A crowd of supporters gathered around a courtroom door in Northampton on Wednesday, awaiting the six-person jury’s verdict in the trial of former Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj. Steven Gagne, the Northwestern District’s first assistant district attorney, popped open the door just enough to look at a group of Worcester police officers down the hall. Beaming, he gave them a thumbs up, waved them over. They walked past the crowd of Haxhiaj supporters to enter the courtroom before the public had been allowed back in. Supporters asked the court guards why they were being let in, and the court guards responded by making the cops shuffle back out.
The jury read the verdict: guilty on one charge of assault and battery against a public employee, not guilty of one charge of interfering with police.
Gagne then moved to his sentencing recommendation…