PITTSFIELD -- Three members of a local family will go on trial starting today on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and assault and battery of a police officer.

The Simonetta family's defense attorney, John G. Swomley, contended during a pretrial hearing Tuesday that they were resisting what they perceived as the unauthorized taking of their grandchild from their custody.

During the hearing, Berkshire Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Pieropan asked District Court Judge James B. McElroy to block any testimony relating to the custody dispute over the then 2-year-old girl. He argued it is irrelevant to the actions of the Simonettas after the police arrived on the scene.

On Aug. 14, 2008, employees of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, or DCF, went to the Simonetta home on West Housatonic Street to take custody of the child from the maternal grandparents. The reason why the DCF was seeking custody of the child was not addressed during Tuesday's hearing, but the child's paternal grandparents were awarded custody the next day.

McElroy did not rule on blocking the custody dispute testimony, and reserved the right to make that decision during the trial.

Swomley questioned whether state authorities had the legal documentation at the scene to take the child, and that the Simonettas refused to turn over their granddaughter without it. As a result, the DCF called for police assistance.

Swomley claimed during Tuesday's hearing that police kicked in the Simonettas' front door and forcibly removed the child from her grandmother's arms, still without presenting any legal documentation.

After the Aug. 14, 2008, incident, the grandfather, Joseph Simonetta, who was 69 at the time, was arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault and battery of a police officer. His wife, Debra Simonetta, 53 at the time, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest as was his then 27-year-old daughter, Joline Simonetta.

The child is the daughter of Kelly Simonetta and Matthew Trombley. Trombley, an admitted heroine addict, recently testified in the December 2008 police brutality case against former North Adams police officer Joshua Mantello. Mantello was convicted last month and is serving a six-month sentence at the Berkshire County House of Corrections.

Kelly Simonetta brought the child to the grandparents' house after Trombley allegedly had a violent episode in the couple's North Adams apartment shortly before the custody incident.

The day after DCF removed the child from the Simonetta residence, Trombley's parents were awarded custody. 

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