Police arrested a Dedham man Thursday after he allegedly asked a young boy to act like a cop and "take him down" and then tried to make the boy take oxycodone, a medication used to relieve pain.
Joseph J. Spicer, 38, of 12 Greensboro Road, was charged with distributing a Class B substance to a minor and was being held on $1,500 bail as of Friday afternoon.
A woman who saw Spicer and the boy sitting on her 228 Curve St. lawn around 4:50 p.m. Thursday called police to ask them to remove him, Police Spokesman Lt. Robert Nedder said.
When police arrived, the 14-year-old boy said Spicer had stopped him and a friend, 14, while they were playing nearby and asked them if they were selling lemonade, Nedder said.
When the boys told him they were not, Spicer yelled profanities at them before giving them a dollar, which he said was "out of respect," according to police reports.
Then at Spicer's request, the 14-year-old punched his friend on the shoulder, Nedder said.
Spicer then held his hands above his head and told the boy to pretend he was a cop and take Spicer down. When the boy refused, Spicer put his hands behind his back as if he were handcuffed and asked the boy to arrest him, Nedder said.
After the boy complied, Spicer allegedly said he "was going to give him something good" and took two oxycodone pills from his backpack, swallowing one and telling the boy to take the other.
The boy pretended to take the pill and then followed Spicer to the front yard of 228 Curve St., while the boy's friend and a third boy, 13, who had arrived in the middle of the interaction stood several feet away, Nedder said.
Spicer asked the boy to go to the backyard with him, saying he would let the boy beat him up, but a police officer responding to the homeowner's 911 call arrived before the two could leave the front yard, Nedder said.
The officer arrested Spicer after he saw a pill drop out of the boy's sleeve and found an empty oxycodone prescription bottle in Spicer's backpack, Nedder said.
The boy told police that he went along with Spicer's requests because he was nervous, according to police reports.
Daily News staff writer Lindsey Parietti can be reached at lindsey.parietti@cnc.com.
