Man charged in assault on disabled vet

PITTSFIELD – A former SAD 53 board member, Ciro Olivares, 54, was charged Saturday with assaulting a disabled veteran with a metal chair during an argument about unpaid rent.

Olivares went to Gerald Barber’s home on Hartland Avenue and confronted his tenant about Barber’s failure to pay his rent, according to Pittsfield police officer Jeff Vanadestine.

Barber, who has extremely limited movement and can only communicate in one word sentences, apparently raised his cane at Olivares but never struck his landlord. Olivares, however, picked up a metal kitchen chair and repeatedly struck Barber, Vanadestine said.

After Olivares left, police said it took Barber nearly a half hour to walk the few feet to a neighbor’s home for help. He was taken by ambulance to Sebasticook Valley Hospital for treatment of injuries to his face, shoulders, ribs, arm and elbow.

Vanadestine said Olivares, who has no previous record, confessed to the crime. When asked why he assaulted Barber, Oliveras told the officer he had no idea, according to Vanadestine.

Vanadestine said the local police were familiar with Barber because of his medical problems.

“Last week we went there because he fell and needed help,” the officer said. “We discovered then that he had no heat. The house was freezing.”

It appears that Barber is a disabled veteran who has somehow fallen through the cracks of the public assistance system, the officer said.

Heat was obtained for Barber last week, Vanadestine said, but hospital personnel this weekend learned that Barber had not been eating. Meals On Wheels was supposed to be dropping off dinners, Vanadestine said, but because it took Barber so long to walk to the door, the delivery driver left, thinking the man was not there.

“I am working to obtain whatever help I can find,” Vanadestine said. “It was frustrating this weekend because I couldn’t reach any state caseworkers.”

Vanadestine said the hospital personnel tried for four hours to reach a crisis line which apparently was not staffed over the weekend.

“I’ll be contacting whoever I need to on Monday,” the officer said. “It is my day off but I’m coming in and making whatever phone calls I need to make. This man has a wonderful neighbor helping him when she can, but he really cannot be living alone.”

Vanadestine said Olivares was charged with simple assault but since a weapon – the chair – was used, the charges may be upgraded to aggravated assault. The case will be reviewed by the district attorney’s office.