MANCHESTER – Among the individuals indicted by the December term of the Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern division grand jury are a Nashua woman charged with walking away from a drug treatment program while in state custody, and a woman from Amherst accused of assault with scissors and a hammer.

An indictment is not an indication, or proof of, guilt, but represents the Grand Jury’s determination that enough evidence exists for prosecutors to move the case forward in Superior Court.

Erika Barlow, 26, of 1 Pacific Boulevard, Nashua, was indicted on one count of escape, a Class B felony, for allegedly leaving a court-ordered drug treatment program “while still in official custody as an inmate of the Hillsborough County House of Corrections,” according to the indictment.

Barlow allegedly walked away from the Cynthia Day Program on Nov. 21, roughly five months into a one-year jail term she was serving at the Valley Street jail.

The Amherst woman, Nicole J. Chase, 35, of 23 Old Manchester Road, who is currently incarcerated at Valley Street Jail, was indicted on three counts of first-degree assault – domestic violence, Class A felonies.

The charges accuse Chase of knowingly and purposely causing bodily injury to her girlfriend, age 23, by stabbing her with a pair of scissors, causing puncture wounds to her arm, and by striking her with a hammer, on Sept. 25 in Amherst.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.

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