TAUNTON, Mass. (WPRI) — Taunton Mayor Shaunna O’Connell’s lawyer has asked a judge to dismiss the assault charges lodged against her earlier this year.

James McMahon, who’s representing O’Connell, wrote in his request that her husband refuses to testify against her because the two have personally and legally reconciled.

“The husband will exercise his marital privledge, and his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” McMahon explained in his motion to dismiss.

O’Connell was arrested over the summer after her husband told officers she bit him, hit him with a gasket scraper and jumped on the hood of his car as he tried to leave during a heated argument at their home.

The 54-year-old mayor was charged with felony assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, as well as assault and battery on a family member, which is a misdemeanor. She pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been out on personal recognizance.

Ted O’Connell claimed the argument stemmed from a marital issue and later admitted that he regretted calling the authorities on his wife.

The motion to dismiss includes two written statements — one signed the mayor and the other signed by her husband.

In his statement, Ted O’Connell explained that his wife went upstairs to their second-floor bedroom following the argument “with her cell phone in hand.”

“I suspected that she was going to call the police,” he wrote. “I stepped out into our driveway to call the police first.”

Ted O’Connell said he told the officers what had happened, but acknowledged that he “did not tell them all of the details and circumstances.”

“In hindsight, I may not have been accurate in my descriptions,” he said, adding that he told the officers he did not want to press charges.

In her statement, Shaunna O’Connell confirmed that she locked herself in their bedroom after the argument because it was where she felt safe.

“After some time had passed, the Taunton Police appeared at our home and knocked on my second-floor bedroom door for a ‘wellness check,'” the mayor wrote. “I told them that I was fine, but because I didn’t know what was actually told to them, I said very little.”

Shaunna O’Connell believes she was arrested as a result of refusing to tell the officers what happened between her and her husband.

“It is my husband’s stated intentions that he does not wish to see me prosecuted for this argument,” she said.

McMahon plans to present his request to a judge in Attleboro District Court later this month.

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