A state trooper attempting to shoo a Mercedes Benz SUV illegally idling in a bus lane at Logan International Airport was hit and dragged by the obstinate driver, a 57-year-old Wellesley woman, as she allegedly sped off to avoid getting a ticket.
Investment manager Margaret Greer was released on personal recognizance yesterday following her arraignment in East Boston District Court on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon and failure to stop for police. An automatic plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf by the court.
According to state police Sgt. Danial Wildgrube’s report, Greer had a “slight odor of an alcoholic beverage” on her breath.
Greer’s defense attorney, Carol Ann Starkey, declined to answer questions about the alleged incident, but told the Herald today her client “is a highly respected member of her community and she pled absolutely not guilty to all of these allegations.”“There are two sides to every story,” said Starkey, “and we strongly contest the facts as presented by the commonwealth in this case. We take the allegations very seriously and we look forward to presenting our side of the story in a court of law.”
Sunday night, Greer, parked in a marked bus lane, told Sgt. Wildgrube she was waiting for her husband and rolled up her window to ignore the officer when he first gave her the option of circling Terminal B or relocating her vehicle to a cell phone lot, according to the police report.
When she allegedly refused, Wildgrube approached the Mercedes ML320 to write her a ticket. Greer allegedly hit the gas, clipping him with her passenger side mirror, the Suffolk District Attorney reports.
While she was blocked by oncoming traffic, Wildgrube opened the driver’s side door and ordered her out, but Greer allegedly drove on and shut the door, prosecutors said.
Stopped in traffic again, Wildgrube made another attempt to get Greer out, but she allegedly accelerated directly at him, forcing him to run backward about 15 feet, prosecutors said. He managed to get the driver’s side door open, but as he was unfastening her seat belt, Greer allegedly sped away with him, a report states
The trooper freed himself and broadcast the vehicle’s plate and description to fellow police, who stopped and arrested Greer on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
“I had about 60 people on my bus. They were terrified by what they saw. My legs are still shaking,” a bus driver who witnessed the alleged assault at Logan told investigators.
A Newburyport man who had just stepped off a flight from Dallas said he saw the trooper “shouting for the woman to stop” with his hands extended.
“She kept the car in gear and shouted repeatedly, ‘I’m not stopping the car, get away from me’ ” the witness told police. “Then she gunned the engine and took off.”
Prosecutors said when Greer was booked, she refused to answer questions about whether she had ingested drugs or alcohol.
They also said she denied having been at the airport, claiming instead she was driving home from her work at Merrill Lynch in Boston. Yet, according to her online profile, Greer works at Citi Smith Barney.
Reached at her home today, Greer took a business card from a reporter but declined to comment.
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