Stacey Fortes White granted the request.

“My client is relieved the order is extended for her safety and the safety of her children,” Jorel Booker, Palacios’ wife’s Raymond, N.H.-based attorney, said Wednesday.

In addition to ordering Palacios not to harm his wife, the order bars him from contact with her, including coming within 50 yards of her. A copy of the order filed in District Court also asks the court to keep Palacios from going to the Marblehead school attended by the couple’s 10-year-old son and daughter.

“The defendant is mentally unstable and a danger to myself and the children,” she wrote in the complaint for protection from abuse she filed.

Marblehead Police Lt. Sean Sweeney filed a report in court outlining Palacios’ wife’s account of how Palacios assaulted her and yelled expletives at her on Feb. 21 following an argument over Red Sox tickets she purchased.

On Feb. 22, according to the report, she said Palacios hit her on the side of her face and “smashed her head on the floor” before pulling down her pants and sexually assaulting her. Sweeney stated in the report that he photographed bruises on the woman’s lip, leg and arm that she said were inflicted by Palacios.

Palacios wife stated Palacios “has severe mood swings” and is “obsessed” with “MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighting,” according to a report filed by Marblehead Officer David Ostrovitz.

Ostrovitz quoted Palacios’ wife as stating in the report that her husband was previously overweight and works out five hours a day with his home garage “dedicated as a workout facility.”

Palacios pleaded innocent to the rape and domestic assault and battery charge on Feb. 23 and was ordered held for a public dangerousness hearing on Feb. 24. He was released on that date but ordered, according to court paperwork, to not contact his wife, not to possess firearms, report weekly to probation, “not to consume excessive alcohol, prescription drugs,” maintain his employment, post $5,000 bail and abide by the restraining order.

Judge Albert Conlon on Wednesday ordered Palacios to return to court for a probable cause hearing on the criminal charges on April 4.

“He denies all the allegations,” Palacios’ attorney, Marc Salinas of Salem, said Wednesday.

Sweeney, in a supplemental report filed in court, stated that Palacios called the allegations brought against him by his wife “a complete fabrication.”

“None of it ever happened,” Sweeney wrote, quoting Palacios.

He added in the report that Palacios claimed his wife had assaulted him in the past.

Palacios’ wife stated in the restraining order complaint that Palacios “has a long history of anger issues and has physically and emotionally abused me for years.”

“His out-of-control erratic behavior has increased and become more frequent (almost on a daily basis) since January 2012,” she wrote in the complaint.

Salinas and Booker confirmed on Wednesday that Palacios’ wife filed a divorce complaint in Essex Probate Court.

Source: Thor Jourgenson, "Judge extends wife’s restraining order on Marblehead psychiatrist," Daily Item, March 8, 2012.