Charges Against Foxborough Explosives Suspect Reduced to Possession of Fireworks

have been reduced to possession of fireworks, according to court documents.

Mudge is also being charged with a and possession of a Class B drug (Methadone) and warrants for daytime breaking and entering charges in Easton and Raynham.

Mudge, of Easton and Taunton, appeared in Wrentham District Court on Friday, Aug. 10 and saw his eight counts possession of a destructive or incendiary device reduced to eight counts possession of fireworks, according to court documents.

At Mudge’s arraignment hearing on July 16, attorney Nancy Winn claimed police “may have overreacted out of caution” when they arrested her client on eight counts possession of a destructive or incendiary device because those devices were fireworks, according to The Sun Chronicle.

The Foxborough Police report filed by sergeant Scott Austin on July 14 referred to the explosives found in Mudge’s possession as eight “M-80-type fireworks.” That report contradicted detective Thomas Kirrane’s report of “homemade explosives,” one of which would have caused significant damage if it had exploded.

"[The Massachusetts State Police] said the large device, the M-1000, would have killed all of us in the room had it gone off and taken probably a quarter of the hotel out,"

Police reports describe the larger device as being “three inches round by five inches long.”

Despite the conflicting reports of what type of devices Mudge was in possession of at during his July 13 arrest on two warrants, Foxborough Police Chief Edward O’Leary said he believed those charges were “appropriate.”

“[Foxborough Police] Detective [Thomas] Kirrane conferred with the bomb squad with regard to those devices and they were the ones that suggested very strongly, given the nature of [the devices], [those charges] would be appropriate for what he was charged for,” O’Leary said. “As to the breakdown of what may have been considered fireworks … they are all illegal in Massachusetts and the combination of the items together at a hotel further raise the risk.”

However, during Mudge’s Aug. 10 hearing, the court disagreed with Foxborough Police and reduced the charges to reflect possession of fireworks and not destructive or incendiary devices, according to court documents.

Mudge was held on $500 cash bail and his next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 28.