Photo by DAVID LANE Dale Holloway Jr., who is accused of assaulting his attorney at Valley Street jail Monday, listens to Judge Amy Messer, shown in the inset with Assistant County Attorney Brian Greklek-McKeon, during his bail hearing Tuesday in Hillsborough County Superior Court North.

MANCHESTER – When his now former public defender, Michael Davidow, told Dale Holloway Jr. at the outset of their meeting at Valley Street jail Monday morning that Davidow would be withdrawing from the case, the news made Holloway “fear for my life,” he told a Superior Court judge Tuesday.

Further, Holloway, a 37-year-old Manchester man with a criminal history replete with convictions for crimes of violence, insisted it was not him who inflicted the head and facial injuries that triggered a medical trauma alert and landed Davidow in Elliot Hospital’s intensive care unit.

“I did not strike this guy,” Holloway said.

Instead, Holloway claimed, he was the one who summoned help for the beaten, bloody Davidow by “flicking the lights two, three times,” he said, referring to the method attorneys typically use to signal corrections officers that their interview has concluded.

Nevertheless, Holloway, already facing five charges, including attempted murder, on allegations he shot two people during an Oct. 12 wedding at a Pelham church, is now charged with a Class A felony count of first-degree assault – serious bodily injury, for allegedly assaulting and seriously injuring Davidow.

Holloway addressed Judge Amy Messer’s courtroom at Hillsborough County Superior Court-North Tuesday afternoon, appearing via video conference from Valley Street jail.

And despite Holloway’s claims that he would not present a danger to the community if he was released from jail on personal recognizance bail, Messer granted Assistant County Attorney Brian Greklek-McKeon’s request that Holloway remain in jail on preventive detention as his cases move forward.

Holloway will now need to hire an attorney, or apply to the court to have one assigned to him. Once that happens, his evidentiary hearing in the Pelham case, which was originally set for Tuesday but was canceled, will be scheduled in Hillsborough County Superior Court South in Nashua.

Davidow, 52, has been affiliated with the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Nashua office for a number of years, and is a familiar presence at Hillsborough South.

Assistant County Attorney Brian Greklek-McKeon, who is prosecuting the case, said after the hearing that Davidow is currently stable, and is expected to recover from the injuries.

According to court documents, a nurse who tended to Davidow at Elliot Hospital told police investigators that Davidow sustained “a broken nasal cavity, subarachnoid hemorrhage, temporal lobe hemorrhage, left lateral eye hemorrhage, laceration to lower lip, and various contusions to his head … .”

In court Tuesday, Messer, the judge, cautioned Holloway more than once about making statements that could be used against him in the future.

He, nevertheless, agreed to proceed with the bail hearing without a lawyer present, beginning by telling the court he moved to Manchester last year after serving his most recent prison sentence in Massachusetts.

He described himself as “clean, sober and compliant with my probation officer” for the past year or so. Only recently did that change, Holloway said, due to two unexpected deaths in the family – one of which being the Oct. 1 murder in Londonderry of Pastor Luis Garcia, whom Holloway called his father, but who is listed in Garcia’s obituary as his step-father.

He also said he recently helped Manchester police “defuse a situation,” but didn’t elaborate. “Plenty of community leaders would speak for me,” Holloway added.

He lastly asked Messer to issue a restraining order against the public defender’s office so none of the attorneys could contact him. Messer said that’s an issue for another day.

As for the circumstances of the alleged assault upon Davidow, police said in their reports that Mark Phillips, a correctional officer, told them Holloway and Davidow were in a “secured interview room” that was behind a desk at which Phillips was sitting.

The interview room is “not monitored,” nor are proceedings recorded, jail officials told police. Corrections officers sometimes handcuff inmates to the table, officials said, but “only when the inmate has shown signs of being dangerous.”

Phillips said he did not see the alleged assault occur because the desk faced the other way, according to the reports.

After about 20 minutes, Phillips told police, he heard a knock on the window of the interview room. When he turned around, he said he saw Holloway “walking away from the window and toward the door to the interview room.”

Phillips then spotted Davidow, he told police, “sitting at the table with his hands over his face.” Phillips said he also saw “blood dripping down on the floor … .”

He told police he “activated an alert,” which summoned several additional officers to assist. After they secured Holloway in a “restraint chair,” the reports sate, staff was able to assist Davidow and move him to the medical area.

Police said when speaking with American Medical Response ambulance personnel who transported Davidow to the hospital, they were told Davidow was unable to answer basic questions, but did tell paramedics he is a public defender, the reports state.

Davidow told the medics the last thing he remembered before waking up in the ambulance was arriving at Valley Street jail and putting his phone and car keys in a locker.

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

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