PI Grille Owner To Face Criminal Charges

PLUM ISLAND – Francis Broadbery, owner of the now closed Plum Island Grille, will face a magistrate Nov. 15 to determine if he will be charged with malicious destruction of property at the grille estimated by a private contractor to be $192,000.
The Newbury Police filed the charges against Broadbery after viewing the damage he caused to the grille, including the removal of three bars with what appears to be a power saw. Two of the bars were taken from the property. The main bar, a hand-painted motif of the beach and marsh, was left on the grille’s back patio.
Broadbery has claimed that he owned the bars and had the right to remove them. He also claimed he has made substantial improvements to the grille in recent years.
Newburyport District Judge Peter Doyle last week postponed until Dec. 7 a third hearing to resolve a dispute between Broadbery and Mark Friery, his former partner who owns the building and the land at 2 Plum Island Turnpike.
Doyle said he did not know much about the criminal charges filed against Broadbery, but suggested that if the dispute over repairing the damage to the grille could be resolved out of court, it might reduce the penalty that might be imposed for the malicious destruction charge.
Malicious destruction of property can be a felony and liable for incarceration in county jail or state prison.
Judge Doyle gave Broadbery 14 days from last week to have the grease trap at the restaurant cleaned. He also ordered in the two-week period to remove discarded racks, two containers of cooking oil and a container of gasoline, waste baskets and all miscellaneous trash.
The judge had previously ordered Broadbery to make the interior “broom clean,” which was not evident from photos submitted to the court.
Timothy Karatzas, a Merrimac contractor, who inspected the grille twice, including once on Nov. 1, to prepare an estimate of the damages.
Between his first visit on Oct. 23 and the last, Karatzas found “the only difference was the removal of some interior trash and a piece of sheet rock that was haphazardly installed (and will have to be redone).”
Broadbery was also ordered to pay $3,000 in legal fees to the landlord within 10 days. And the judge awarded Friery $7,524.56 held in escrow for the October rent.
Frier’s attorney Joseph C. Abate, wrote that if Broadbery should find Karatzas’ estimate of $192,000 high, “the Tenant has only himself to blame. His conduct here is egregious.”