Middleboro UFC fighter denied bail after vicious beating of wife
A former UFC fighter allegedly assaulted his wife twice in four days and had his bull terrier maul her.
Joshua R. Grispi, 25, of 15 Lovell St., Middleboro, is being held on $100,000 bail on domestic abuse and assault charges following his arrest on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014.
By Benjamin Paulin
The Enterprise
Posted Aug. 6, 2014 @ 12:46 pm
Updated Aug 6, 2014 at 10:59 PM
MIDDLEBORO – Dressed in her underwear and bleeding, Kaitlyn Grispi threw open her neighbor’s porch door Monday night, looking for a place to hide.
“Get in, get in,” she told her neighbor, who was on her on Lovell Street porch in Middleboro. “He is after me. He will find me.”
The neighbor quickly brought her in, shut off the lights and called 911.
Court records described the harrowing experience when Kaitlyn Grispi, 25, was allegedly running from her husband, Joshua R. Grispi, 25, a professional mixed martial arts fighter and former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor.
Grispi is being held without bail on domestic abuse and assault charges following his arrest on Monday. He had been arrested just three days prior on similar charges and was released earlier Monday after posting $2,000 bail.
Kaitlyn Grispi’s leg was bleeding from bite marks from their dog, a bull terrier named Buddy. Her husband had trained the dog to attack her, police said in court records, and the dog was unleashed on Monday, causing bruises and scratches all over her body.
Joshua would often choke the dog unconscious after the attacks, court records show.
“It’s the worst case of domestic abuse I’ve ever seen,” said Middleboro police officer Richard Harvey. She had been “chewed up” by the dog, he said.
Monday’s attacks came two days after police visited the home Friday and arrested Joshua Grispi. Earlier on Friday, Aug. 1, Kaitlyn’s mother Karen Fava had gone to the Middleboro Police Department to show them a picture her daughter had sent on her phone. The picture showed Kaitlyn’s face with multiple bruises on her face and nose, and her bleeding lips.
Fava was concerned about the welfare of her daughter and two grandchildren, ages 1 and 3.
Police went to the house that day to speak with Kaitlyn and discuss what options she had.
When an officer asked her the last time Joshua had hit her she said, “yesterday,” court records show.
She immediately burst into tears when speaking with the officer and decided to get an emergency 209a restraining order against her husband. She also agreed to temporarily give custody of their two children to her mother.
Inside the house police found handguns, rifles, an assault rifle and ammunition all belonging to Joshua. Most of the guns were unsecured and some were sitting in boxes inside their bedroom, police said. Next to their bed was a playpen with their 1-year-old daughter inside.
Joshua Grispi has a license out of Plympton to carry the eight guns that were found in the house, police said.
From the Friday incident, he was charged with multiple counts of improperly storing firearms near minors, as well as assault and battery and was placed under arrest. The guns were seized and he was ordered to surrender any other weapons and ammunition as a condition of his release if he posted bail.
On Monday, Kaitlyn was supposed to extend the restraining order but didn’t do so because she “thought Joshua would be better,” court records show.
Joshua posted $2,000 bail after his arraignment Monday, and the two went back inside their white house with a white picket fence near Middleboro center. The children were still at Kaitlyn’s parents house.
Things deteriorated quickly as Joshua began to yell at Kaitlyn about a pile of wood he had been looking for, court records show.
“Kaitlyn said she ran down the street and hid under a bush and Joshua found her. Joshua then began punching her in the head and forced her into the home,” court documents show. “Joshua got her inside the house and kept punching and kicking her over and over. Joshua was yelling at her, ‘You want me to (expletive) kill you?’”
She ran into a bathroom, and Joshua sent the dog after her before she managed to get out of the bathroom and run out of the house to her neighbor’s home, police said.
Police responded and arrested Joshua again Monday night. Another search of the house found more ammunition, 20 marijuana plants, 15 grams of cocaine and two teacup pot-belly pigs being kept as pets in the basement.
The dog and pigs have been put in the custody of animal control.
Kaitlyn told police her husband had been abusive to her for the past two years in their three-year marriage.
“She had been afraid to come forward because she has been threatened that he would kill her and her family,” court records show.
Kaitlyn’s father, Joe Fava said Kaitlyn was back at their house Wednesday with a broken wrist and a concussion. Their focus is to be there for their daughter and grandchildren and to get Kaitlyn the help she needs.
“You read about stories in newspapers. We’re not used to anything like this,” Joe Fava said. “There’s no winners in this.”
Fava said Kaitlyn never told them of any abuse.
“I thought something was odd. I would just ask if everything was OK and she would say everything was fine. She wouldn’t tell me because she feared that I would be killed,” he said tearing up. “Some of the details that they said in court and watching somebody come out that I’ve laughed with and I’ve ate dinner with – that hurts, too.”
Grispi, who grew up in Rockland, is nicknamed “The Fluke,” and has fought as a featherweight in the UFC and World Extreme Cagefighting.
He was arraigned Tuesday in Wareham District Court and was ordered held without bail.
He will be due back in court Oct. 3.