Posted on 06/13/2015 7:52:10 AM PDT by SamAdams76
WMEX host Michele McPhee was arraigned Thursday on charges she drove up I-93 while drunk and then attacked the trooper trying to arrest her.
At her arraignment in South Boston Municipal Court today, McPhee was released on personal recognizance on charges of OUI, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and failing to observe marked lanes.
According to a State Police report, when Trooper Patrick Candeliere declined McPhee's repeated requests to call the head of State Police and the president of the state-trooper's union and instead tried to cuff her, she started a struggle that ended with both of them heading to Tufts Medical Center for observation - in her case, overnight.
McFee did not make her 3-6 p.m. shift at WMEX, however. Instead, morning host Joe Ligotti filled in, praising her as "my dear friend, who I love, and support, and cherish."
The report, written by Candeliere, said the events leading to McPhee's arrest started around 1 a.m. on I-93 northbound near Savin Hill Avenue, when he noticed a Mercedes SUV swerving from lane to lane - at one point coming "within mere inches of sideswiping the jersey barrier on right side of the road."
At the Dorchester Ave. overpass, Candeliere writes, he turned on his cruiser lights and siren. "The Mercedes, in sequence, declerated, accelerated and declerated, bypassing the Exit 16 off-ramp. The Mercedes came to a slow rolling stop in the right lane beyond the Exit 16 off-ramp in South Boston."
Candeliere reported he pulled up, smelled alcohol and asked her why she didn't get off as he tried to get her to do. He writes she told him she wasn't headed that way, because she was heading home to East Boston. She agreed, however, to get off at Exit 18, which he reports she did, more or less - after rolling the SUV over the curb and onto a sidewalk.
McPhee, who he wrote had bloodshot and glassy eyes and slurred speech, said she'd just gotten off work at WMEX in Marina Bay - in fact, her shift ends at 6 p.m. - and that she'd "defended cops for 30 years."
At his order, she got out of the vehicle, after first making sure to "adjust several knobs and levers on her steering column and dashboard" - and then pulling up her jeans, which were falling down. Then she got chatty, the trooper reports:
"McPhee reported the following, in order: HS Grad/UMASS Boston Graduate (Bachelor degree 'Just barely graduated'), employed as reporter for ABC News and radio host for a radio station in Marina Bay (Quincy), which she identified and I was unable to understand. McPhee state that she has 'defended the police for years' and requested that I contact Dana Pullman [president of the state troopers' union] so she could go home. McPhee listed several members of police agencies and Massachusetts State Police Colonel Timothy Alben as friends whom I should contact. McPhee continued by reporting the following during field interview, in order: No medication, not seeing a doctor, no injury, no medical problems, no diabetes. I asked McPhee about how much sleep she had on the previous day and she replied 'Zero.' I asked McPhee what she had done during the day and she stated 'Work.' McPhee stated that she got out of work at 9 P.M. and went out with her boyfriend. McPhee stated that she consumed dinner, after work, at Port 305 Restaurant in Marina Bay near the radio station. McPhee reported consuming 'steak tips and stuff' for dinner.
"McPhee again stated that she has advocated for police for several years and that I should know of her. I asked McPhee how much alcohol she had consumed and she stated, 'Nothing ... well some wine at dinner.' McPhee did not detail the quantity or total volume of alcoholic beverages that she had consumed.'"
When the trooper asked her to perform a series of field-sobriety tests, McPhee allegedly told him to "call any trooper, Dana Pullman or the Colonel so I can leave." When he demurred, she refused to do any more tests - at least until he said he felt she had been driving drunk and that he was placing her under arrest.
"Fine I'll do the tests, get me a supervisor!"
The trooper tried to cuff her. McPhee "grew billigerent, resistant and enraged."
"McPhee physically counteracted my attempts to place her in handcuffs at the front of the Mercedes. I gained control of McPhee's left arm and she elbowed my chest with her right arm. McPhee proceded to kick her feet, striking me in the legs while stating 'I'm calling the Colonel ... let me go ... get a supervisor.' I radioed for help on my portable radio of struggling with McPhee for about 1 minute.
The struggle continued until another trooper and a Boston police officer arrived.
"Officer Coyne ran to my location and gained control of McPhee's left arm. Officer Coyne, McPhee and I stumbled toward the sidewalk and fell to the ground. I traveled, in the air, over McPhee while still holding her right arm. I lost control of her arm and fell on my left hand, right forarm and right knee. McPhee continued to resist and was placed in hancuffs while on the sidewalk with the assistance of Officer Coyne. McPhee was able to free herself from the handcuff and they were re-applied."
At that point, he noticed blood coming from her face - some of which now coated his left hand and arm. He says she continued her "enraged and condescending statements/behavior" as she was being booked at the South Boston State Police barracks and before she was transported to Tufts - where he went for evaluation himself.
When I lived in Boston, Michele McPhee was one of my favorite reporters and talk show hosts so this story is shocking to me and seems uncharacteristic of her.
While I never knew her personally, we have similar backgrounds and grew up in the same neighborhoods. While she has a rather irritating voice that only a true Bostonian can love, she was usually on the right side of the issues and was always one of the "good guys" in my book when it came to the Boston talk radio/media scene.
She's tough on crime and corruption and did some excellent reporting with regard to that. As well, she supported the police (as the article states) and often defended them as well as the war on terrorism.
The incident described here however doesn't cast her in a very good light. Especially when she pulled the "do you know who I am" routine on that cop. Unfortunately the facts described do seem to indicate she was driving intoxicated and that she was trying to "cash her chips in" to get out of the jam she found herself in.
If she truly assaulted the officer, then this is going to end up being 10 times worse for her than just the OUI.
Apparently she's never been in any kind of trouble before but this just goes to show that one bad night can do a lot of damage to one's reputation. I wish her luck but I also wish she had just called a cab that night or found some other way to get home.
True. But we have to remember in BizarroAmerica, "assaulting a police officer" generally leads to the "assaulter" bleeding on the "assaulted" officer:
...At that point, he noticed blood coming from her face - some of which now coated his left hand and arm...
LOL! :)
On the bright side, she found out that The King's Revenooers don't give two figs that she defended them for 30 years.
She's just another 30-40 grand in the maw of the Criminal Justice woodchipper, now.
BELCH!!!
I’m an Afro-American Native American Lesbian. Do I need more?
"We The Peasants", indeed...
Guilty on all counts, plus a few more if I can find them around here somewhere.
What is a “OUI”?
Sad. All of us have had terrible days to some degree or another that we wish we could have back and do over again. This one was a doozy.
Here she is on a better day.
It never ceases to amaze me that many of my fellow peasants haven't figured out that they're now PREY, meant only for funding the ever-burgeoning operations of the gruberment, at all levels.
What's that saying about a liberal who's just been mugged?
Michele just got her wake-up call...
She looks a lot better without the shiner and the road rash...
What? No Eskimo blood?
Operating Under Teh Influence...
So if you refuse a sobriety test or even if you pass a sobriety test, and the officer still thinks you are intoxicated, they charge you with the OUI.
Spunky gal too! And young.
Exactly what old Ben needs (less the booze thing, that is.)
Nah. You're just supposed to Intuit that...
**snicker**
What does it mean?
Fascinating.
I'll have to check my state laws to see if they snuck that one in at some time.
Don't know how you endure in Taxachussetts, Sam...
Goodun’
OUI = Operating Under Influence
Out of the frying pan and into the fire...I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.
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