Prosecutors: Driver who crashed into Malden house did not have a license

Police apprehended Fall River man, 36, after brief search and chase

Advocate Staff Report

A 36-year-old Fall River man accused in a hit-and-run crash that injured a man and killed his dog on a Maplewood neighborhood street on Thursday, March 7, also crashed the vehicle into a house. Pierre Franzie, 36, who prosecutors say did not have a valid driver’s license, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Malden District Court on Friday following the crash on Webster Street in Malden on Thursday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to charges of failure to stop for police, unlicensed driving, leaving the scene with property damage, leaving the scene of personal injury and failure to report injuries of a dog or cat.

The judge set $500 cash bail after prosecutors had requested $1,000 cash bail. The condition for Franzie’s release is that he must not drive without a valid license.

At about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, police responded to 55 Webster St. in Malden due to a report of a motor vehicle crash, a prosecutor said. A resident told police that she heard the front part of her home being struck and went outside and saw that her neighbor and his dog had been struck by a motor vehicle. Police saw heavy damage to the home, including structural damage that caused the right side of house to begin to buckle, the prosecutor said.

Police also found a man, bleeding from his ear, who told them he was walking down the sidewalk with his dog when they were struck by a motor vehicle, the prosecutor said. The man’s dog was taken to a local animal hospital, where it was pronounced dead.

Another witness told police she saw a Black male wearing a red shirt and dark jeans running from the driver’s side of the vehicle. When police arrived at the scene, they found no one in the car and they could not identify the driver, the prosecutor said.

Police later found Franzie, who matched the description of the suspect, about two blocks from the crash scene. When he saw police approaching him, Franzie took off and ran, the prosecutor said. He continued to run and tried to climb over a fence despite police commands to stop. Police were eventually able to speak with him.

Franzie told police that he was not driving the vehicle and that “the driver ran,” the prosecutor said. Franzie told police he was going to a job interview and he said that the driver of the car was someone wearing white pants named “Calvin.”

Franzie is due back in court on April 10 for a pretrial hearing.