Kelsey Fitzsimmons and her fiancé spent almost every Sunday night with her mom and stepdad.
After Fitzsimmons gave birth to her son in February, Lauren and Will Page hosted “Sunday funday,” where the family, including Page’s kids from a previous marriage, would gather for dinner.
“We would have a full house, and this went on for a while,” Will Page told MassLive in an interview Monday evening. But the Pages began to notice some tension between Fitzsimmons and her fiancé, and the couple missed several Sundays in a row, which struck them as odd. “Something’s not right here.”
Not long after those visits stopped, everything changed for Fitzsimmons and her family.
On the last weekend in June, Fitzsimmons and her fiancé went to Maine for a bachelorette party ahead of their wedding, which was scheduled for this month, a date that has since come and gone. On the night of June 28, Fitzsimmons’ fiancé claims, she got drunk and assaulted him, hitting him three times with her fist.
The next day, according to Fitzsimmons’ fiancé, she sent him disturbing text messages, including one where she said she was “going far away for a long time and that neither she nor the minor child was okay,” according to a court filing.
On June 30, as both Fitzsimmons and her mother tell it, the couple were supposed to meet on the North Andover Common to reconcile. But Fitzsimmons’ fiancé never showed up.
Instead, he obtained an emergency restraining order at Essex Probate and Family Court based on an affidavit he submitted, where he claimed Fitzsimmons had threatened the life of their son and repeatedly assaulted him.
In a filing supporting his bid for full custody of the son, the fiancé claimed Fitzsimmons had behaved erratically in the past. He accused Fitzsimmons of punching herself in the stomach while pregnant on a trip to Croatia last October and claimed she threatened to kill herself on multiple occasions.
Tim Bradl, a lawyer representing Fitzsimmons in the criminal case, said after a court appearance that the affidavit was full of “self-serving allegations.”
“Her whole world was taken away from her because a guy went to the probate court [and] filled out a piece of paper,” he said.
From Fitzsimmons’ perspective, she’s left with more questions than answers about her fiancé’s actions.
“Why, Mom? Why would he do all that?” Lauren Page recalled her daughter asking.
When police arrived at Fitzsimmons’ home to serve her the restraining order, an officer shot her in the chest.
What led up to the shooting is at the heart of the criminal case pending against Fitzsimmons in Essex Superior Court: did she, as police say, point her weapon at an officer and try to fire it, or did she attempt to take her own life, as she has claimed?
Fitzsimmons is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. A grand jury took a “wrecking ball” to the case, Bradl said, when it declined to indict Fitzsimmons on a charge of armed assault with intent to murder.
Family speaks out
It’s been a difficult four months since the shooting for Fitzsimmons’ family, as she spent months in a Boston hospital before being moved to the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee.
“It’s been no real highs this year,” Will Page said. “It’s all lows. Kelsey is feeling it worse than we are, but we’re getting beat down just as bad.”
The Pages have filed a petition for visitation rights with their grandson, who they haven’t seen since the night in June when Fitzsimmons was shot. In the last four months, they’ve received just two photos of the boy.
That’s been particularly hard for Lauren Page, who said she barely went a day without seeing him before the incident, frequently stopping at Fitzsimmons’ home on her way back from work.
“I couldn’t go more than two days without seeing the babes,” she said. “Kelsey would feel better knowing that he’s with us, because we spent so much time with him.”
“I’m mad,” added Will Page.
Still, they are buoyed by the growing support for Fitzsimmons online.
A Facebook group titled “Justice for Kelsey Fitzsimmons – Official Group” has amassed more than 3,000 members. At the last court hearing in the case, about a dozen supporters showed up wearing purple, some with T-shirts calling for justice for Fitzsimmons.
Posts in the group mostly urge Fitzsimmons to stay strong, while others work to organize fundraisers or events to help support her.
Support for Fitzsimmons grew after a hearing in September, where a judge reversed her order granting Fitzsimmons’ release and sent her back to jail, after finding she could not comply with court-ordered alcohol testing.
“It’s keeping her going 100%,” Lauren Page said about the public support for her daughter. “She’s getting letters from all over the world that she reads at night, and it helps her to know that this is a bigger fight.”
Released on bail, then back to jail
Fitzsimmons did spend about 48 hours at home in between her two stints in jail.
For at least one night, there was a glimpse of what life was like before. Fitzsimmons requested a certain meal, which her parents were happy to provide.
“We sat down … and we had a family dinner,” Will Page said, adding that his two children, who are teenagers, and Fitzsimmons’ father attended. “We just had a regular dinner, and just was a great night.”
They witnessed first-hand the difficulties Fitzsimmons had with completing testing using a SCRAM device, which tests for alcohol with the user blowing into a tube.
Fitzsimmons almost passed out once and was left with severe pain after attempting to complete the tests.
While probation did not consider the issues with the test a violation, a judge decided Fitzsimmons could not be out of jail unless she could complete the tests.
Her family believed it would be a relatively straightforward day in court — so much so that Will Page didn’t even attend. But instead of returning home, Fitzsimmons left the courtroom in handcuffs. She and her lawyers have fought her detention in every avenue available: first asking the judge to reconsider her order, then appealing to a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court and now, the full bench.
It’s been disappointment after disappointment, the family said.
“Always in the back of your head, you’re hopeful that somebody’s going to see through what’s going on and be like, ‘This girl needs to go home and get the help that she needs,’” Lauren Page said, adding that her daughter isn’t receiving any mental health treatment in jail.
A spokesperson for the Hampden County Sheriff’s office told MassLive that every woman at the jail has “access to a full range of medical and mental health services through our on-site, full-time medical and mental health departments.”
“We take great pride in providing every individual with the care, treatment, and dignity they deserve,” the spokesperson, Robert Rizzuto, said.
After the birth of her son, Fitzsimmons was diagnosed with postpartum depression. In March, she was sectioned at Lawrence General Hospital after police responded to her home and found her distraught.
The Pages declined to answer questions about what Fitzsimmons was like after giving birth. But they said treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital was hugely beneficial to her depression.
Fitzsimmons was set to return to work as a police officer on July 4 after being cleared by a doctor. It was a job she loved and one that represented the fulfillment of a childhood dream.
“It was just something that she had a thing for, a passion for … to help the community, to help the people in the community, and be a part of that,” Lauren Page said.
It’s difficult for either Will or Lauren Page to look forward, with Fitzsimmons still in jail and so much uncertainty still ahead. Still, they remain hopeful that this latest step, appealing to the full Supreme Judicial Court, could bring Fitzsimmons home for the holidays.
No trial date has been set for the 28-year-old, though it appears she could face a jury as soon as January.
“It’s just normal family stuff that we hope to get back to,” Lauren Page said.
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