Projo Politics Blog

FALL RIVER, Mass. — The high-profile University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth researcher known for a study used to promote the ill-fated Harrah’s-Narragansett Indian casino has had charges of witness intimidation and assault and battery dismissed in District Court.

A third charge against Clyde W. Barrow, involving marijuana possession, was decriminalized to a civil offense. He was ordered to pay $250.

Barrow, 50, director of the university's Center for Policy Analysis, had been arrested in October after police were called to his North Street apartment. His girlfriend, Nancy Dececco, 52, of Robeson Street, had alleged that Barrow hit her and tried to strangle her during an argument.

Dececco, who was bleeding lightly from a small scratch, with redness and swelling around the bridge of her nose, according to a police report, later insisted that there had been no physical contact with Barrow. She said alcohol, combined with medicines she had been taking for an undisclosed medical condition, left her unable to remember accusing Barrow of wrongdoing, or even calling police.

He was originally due back in court on Dec. 14. But court records show the case was instead heard on Dec. 5.

The assault and battery charge was dismissed at the request of Dececco, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to those records.

Barrow’s controversial study estimated that Rhode Island gamblers contributed $44.5 million to the state of Connecticut last year, and players from Massachusetts sent $122.9 million in 2005.

-- Journal staff writer C. Eugene Emery Jr.

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