Police said a confrontation over summer boat ramp rules escalated into an attempted murder charge.
HOPKINTON, Mass. — A fight over who could use Lake Maspenock ended with a 70-year-old resident charged with attempted murder after police said he held a 21-year-old man underwater at Sandy Beach.
The case has put a criminal charge on top of a familiar summer tension in Hopkinton: access to a lake shared by two communities but controlled in part by local rules. Police said the only boat ramp to Lake Maspenock sits on Lakeshore Drive and is limited to Hopkinton residents from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Investigators said Steven Dana challenged Matthew Duffy over that issue before the fight.
Lake Maspenock straddles Hopkinton and Milford, and Sandy Beach sits at 1 Lakeshore Drive. On June 3, Duffy, a 21-year-old Milford resident, was at the lake with friends and a jet ski, according to police and court documents. Dana, who lives in the Lakeshore Drive neighborhood, approached the group and accused them of using the lake improperly. Video later reviewed by police captured Dana telling the group that it was time to go. The exchange grew louder. One person asked whether Dana was going to beat up a person on crutches. According to a police account of the video, Dana answered that he did not care and moved close to Duffy while taunting him. Moments later, police said, Dana struck Duffy twice in the face.
The alleged victim’s crutches were not incidental to the case. Police said Duffy was using them because he was recovering from a motorcycle crash months earlier. Court records said he told officers he had been declared medically dead and revived after the crash, and that he had suffered multiple fractures to his spine, neck and skull. Duffy later said he could not use either arm or one leg during the fight because of broken bones. When the two men fell or moved into the water, that physical limit became central to the danger described by police. Duffy said Dana tackled him, fought with him and shoved his head under. “I just knew I couldn’t use either of my arms or my leg,” Duffy said in an interview, adding that he was praying his friends would pull Dana away.
Police said that is what the friends did. A video taken by Benjamin Osmanovic, 20, showed Dana and Duffy facing off before Dana slapped Duffy with an open hand and then backhanded him, according to Officer Noah Buentello’s report. The men ended up in the water. Buentello wrote that Dana was seen straddling Duffy and holding him underwater while others took a few seconds to understand what was happening. Friends then rushed toward the men and pulled Dana off. Duffy had scratches on his chest and collarbone at the scene, and later photos showed redness on both elbows, abrasions to his chest, left collarbone and lower back, and marks on the left side of his neck that an officer said appeared to be finger impressions.
The first police response began with a report of a fight in progress shortly before 7 p.m. Officers separated the parties and told Dana to return to his nearby home while they spoke with others. Dana told police he had confronted the group about riding jet skis and said he punched one of them before they threw him into the water and beat him, according to court documents. Officers noted Dana was wet, his shirt collar was ripped and he had redness on his face. After reviewing the video and interviewing witnesses, police arrested Dana at his home without incident. Both Dana and Duffy declined ambulance transport. Duffy later said he sought hospital care to check whether the fight had made his earlier injuries worse.
Deputy Police Chief Scott van Raalten framed the case as a warning about private enforcement of public rules. He said the department believed Dana approached Duffy because Dana thought Duffy was not a Hopkinton resident and accosted him over lake use. Van Raalten called the case an incident of senseless violence that could have had tragic results. He said residents should contact authorities about enforcement of town bylaws instead of taking matters into their own hands. The statement drew a line between a possible local rule violation and the physical acts police said were captured on video. It also made clear that the police investigation focused on the alleged assault, not on whether the young men should have been using the ramp.
Dana was charged with attempt to murder, two counts of strangulation or suffocation and assault and battery on a disabled person. He pleaded not guilty in Framingham District Court. Court documents also noted that his name appeared in different records as Stephen Dana, Stephen Dion and Steven Dana. At first, Judge Michael J. Callahan ordered him held without bail pending a detention hearing. The next day, prosecutors tried to keep him detained, arguing that the video, injury photos and strangulation assessment showed a serious risk. Assistant District Attorney Elyse Wyatt said Dana had many reasons not to choose violence and was not deterred. She said his behavior was disproportionate to the argument.
The defense answered by pointing back to the lake dispute, arguing that the video did not tell the full story. Attorney David Grimaldi said the confrontation followed a series of provocations and referenced long-running concerns about jet skis on Lake Maspenock. He said some comments from the younger men escalated the situation and argued that another video angle cast the struggle differently. He also questioned the drowning allegation, saying the water was shallow where the men fought. Grimaldi emphasized Dana’s lack of criminal history, his family ties and letters of support. Callahan ruled prosecutors had not met the burden to hold Dana as dangerous, even as he called the video concerning.
The judge set bail at $7,500, lower than the $50,000 requested by prosecutors. He ordered Dana to have no contact with Duffy or other witnesses, stay away from Sandy Beach and possess no firearms. Dana did not comment after leaving court. Duffy said he was shocked and angry that Dana had been released, saying Dana had tried to kill him days earlier. The public reaction has mixed anger over the alleged violence with debate about lake access, jet skis and the use of Sandy Beach, but the court case remains focused on the elements of the charged offenses and the evidence gathered by police.
The next scheduled step is a July 13 probable cause hearing. Until then, Dana remains free on bail under court conditions, and the Sandy Beach dispute remains part of a pending criminal case.
Author note: Last updated July 8, 2026.