Posted on 12/13/2003 3:47:03 AM PST by csvset
Rep accused of driving drunk: State trooper arrests Haverhill Democrat
By Franci Richardson
Saturday, December 13, 2003
The Democratic state representative from Haverhill was arrested early yesterday while allegedly driving drunk northbound on Interstate 93, police said.
Brian S. Dempsey, 37, was arrested after state trooper Michael Miskell noticed the representative's 2002 black Volvo weaving between lanes about 2:30 a.m. nearing the Andover exit, police said.
Dempsey refused Miskell's offer to take a chemical test, which would have measured the level of his intoxication, sources said. Dempsey's decision not to take the test leads to an automatic suspension of his license for 180 days, according to the law.
The chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology appeared at his arraignment at Lawrence District Court yesterday dressed in a pinstriped suite and tassled Oxford loafers.
Dempsey waived the reading of the charges, and prosecutor Jana DiNatale offered no account of facts surrounding his arrest.
``We're just going to take our time to determine what is in the best interest of Mr. Dempsey and his family,'' said his attorney, Scott Gleason.
Asked whether Dempsey, who is also the owner of an insurance agency, owes an explanation for his alleged drunken driving and marked lane charges because of his public position, Gleason said, ``No comment.''
Two years ago on Father's Day, Dempsey, a married father of three, spent a night in jail for protective custody after he got into a brawl with his older brother, Kevin. Dempsey's mother called the police to her home, and they found overturned furniture in the wake of a domestic dispute.
At the time of his earlier run-in with the law, Dempsey chaired House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran's Public Service Committee.
Dempsey serves as a top lieutenant to Finneran. As the current chair of the House Science and Technology Committee, he racks up an extra $7,500 per year in leadership pay.
Dempsey has an extensive driving record. Between 1985 and 2000, he received eight violations for speeding and accidents. At one point, his license was suspended for eight days for failure to pay a speeding ticket.
And so Kennedylike as well. Massachusetts democrats are cut from the Kennedy mold.
NOTICE to young woman: DO NOT let this man drive you home from any parties.
Never trust a man who wears tassled loafer.
"State Rep pulled over on highway. Found to be sober."
Please don't use the car,
After filling up at the bar.
Remember this little line;
"The life you save might be MINE!"
The state trooper who cited him, though, may be looking at a career change.
Highly unlikely that he's going to step down from this plum "job".
Herald's a conservative paper, a tabloid daily. Solidly pro-Bush, anti-Kennedy. Less, I think, out of principle than because it gets up the nose of the Globe. The Boston Globe is on the far left end of far left end; most editorial decisions are never handled by a heterosexual, and the only religious believers they employ are Jeff Jacoby (if he's still there) and the guys in production. The Globe will never report this story. They speak no ill of members of their party.
The Herald was once mainstream-liberal (sort of like New England, chamber-of-commerce Republicans) but Ted Kennedy rammed through a bill that required the owner of the paper to divest himself of a TV station he also held. He sold the station (I am sure to the benefit of Friends of Ted) but the Herald suddenly went from Kennedy appreciation to Kennedy exposure... which made it a much more interesting paper.
Boston radio institution Howie Carr has an excellent column in the Herald; and he reads FR, at least some threads.
I'm sure Howie is asking, "at what point in the arrest did Dempsey try the old, 'Do you know who I am?' line?" As he has pointed out, this line isn't even working that well for the Kennedy crime family lately (thank you, Mark Furman).
This worthy, Dempsey, is my brother's state rep. (This is my liberal brother who is going to have to adopt his next kid, because he is backing Bush and the war and his even-more-liberal wife has shut him off). I'll talk to him in the morning and find out what people are saying about him.
Almost all the state legislature in Mass is Democrats, both houses. They have a veto-proof majority by an embarrassing margin and have overridden most of Gov. Mitt Romney's vetoes. (Mitt is a liberal by Republican standards). They're all too liberal for me. All this and snow up the gazoo... I need a new state.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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