Domestic violence attorney: Prosecutor

BOSTON SEPTEMBER 2007 A Massachusetts prosecutor is out of a job after allegations of domestic abuse surfaced. The Suffolk County assistant district attorney faces charges for one of the very crimes he normally prosecutes. Melvin Heard, 29, a prosecutor for the district attorney's office for the past two years, has handled cases, including domestic violence, at Dorchester District Court. Now he is an alleged batterer, accused of beating his fiancée multiple times, court documents say. The Reports of the police claim that his girlfriend has heard, attacked twice in the past eight months inside and outside his native Boston. In January, neighbors heard a woman scream and then heard a few shots and called the police. A woman who asked not be identified, lives in the apartment below. "It is always at midnight," she said. "You hear crashing and banging. I think he is a hypocrite. He sends people to jail for domestic violence and comes home and does the same." In August, theprosecutor's girlfriend told police Heard beat her up and smashed the windshield of her car. In one of the cases, investigators say when police showed up at the couple's home, Heard told his fiancée not to answer any of the officer's questions. Heard was suspended with pay in August. Now he has lost his job with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. He faces multiple charges including assault and battery.