The Massachusetts cop and new mom accused of pulling a gun on fellow officers trying to serve her with a restraining order has opted for a judge to decide her fate, rather than a jury of her peers.
North Andover police officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons said she wants Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Karp to determine whether she is guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon for pointing a gun at officers trying to give her with a restraining order from her fiancé on June 30, 2025.
“Do you now willingly and voluntarily waive your right to have a jury decide your case and instead choose to have a judge, that being me, decide whether you are guilty or not guilty?” Karp asked Fitzsimmons as she sat on the witness stand in a Lawrence courtroom Wednesday.
“Yes,” she responded.
The trial against Fitzsimmons, 28, is scheduled to begin Monday and wrap up by Friday.
After, Fitzsimmons told reporters she “made a good decision,” according to a report by CBS News.
“I chose the judge to be the fact-finder in the case,” she said. “I think that just makes the most sense in my case.”
“I’m eager. I’ve said from the very beginning the truth will come out. And it will,” she said.
Prosecutors allege that Fitzsimmons pulled the trigger on her gun but it didn’t go off because it wasn’t loaded. Another officer responded by shooting her in the chest.
She gave birth a few months before the incident in March, and was suffering from severe postpartum depression, prompting her then-fiancé, a firefighter, to seek a restraining order against her out of fear for her safety and the well-being of their son, according to prosecutors.
He also won custody of their kid.
Fitzsimmons spent weeks in the hospital recovering from a collapsed lung before being taken into custody. She has since been released.
Karp ruled last week that she can move into an apartment and start the process of trying to regain custody of her son.
“A lot of my life was put on pause unexpectedly. So I am looking forward to getting back into everything. Most importantly, being a parent and a mom to my son,” she told reporters outside of court.
She denies that she pointed her gun at anyone else and was actually turning her weapon at her own head in an attempt to kill herself.
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