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Ruth and Carl Shapiro, in an undated photo. (The Nourses) |
Questions raised about George Regan award Hub PR exec denies using ethnic slur
By Jessica Heslam / MediaBiz | Thursday, July 30, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Media & Marketing
An ex-Boston magazine scribe insists Boston PR man George Regan called him an ethnic slur, and now there’s a call to block one of the country’s biggest civil rights organizations from honoring the Hub spinmeister.
Regan denies calling John Gonzalez a “wetback,” but the writer is sticking by his story.
“It’s 100 percent true,” Gonzalez told MediaBiz yesterday.
Gonzalez said he was working on a piece about the Herald’s Inside Track reporters in 2006 when he called Regan for a comment. Regan represented both the Herald and Boston magazine at the time. (The Herald is no longer a Regan client.)
“I call him for a comment, and he freaks out and he starts screaming at me. We’re going back and forth, and it just escalated out of nowhere and he said, ‘You listen to me, you (expletive) wetback,’ ” Gonzalez said.
Regan said he never called Gonzalez a wetback. “I told him he was very wet behind the ears and I know I’m right,” he said yesterday.
Gonzalez said Boston magazine brought Regan in for a sitdown and the PR king said, “if I said what you think I said and that offended you then I’m sorry.”
Regan said yesterday that he never apologized. “I never apologized because I did nothing wrong. I apologized for losing my temper,” he said.
“I know my business very well,” Regan added. “I know how words can hurt. You don’t have to say anything discriminatory to make your point. And if you have to resort to name-calling, you probably don’t belong in the business.”
The Anti-Defamation League of New England – a Regan client – plans to bestow the media bigshot with its top honor Sept. 9, when Regan will be feted by hundreds at its annual leadership dinner at the John F. Kennedy Library.
The event co-chairs include a bevy of Regan clients, including Legal Sea Foods czar Roger Berkowitz, Suffolk Construction honcho John Fish and Entercom radio exec Julie Kahn.
Berkowitz said he’s known Regan for over 20 years and said he’s never made any derogatory or inflammatory comments about anyone. “It would be completely out of character,” Berkowitz said. “It sounds like someone wants a vendetta.”
Earlier this month, the ADL received an anonymous letter detailing the Gonzalez-Regan exchange.
ADL exec Derrek Shulman said they plan to go ahead and honor Regan because he’s been a tremendous community leader for 25 years. “Apparently, George said no such word or words and there was some kind of misunderstanding,” Shulman said.
Gonzalez says Regan shouldn’t be honored.
“He’s achieved a certain status in Boston through fear-mongering, basically, and somebody needs to stand up to him and call him what he is. He’s a bully,” he said.
Montana resort for elite sold for $115 million
By MATTHEW BROWN (AP) – 1 day ago
BILLINGS, Mont. — Montana’s ultra-posh Yellowstone Club is in new hands, following a $115 million deal that the new owner hopes will close the door on the resort’s much publicized descent into bankruptcy.
Eight months ago, the millionaires-only club was on the verge of liquidation, a victim of its prior owners’ excesses and the broader economic downturn that choked off the flow of money fueling the club’s rise.
On Friday, CrossHarbor Capital Partners of Boston bought the 13,600-acre private ski resort about 50 miles south of Bozeman at what was considered a bargain-basement price.
The firm’s managing partner, Sam Byrne, had offered to buy the club last year for $470 million and had already invested more than $200 million in club real estate over the last several years.
Byrne acknowledged Friday the club’s once-sterling reputation will need some polishing.
“It’s going to take time to win back the trust of members and the community and re-establish the brand,” he said. “We’re confident that the place has a bright future.”
The resort was nearly pulled apart last year during the bitter and high-profile divorce of its founders, Edra and Tim Blixseth. Later came revelations that the pair had drained tens of millions of dollars from the resort, helping push it more than $400 million into debt.
The collapse was extraordinary for an enterprise that counts Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates and hotel magnate Barry Sternlicht as members.
Those who are allowed to join must buy real estate with price tags that can top $10 million, and pay a $300,000 deposit. The privacy members thought their money was buying was shattered when the club’s rolls were made public as part of its bankruptcy case.
With the Blixseths now out of the picture — and fighting each other over the remains of a personal fortune once estimated at $1.3 billion — members are looking to Byrne to get the club out of the headlines.
“There’s going to be a massive sigh of relief, a collective sigh of relief,” said Bill Curtis, a club member and the chief executive of CurtCo Media, which publishes the Robb Report, a magazine that caters to the wealthy.
Only about 300 of the club’s more than 800 available memberships have been filled since it opened in 2000. Just three properties changed hands during its months in bankruptcy.
Curtis said Friday’s deal will shake up the market for the club’s property, but he cautioned that the resort isn’t out of rough waters yet.
“If you ask me what the economy’s going to do, it’s going to continue to make it a challenge,” he said. “Nothing’s going to happen overnight.”
Byrne said more than $150 million on top of the purchase price has been pledged to pay for improvements at the resort.
That’s likely to include the club’s 120,000-square-foot centerpiece Warren Miller Lodge — left unfinished despite a reported $100 million investment.
Byrne also said he persuaded a large group of members to put money behind his plans to recapitalize the resort. He declined to offer specifics.
The club will continue to be managed by the Discovery Land Co., brought in last year when Edra Blixseth took over the operation following her divorce.
Tim Blixseth tried to scuttle the deal between his ex-wife and Byrne until the day the sale became final. He has claimed they colluded to drive the resort into a financial hole so Byrne could scoop it up on the cheap.
Those claims were repeatedly rejected by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Kirscher in Butte, Mont., and on Thursday he denied Tim Blixseth’s latest effort to block the deal through a court-ordered stay.
In his opinion, Kirscher said the parties in the sale had acted in good faith. He said Tim Blixseth’s “generalized allegations of misconduct” were irrelevant.
He added that the case — which involved more than 100 lawyers and resulted in several spin-off lawsuits that are still being resolved — “was of a magnitude never seen before in this court.”
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Uneasy times for the Shapiro family
Ties to Madoff could spur effort to recover investment gains
By Beth Healy and Steven Syre Globe Staff / July 6, 2009
Eleven days ago, while Bernard Madoff was in a Manhattan jail cell awaiting his 150-year sentence, his old friend Carl Shapiro was enjoying a family dinner at the Four Seasons in Boston. He and his wife, Ruth, were celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary with their children and grandchildren at the luxury hotel, where they often dine.
The festive affair belied the uneasy times for the Shapiro family. Three days before attending the party, Shapiro son-in-law Robert Jaffe was accused by federal regulators of delivering $1 billion in client funds to Madoff, reaping $150 million in improper payments in return. Jaffe denies the charges.
Shapiro, who has lost at least $545 million to Madoff, is one of numerous large investors who are under investigation by US authorities.
And now, as a client who has known Madoff for five decades, Shapiro has to worry if the court-appointed trustee recovering funds for victims will try to seize any profits he or his charitable foundation received from him over the years, as the trustee has sought to do with other large clients.
“There’s a significant risk for people who had substantial accounts for many, many years, who were looking at the supposed performance regardless of what the market was doing and seeing gains year after year,’’ said Boston attorney Harry Miller, who represents a number of Madoff victims. “The trustee is going to take the position that they should have known, and could hold them responsible for that.’’
And if regulators determine he received unusually large returns over his many years with Madoff, the consequences could be tougher still.
Irving Picard, the Madoff bankruptcy trustee, is pursuing a number of large investors for “clawbacks,’’ or demands they return profits from Madoff because the money, in effect, belonged to other investors.
He is limited to the past six years of gains; the Securities and Exchange Commission has no time limit on how far back it can go to recover what it calls “ill-gotten gains.’’
Picard and the Shapiros have not commented on whether the family has received a clawback demand.
In some ways, life continues as usual for two of the men closest to the Wall Street swindler. They have returned from Palm Beach to the Boston area for the summer, as they typically do. There was the recent wedding of the Jaffes’ son Steven, and they recently attended the bar mitzvah of the child of some friends.
But in other ways, life is changing in ways big and small. Jaffe will not be a regular at the Pine Brook Country Club in Weston this season; he’s taken a year off from the golf club “for financial reasons,’’ his spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Shapiro, 96, has been pained to see a large part of his personal fortune wiped out, along with half of the charitable foundation that has donated in his family’s name to hospitals, art museums, and schools in Greater Boston and Palm Beach. He has said he was as shocked as anyone by the scandal.
The Shapiros have donated $196 million to the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation over the past decade, according to the foundation’s tax records filed through 2007. More than half of that, $111.5 million, was donated in 2007.
The family uses another entity to sometimes direct contributions to the foundation: Wellesley Capital Management Inc., which accounted for $49 million of the donations during the 10-year period. The firm was established in 1975 to handle tax and accounting services for the family fortune and keeps the books for the foundation, according to tax records and state filings. It is also listed as a client on Madoff customer lists.
Through a spokesman, the Shapiros declined to say if the money they gave the foundation came from Madoff or other sources.
Last week, a Shapiro family confidant who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that both the US attorney in New York and the bankruptcy trustee are examining Shapiro’s investments with Madoff.
Wellesley Capital did not have oversight of Shapiro investments, said the family spokesman, Elliot Sloane, but is a “bookkeeping and accounting office serving the needs of the Shapiro family investments.’’ It has a small staff, and its officers are Shapiro’s three daughters: Linda Waintrup, listed as president; Rhonda Zinner, and Ellen Jaffe, Robert’s wife.
On Madoff’s customer list – flawed and error-ridden though it is – no entity is mentioned more times than Wellesley Capital Management. The firm, or the address and suite number of its office, appears 129 times, with clients that include Shapiro family trusts and two of the Jaffes’ sons.
Other investors with longtime relationships with Madoff also appear multiple times on the list: Jeffrey and Barbara Picower and their foundation, which Picard has alleged took billions more in money out of Madoff accounts than they put in, show up 10 times, and New York money manager Ezra Merkin, who funneled $2.4 billion in client money to Madoff, shows up eight times. Stanley Chais, the Beverly Hills money manager charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is listed 68 times.
One possible explanation for the large number of Shapiro family accounts on the client list is that Carl Shapiro’s relationship with Madoff dates back to the 1960s.
People who know Shapiro said he thought of Madoff as a son. In the days before the collapse of his scheme in December, Madoff asked Shapiro for $250 million, which his friend gave him. Shapiro learned of Madoff’s confession on the television news, say people who know him.
Known for an exacting attention to detail, Shapiro has kept a firm hand in the workings of his charity and his finances, according to people who know the family. He takes a personal interest in many of the nonprofits the foundation funds. He set up Wellesley Capital rather than hire an outside firm to manage his affairs. And for years he used a New York accounting firm run by a friend of Madoff’s to prepare the foundation’s taxes, which often were filed late.
The question many are asking is this: How could Shapiro or other Madoff investors have failed to see that something was amiss when they received returns that beat the market so consistently?
Miller said part of the answer lies in human nature. “If things were really good, you might look the other way and not look into what was going on,’’ he said.
It appears the Shapiros are cutting their Madoff ties one by one. The foundation has fired the accounting firm Konigsberg Wolf & Co., the family’s spokesman said.
Neither Shapiro nor Jaffe attended Madoff’s court appearances, nor did they submit character references to the judge who sentenced Madoff.
Indeed, not a single person did so on his behalf.
Beth Healy can be reached at bhealy@globe.com. Steven Syre can be reached at syre@globe.com. 
State Street Says SEC May Sue Over Bond Investments (Update4)
By Christopher Condon
June 29 (Bloomberg) — State Street Corp., the world’s largest asset manager for institutions, may be sued by federal regulators over bond funds that investors said lost money because of bets on risky mortgage-backed securities.
The company, based in Boston, said in a regulatory filing that it received a Wells notice stemming from a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into disclosures and management of fixed-income investments through 2007.
The notification typically lets recipients respond to investigators’ claims before the agency’s five-member commission approves legal action. The SEC may decide not to pursue a case.
State Street, the manager of $1.4 trillion as of March 31, has been sued by investors claiming its funds took too much risk by investing in securities tied to home mortgages. The firm set aside $618 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 to settle legal claims stemming from losses linked to subprime home loans. It made $417 million of payouts as of Dec. 31.
“It’s not a long-term negative, but it could affect near- term earnings if they have to pay civil penalties,” Gerard Cassidy, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Portland, Maine, said in an interview.
State Street said in the SEC filing that it’s cooperating with the agency and with related probes by securities regulators and the attorney general in Massachusetts. Arlene Roberts, a spokeswoman for State Street, and John Heine, a spokesman for the SEC in Washington, declined to comment.
The company rose 18 cents to $48.50 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has gained 23 percent this year, compared with the 13 percent rise for the Standard & Poor’s index for asset managers and custody banks.
Prudential Lawsuit
Prudential Financial Inc., the second-largest U.S. life insurer, sued State Street in October 2007 on behalf of 200 retirement plans for $80 million, the amount lost in two bond funds that were designed to closely track benchmarks. About 28,000 retirement accounts were affected.
The suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, alleged State Street changed the investment strategies of the funds and made “undisclosed, highly leveraged investments in mortgage- related” assets.
State Street lost a bid to have the case thrown out in September. U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell rejected the company’s claim that investors haven’t been injured because Prudential reimbursed them.
Robert DeFillippo, a spokesman for Prudential, declined to comment on the SEC’s action.
Galvin Probe
Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin, the top securities regulator in Massachusetts, said in April his office was investigating State Street for allegedly misleading pension funds over the risks of their investments.
Evergreen Investments agreed this month to pay $40 million to settle claims by the SEC that it overstated the performance of its Ultra Short Opportunities Fund from February 2007 to its closing in June 2008. When values were changed, investors were informed selectively, the agency said. The fund has been liquidated. Boston-based Evergreen was acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. in its takeover of Wachovia Corp.
OppenheimerFunds, a unit of Springfield, Massachusetts- based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., was sued this month by investors seeking to recoup losses allegedly caused by mismanagement of the Oppenheimer Pennsylvania Municipal Fund.
The SEC has opened more than 50 inquiries and brought at least 10 cases linked to subprime loans since rising defaults triggered the global credit crisis in 2007.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Condon in Boston at ccondon4@bloomberg.net
winmy697f3
An Adviser (Mine) Is Charged With Fraud
Ron Lieber New York Times
About two months ago, I wrote a column about how Matthew Weitzman, our family’s financial planner, was under investigation for reportedly siphoning money from clients’ accounts.
Well, the ax finally fell on Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of looting client accounts of at least $6 million and using them “as his personal piggy bank.” It accused him of spending the money he took on a multimillion-dollar home, luxury cars and a share in a horse. Mr. Weitzman agreed to settle the claims without admitting or denying the accusations, though the S.E.C. is unsure about how much money his clients will get back.
Meanwhile, the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, also unsealed charges against Mr. Weitzman. They include fraud, lying to investors and converting money for his own use. Some of the charges carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine.
Mr. Weitzman declined to comment on the charges and hung up on me. His lawyer, Marc Mukasey, said he was reviewing the accusations and declined to comment further.
Sure, fraud happens. Yes, people steal. But the S.E.C. complaint paints a picture of a man set on aiming at the vulnerable. The complaint lists a roster of victims, including an elderly couple with compromised mental capabilities; a 24-year-old law student who had inherited $1 million from her parents; and Mr. Weitzman’s own father-in-law, who may be out $3 million.
Patricia Flinn, a Brewster, N.Y., resident and a former client of Mr. Weitzman’s, met him when her husband was told, six months after they had married, that he had cancer. “He told Matt that he wanted to be sure that his wife would be taken care of.”
As her husband, William Adcock, lay dying, however, Mr. Weitzman helped himself to Mr. Adcock’s money, including one withdrawal on the day that Mr. Weitzman served as a witness when Mr. Adcock changed his will, Ms. Flinn said. After he died, Mr. Weitzman began taking Ms. Flinn’s money instead, she recalled. According to the government charges, he usually used forms with forged signatures to wire money from client accounts at Charles Schwab to an account that he controlled.
A Schwab spokesman said it had intensive controls in place to prevent this problem, but declined to elaborate for fear of tipping off potential offenders.
Ms. Flinn said she did not notice the withdrawals until Schwab representatives and Mr. Weitzman’s former business partner alerted her to the problems. “I never opened my husband’s mail,” she said. “I was in the hospital every day for three months. I was preoccupied with Bill’s health.”
A few peers of Mr. Weitzman in the financial planning world have accused me of hammering away at this because of my personal involvement. They’ve got it wrong. The reason this is, in many ways, more important than the Bernard Madoff scheme is that Mr. Weitzman’s clients were merely upper middle class. You didn’t have to be famous or play golf at the right clubs to work with Mr. Weitzman.
So most readers of this newspaper could be victims in other similar situations. I almost was. Your parents or grandparents might be vulnerable. It is hard to guard against outright theft or fraud, but you can at least read your statements carefully to watch out for it.
And if you have family members who are old, infirm or ill-informed, read the statements for them. The odds of someone trying to steal may well be highest when his victims are paying the least amount of attention.
Grand jury indicts DiMasi
Contract fraud alleged
By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
jmonahan@telegram.com
BOSTON – Former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi allegedly received secret payments totaling $57,000 and could face up to 145 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to illegally secure multimillion-dollar state contracts for a computer software company, according to a federal grand jury fraud indictment.
Mr. DiMasi, 64, who resigned in January amid earlier reports of the contract scandal, was released yesterday on $10,000 bond after appearing in federal court with three associates. Each faces one count of conspiracy, three counts of federal mail fraud, and four counts of federal wire fraud.
Sal Dimasi Fraud Charges
Indicted on the same charges, and appearing with Mr. DiMasi before federal magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings, were Richard D. Vitale, 64, of Boston, Mr. DiMasi’s former accountant and longtime friend; Richard W. McDonough, 64, of Foxboro, a Beacon Hill lobbyist and close associate of Mr. DiMasi; and Joseph P. Lally, 48, of North Reading, a one-time vice president of Cognos ULC, who more recently worked as a licensed reseller of the company’s software. Mr. Lally is also charged with one count of money laundering.
Each of the mail and wire fraud charges carry penalties up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a subsequent five years supervised release. The conspiracy charge carries penalties up to five years plus three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Mr. Lally also faces an additional 10 years in prison if convicted of the laundering charge.
The indictment alleges the four devised a long-running scheme that began in late 2004 and continued through early 2007, in which they conspired to use Mr. DiMasi’s power and influence to direct two multimillion-dollar state computer software contracts to Cognos, with all four men receiving large sums of money for their roles.
While legislators, state officials and the public were aware of the ongoing investigation since early last year, the extent and brazen nature of the scheme detailed in the indictment released yesterday stunned Beacon Hill officials.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick called the charges “deeply disturbing” and said they constitute “a very serious breach of the public trust” that will be difficult to overcome.
“I think we all have to acknowledge how deeply troubling these charges are. All of us who work in this building have to redouble our efforts to restore the publics confidence in our, and the state government’s ability, to do the public’s business, the people’s business,” he said last night.
Republican House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr. said one-party rule of the state is to blame for “the dark shadow (that) continues to hover over Beacon Hill.”
“When one party controls the Legislature by such a vast majority, the door is left wide open for corruption, abuse of power and scandal,” he said.
Outside the courthouse yesterday, Mr. DiMasi refused to discuss details, but said, “Every decision that I have ever made as the speaker or a state representative was always made in the best interest of my constituents and the people of Massachusetts.”
His lawyer, Thomas Kiley, said he would prove his innocence in court.
“He has never, ever broken the trust of the people of the commonwealth,” Mr. Kiley said.
Thomas Drechsler, a lawyer representing Mr. McDonough, said his client legitimately lobbied for Cognos and was well within his First Amendment rights in all of his activities. “I really feel strongly this is an attack on the lobbying profession,” Mr. Drechsler said, adding his client denies any wrongdoing.
The four men are scheduled to be arraigned June 8.
According to the indictment, from March 2005 through early 2007, Mr. Lally, Mr. McDonough and Mr. DiMasi arranged to have regular payments made to Mr. DiMasi from Cognos for the speaker to use his power to secure contracts for Cognos.
Starting in April 2005, a series of monthly payments of $5,000 each from Cognos were made to a lawyer who shared a private practice law office with Mr. DiMasi, as an attorney retainer fee. Of those funds, $4,000 of each of the payments directed by Mr. Lally were given to Mr. DiMasi, supposedly as a client referral fee.
At the time the arrangement was set up, the indictment alleges, Mr. DiMasi agreed to it, saying, “It’s about time we got business like this.”
It alleges Mr. DiMasi asked to get $4,000 of every $5,000 check paid to the lawyer and that Mr. DiMasi received checks from the lawyer of $4,000 on six occasions between April and November 2005 as well as one check for $8,000. On another occasion after Cognos’ payments were interrupted, Mr. DiMasi allegedly instructed the lawyer to check with Mr. McDonough to find out why, which he did.
A short time later, Mr. Lally sent an e-mail to a Cognos executive asking him to look into the situation “fast,” adding, “We don’t want to piss anyone off this late in the game.”
The next day Cognos sent a $25,000 check to the lawyer and a short time later Mr. DiMasi told the lawyer he wanted all of that check. The lawyer then wrote and mailed a $25,000 check to Mr. DiMasi.
On Dec. 28, 2006, Mr. DiMasi instructed the lawyer to replace the check with four backdated checks in amounts of $8,000, $7,000, $6,000 and $4,000, “to further disguise the payments as typical referral fees,” which he did, according to the federal allegations.
Meanwhile, the four were arranging two large contracts for Cognos to provide the state with software.
In 2006, Mr. DiMasi had a $5.2 million budget amendment introduced and facilitated its final passage for the purchase of an Education Data Warehouse and Reporting System for the Department of Education, with the amendment specifying not less than $4.5 million be spent on software.
Mr. DiMasi never disclosed his financial ties to Cognos, which received the contract from the department.
The contract resulted in the payment of $891,000 to Montvale Solutions, a company formed by Mr. Lally as a licensed reseller of Cognos products. Montvale Solutions then paid $100,000 to Mr. McDonough and $100,000 to Mr. Vitale’s company, WN Advisors, as consulting fees, the indictment alleges.
Then in 2007, Mr. DiMasi, using legislative language provided by Mr. Lally, Mr. McDonough and Mr. Vitale on behalf of Cognos, caused provisions to be made for a $15 million purchase of performance management software by the state Division of Administration and Finance. The purchase was later canceled by the state.
The indictment said they then used Mr. DiMasi’s influence to help Cognos secure the contract from the Division of Administration and Finance.
That contract resulted in payment of $2.8 million to Mr. Lally’s firm, which in turn paid $200,000 to Mr. McDonough and $500,000 to Mr. Vitale’s firm as consulting fees.
The indictment details numerous actions by Mr. DiMasi, Mr. McDonough and Mr. Lally to ensure the contracts were funded and awarded to Cognos.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sal DiMasi case rocks accounting co., IBM contract
Photo by Staff Graphic by Sarah Kaempfe
The Sal DiMasi scandal now rocking the State House is taking its toll on some prominent local and national firms.
The corruption case against DiMasi – the former House speaker who was indicted yesterday with three others tied to a shady software deal – centers around Cognos ULC, a Canadian company with a longtime presence in Burlington.
DiMasi and the three others effectively steered the state contracts to Cognos, the U.S. Attorney’s office charged yesterday.
Cognos is now a subsidiary of IBM Corp., which purchased Cognos after the multimillion-dollar contracts in question were issued in 2006 and 2007. IBM, whose spokesman could not be reached for comment, voluntarily rescinded one of the state contracts, valued at $13 million, after it officially took over Cognos last year.
Another company, Vitale Caturano, a prominent Charlestown accounting firm, changed its name earlier this year amid bad publicity surrounding one of its founders, Richard Vitale, who was indicted yesterday along with DiMasi.
Caturano & Co., which was not charged with anything and which apparently wasn’t aware of Vitale’s alleged Beacon Hill antics, declined comment yesterday.
Vitale, who left his old accounting firm in 2008, is in trouble on yet another front. He was indicted by the state for allegedly using his close relationship with DiMasi to push a House bill on behalf of the Massachusetts Association of Ticket Brokers to remove price caps on ticket reselling.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1176424
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
A Wellesley businesswoman apologized to a State Police sergeant today and agreed to perform 200 hours of community service to resolve charges that she nearly ran him down with her Mercedes Benz SUV during a confrontation at Logan International Airport in March.
Margaret Greer, a 57-year-old portfolio manager and former Wellesley school board member, admitted during a hearing in East Boston District Court that there were sufficient facts to find her guilty of two misdemeanor charges of assault and battery on a police officer and failure to stop for a police officer.
“She wanted to get this behind her and she deeply regretted that this situation had ever occurred,” said Boston attorney Carol Starkey, who represents Greer and was at her side in the court. “It has been enormously difficult and traumatizing to her.”
Greer was picking up her husband at the airport March 29 when a trooper ordered her to move because her Mercedes was obstructing a bus lane, and she refused, according to a police report. (See previous coverage.)
Sergeant Daniel Wildgrube was writing Greer a ticket when she gunned her engine and sped off, hitting him with her car’s side mirror and forcing him to leap out of the way, according to his report. Wildgrube said he caught up to Greer, who was stuck in traffic, and ordered her to get out of the car because she was under arrest, but she again refused.
Wildgrube said he stood in front of Greer’s car with his hands on the hood and she continued to drive while he ran backwards for about 15 feet. Greer left the airport and was stopped minutes later by troopers on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
After Greer admitted today that there were sufficient facts to find her guilty of the two charges, prosecutors dropped a third charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (her car), which is a felony.
East Boston District Court Judge Roberto Ronquillo Jr. continued the case without a finding and ordered Greer to write a letter of apology to Wildgrube, perform community service, and remain on probation for six months. If Greer completes those conditions and doesn’t get into trouble while on probation, the case against her will be dismissed in six months.
Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said, “Her actions that day were dangerous and irresponsible and it is important she be held to account for them.”
But he added that Greer’s decision to resolve the case quickly and apologize “suggests a degree of remorse and responsibility that we don’t often see so soon after arraignment.”
David Procopio, a State Police spokesman, said that Wildgrube didn’t want to comment, but agreed with the resolution of the case. Procopio said Wildgrube could have been seriously injured and the State Police were pleased that Greer “acknowledged that the facts of the case affirm the State Police version of events.”
After the hearing, Greer personally apologized to Wildgrube and shook his hand, according to her lawyer.
Starkey described Greer as a Harvard University graduate and well-respected member of her community, who has held high-powered jobs and created programs to teach young women about finances.
She said she hopes Greer’s accomplishments aren’t overshadowed by the mistake she made at the airport.
“No one was injured, no property was damaged and no one was harmed, except Margaret,who paid an enormous price for her mistake,” Starkey said.
For more coverage of Wellesley, go to boston.com/wellesley.
Margaret M. Greer, Smith Barney Financial Advisor, Waltham, MA, Arrested
After airport arrest, driver apparently trolled Craigslist for witnesses
April 1, 2009 02:47 PM
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
The posting on Craigslist by a user named “Matron” appeared at 3:59 a.m. on Monday, just hours after a high-powered Wellesley portfolio manager had been released from police custody following an explosive parking altercation with a state trooper at Logan International Airport.
Margaret M. Greer |
Matron described herself as “a middle aged lady driving a silver van” and explained that she had, “an altercation with a Mass State Cop outside terminal B around 8:15 pm.”I am seeking witnesses who were there and saw the State Trooper bang on my car and try to get through my door,” Matron wrote in a posting that was deleted this afternoon following this story’s publication on Boston.com. “Several State Police cruisers pursued me and arrested me on the Mass Pike. Please help me, if you saw this event.”
The description nearly matches the arrest Sunday night of the portfolio manager, Margaret M. Greer, who is accused of hitting a trooper with her side mirror, driving at him so he had to run backward for 15 feet, and dragging him for a short distance as she drove away. The one exception: Greer’s “silver van” was a silver Mercedes Benz ML320 sport utility vehicle.
There is no definitive evidence that Greer used the alias Matron and trolled Craigslist for witnesses who saw her dispute with the trooper. Greer did not respond to a message yesterday seeking comment. Her attorney, Carol Ann Starkey, declined to discuss or confirm “anything about any discussion that occurred on the Internet.”
“Mrs. Greer is taking these allegations very seriously,” Starkey said. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own side of the story. It doesn’t mean that we don’t strongly refute what the government’s recitation of the facts has been to date. We are going to let our facts unroll in a courtroom, not in the court of public opinion.”
Authorities confirmed that they are scrutinizing the Craigslist posting and the string of responses that followed.
“Prosecutors are aware of the postings and are examining them for any potential connection to our Logan Airport case,” said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office.
If Greer did post the solicitation on Craigslist, she did not uncover any witnesses — or sympathy — in cyberspace.
“You fled the police?” wrote a user with the name “justanotherpost.” “I am sorry but just by what you have written here, I would suggest you give up looking for ‘witnesses’ to bolster some kind of entitlement you seem to think you have, and, instead, cooperate with the police as much as possible to straighten the mess you have gotten yourself into.”
A poster named “golf22″ chimed in: “I’m sure the District Attorney appreciates your help in rounding up witnesses to testify against you as to the several illegal actions you took.”
And Mr_Twister added: “We’ll all be ‘VERY’ happy when the judge throws the book at you.”
Matron defended herself, saying she was “blocked in by a bus on one side, and cars parked in front of me, and behind.” The chase on the turnpike “was slow speed, and required five state cruisers,” Matron wrote, “I was freaked out and traveling at 50.”
When the posters turned nasty — and one recognized the story from the news — Matron sharpened her rhetoric.
“Wake up people, you are being controlled by a government who thinks they can do anything … When has it become a crime to pull up to the curb to pick up your husband at the airport? Oh, in a bus lane?” she wrote. “I am very disappointed at the antipathy I have received from this forum. I thought the craigslist community was more empathetic and dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
A lecture followed.
“Why did the State Police come after me?” Matron wrote. “Because it’s so easy! The same reason that the IRS audits every pizza parlor owner in town, but never audits Enron Corporation. The same reason the SEC audits all those you know who are registered brokers, but never audited Bernie Madoff. Why do the police logs in your town fill up with teenagers and immigrants? Because it’s easy for the cops to pick on these helpless people, and so much more difficult for them to go after the really hard criminals. I am distressed that you cannot see this. Please do not think you are holier than me, because you are not.
“When it happens to you, I hope I can be there to support you.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Airport dust-up got nasty, trooper says
Motorist in SUV accused of assault
Perhaps you’ve been there, idling in front of an airport terminal hoping your family member or long-lost college buddy appears before the approaching state trooper shoos you away. Margaret M. Greer was told to move along Sunday evening as she waited for her husband at Logan Airport, but police say she didn’t go quietly – and ended up in court because of it.
Greer, a portfolio manager from Wellesley, allegedly lowered the window of her Mercedes Benz ML320 SUV just an inch when the trooper, Sergeant Danial Wildgrube, approached and told her she would have to move because she was obstructing traffic in a bus lane. Greer merely pointed to a nearby vehicle and told him to take care of that motorist first, Wildgrube said in his report of the incident. He said he repeated the demand, but she shut her window and ignored him.
What ensued before shocked onlookers was a protracted confrontation in which, court papers allege, Greer nearly ran the trooper over as she repeatedly drove out of reach, only to be chased down by the trooper as he tried in vain to wrest Greer from her car.
“I’m not stopping the car! Get away from me,” Greer shouted repeatedly, according to one witness, George Kaniwec.
Greer, 57, was charged yesterday in East Boston District Court with assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, and failure to stop for a police officer. Her lawyer, Carol Starkey, entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf, and Greer is to return to court May 13 for a preliminary hearing.
“Mrs. Greer is a highly respected member of the community and has pled not guilty to all allegations,” Starkey said later. “There are two sides to every story, and we strongly contest the facts as presented by the Commonwealth and look forward to presenting our side of the story. It’s very upsetting and traumatizing to her. . . . Anyone who has picked up or dropped off anyone at the airport may understand there’s two sides to the story.”
Wellesley Town Clerk Kathleen Nagle said Greer served two terms on the five-member elected School Committee, from 1995 to 2000, and served from 1995 to 2003 as an elected member of Town Meeting. Greer did not return calls made yesterday to her home and to her employer, Citi Smith Barney.
Greer’s driving record is mostly clean, with one “at fault” accident in 2004, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
On Sunday, Wildgrube’s report says, the trooper got out his ticket book after she refused to move her car and walked to the front of the vehicle to take down the license number. Then, he reported, Greer gunned her engine and sped off, clipping him with her side mirror and forcing him to leap out of the way.
Wildgrube said he yelled at Greer to stop, but she continued driving until she was stopped by traffic a short distance away. The trooper approached again, opened the driver’s-side door, and told her to get out because she was under arrest, but Greer refused and drove away again, he alleged.
Wildgrube said he caught up to her a third time as she sat in traffic in front of the terminal. He moved to the front of the vehicle and put his arms up. She allegedly hit the gas again, causing the trooper to place his hands on the hood. “She pushed me approximately 15 feet while I ran backwards fearing that I would fall under the car,” Wildgrube wrote. “All the while she was looking directly at me.”
Wildgrube said he was forced away from the car again, falling to the ground. He got up, opened the driver’s-side door, and attempted to undo her seatbelt, he alleges, but she started driving away, dragging him along.
Wildgrube said he broke free and Greer drove away, but he radioed in her plate number.
Greer was stopped by other state troopers on the Massachusetts Turnpike, near the entrance to the Copley tunnel.
Although troopers said they noticed a slight odor of alcohol on her breath and found a small glass in the vehicle containing an alcoholic beverage, they did not ask Greer to submit to a field sobriety test. David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety, said Greer did not appear to be impaired.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said: “If a trooper asks you to move your car from a bus lane, you do it. . . . The trooper gave her every opportunity to do the right thing and she blew it. Now she’s looking at a felony charge.”
Brian R. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dragged trooper: Wellesley woman smelled of booze
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.
Greer is listed as a portfolio manager at Smith Barney’s Waltham office with a finance license in 18 states. The Harvard Business School graduate and former Wellesley School Committee member lives at 24 Windsor Road in Wellesley in a mansion with an online assessed value of $1.5 million. Her husband, Gordon Greer, also 57, is a stock broker, according to public records.
As a condition of her release, Greer has been ordered to stay away from Logan. She is due back in court May 13.
Joe Dwinell and Marie Szaniszlo contributed to this story.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1162499
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Margaret Greer – The Wicked Witch of Wellesley
http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2009/04/wicked-witch-of-wellesley.html
“a portfolio manager from Wellesley…. a highly respected member of the community…. served two terms on the five-member elected School Committee…. and served… as an elected member of the Town Meeting”
Seems like a nice lady, right?
“troopers said they noticed a slight odor of alcohol on her breath and found a small glass in the vehicle containing an alcoholic beverage, they did not ask Greer to submit to a field sobriety test…. did not appear to be impaired”
WTF?!!!!!
As you read this account of elite excess and arrogance, ask yourself if you would receive the same treatment?
“Airport dust-up got nasty, trooper says; Motorist in SUV accused of assault” by Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | April 1, 2009Perhaps you’ve been there, idling in front of an airport terminal hoping your family member or long-lost college buddy appears before the approaching state trooper shoos you away. Margaret M. Greer was told to move along Sunday evening as she waited for her husband at Logan Airport, but police say she didn’t go quietly – and ended up in court because of it.
Greer, a portfolio manager from Wellesley, allegedly lowered the window of her Mercedes Benz ML320 SUV just an inch when the trooper, Sergeant Danial Wildgrube, approached and told her she would have to move because she was obstructing traffic in a bus lane. Greer merely pointed to a nearby vehicle and told him to take care of that motorist first, Wildgrube said in his report of the incident. He said he repeated the demand, but she shut her window and ignored him.
What ensued before shocked onlookers was a protracted confrontation in which, court papers allege, Greer nearly ran the trooper over as she repeatedly drove out of reach, only to be chased down by the trooper as he tried in vain to wrest Greer from her car.
“I’m not stopping the car! Get away from me,” Greer shouted repeatedly, according to one witness, George Kaniwec. Greer, 57, was charged yesterday in East Boston District Court with assault and battery on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, and failure to stop for a police officer. Her lawyer, Carol Starkey, entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf, and Greer is to return to court May 13 for a preliminary hearing.
“Mrs. Greer is a highly respected member of the community and has plead not guilty to all allegations,” Starkey said later. “There are two sides to every story, and we strongly contest the facts as presented by the Commonwealth and look forward to presenting our side of the story. It’s very upsetting and traumatizing to her. . . . Anyone who has picked up or dropped off anyone at the airport may understand there’s two sides to the story.”
Wellesley Town Clerk Kathleen Nagle said Greer served two terms on the five-member elected School Committee, from 1995 to 2000, and served from 1995 to 2003 as an elected member of Town Meeting. Greer did not return calls made yesterday to her home and to her employer, Citi Smith Barney. Greer’s driving record is mostly clean, with one “at fault” accident in 2004, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
On Sunday, Wildgrube’s report says, the trooper got out his ticket book after she refused to move her car and walked to the front of the vehicle to take down the license number. Then, he reported, Greer gunned her engine and sped off, clipping him with her side mirror and forcing him to leap out of the way.
Wildgrube said he yelled at Greer to stop, but she continued driving until she was stopped by traffic a short distance away. The trooper approached again, opened the driver’s-side door, and told her to get out because she was under arrest, but Greer refused and drove away again, he alleged.
Wildgrube said he caught up to her a third time as she sat in traffic in front of the terminal. He moved to the front of the vehicle and put his arms up. She allegedly hit the gas again, causing the trooper to place his hands on the hood. “She pushed me approximately 15 feet while I ran backwards fearing that I would fall under the car,” Wildgrube wrote. “All the while she was looking directly at me.”
Wildgrube said he was forced away from the car again, falling to the ground. He got up, opened the driver’s-side door, and attempted to undo her seatbelt, he alleges, but she started driving away, dragging him along. Wildgrube said he broke free and Greer drove away, but he radioed in her plate number.
Greer was stopped by other state troopers on the Massachusetts Turnpike, near the entrance to the Copley tunnel. Although troopers said they noticed a slight odor of alcohol on her breath and found a small glass in the vehicle containing an alcoholic beverage, they did not ask Greer to submit to a field sobriety test. David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety, said Greer did not appear to be impaired.
I think THREATENING to RUN OVER a COP is IMPAIRMENT, don’t you?
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said: “If a trooper asks you to move your car from a bus lane, you do it. . . . The trooper gave her every opportunity to do the right thing and she blew it. Now she’s looking at a felony charge.”
WHY no BOOZE CHARGE?
What, he forget!!!!?
WTF?
–more–”
Update: This lady must have been SOMEONE VERY, VERY IMPORTANT to have gotten THIS AMOUNT of PRINT in the Globe. Somebody down there know her or something?
Meg Greer
Second VP – Wealth Management, Financial Advisor
Portfolio Manager, Smith Barney Div., Citigroup Global Markets
Margaret (Meg) Greer is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and holds the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School. She joined Smith Barney as a Financial Consultant in 1997, and has thirty years of individual investing, corporate and small business experience. Meg is a frequent public speaker and has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “Good Day New York,” The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes Magazine and Money Magazine. In addition to her business success, Meg is committed to community service and education. She has served as Vice Chairman of the Wellesley MA School Committee and an elected member of the Wellesley MA Town Meeting. She has been a Board Member and Troop Leader for Patriots’ Trail Girl Scout Council, with whom she created the Smith Barney Financial Camp for Girls. Meg lives in Wellesley, with her husband, Gordon, has two grown children, and works in the Waltham, MA, Smith Barney office.”
And check out the SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHS!!
Globe:
Margaret M. Greer has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting a police officer. (WBZ-TV)
Other:
Photo of Margaret Greer, left, and her booking photo, right.
Also see: AmeriKa’s MSM: We Take Care of Our Own (Part II)
Let’s see if something (booze) is missing from the Globe report…
“After airport tiff, a plea for help on Craigslist; Witnesses sought to confrontation” by Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | April 2, 2009
The posting on Craigslist by a user named Matron appeared at 3:59 a.m. Monday, just hours after a high-powered Wellesley portfolio manager had been released from police custody following an explosive parking altercation with a state trooper at Logan International Airport.
Matron described herself as “a middle-aged lady driving a silver van” and said she had “an altercation with a Mass State Cop outside Terminal B around 8:15 p.m.
“I am seeking witnesses who were there and saw the State Trooper bang on my car and try to get through my door,” Matron wrote in a message deleted, along with a rambling missive, yesterday after Boston.com published a story about the postings. “Several State Police cruisers pursued me and arrested me on the Mass Pike. Please help me, if you saw this event.”
I ALWAYS LEAVE MY STUFF UP!!!!!
The description nearly matches the alleged confrontation Sunday night involving the portfolio manager, Margaret M. Greer, who is accused of sideswiping a trooper with her side-view mirror, driving at him so he had to run backward for 15 feet, and dragging him for a short distance as she drove away. The one difference: Instead of a silver van, Greer was driving a silver Mercedes Benz ML320 sport utility vehicle.
There is no definitive evidence that Greer used the alias Matron and trolled Craigslist for witnesses. Greer did not respond to a message yesterday seeking comment. Her lawyer, Carol Ann Starkey, declined to discuss “anything about any discussion that occurred on the Internet.”
“Mrs. Greer is taking these allegations very seriously,” said Starkey, adding that Greer “strongly refuted” the accusations and had her own side of the story for ready for a courtroom.
Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office, said: “Prosecutors are aware of the postings and are examining them for any potential connection to our Logan Airport case.”
If Greer did post the query on Craigslist, she apparently did not uncover any witnesses, or sympathy, in cyberspace. A poster named golf22 wrote: “I’m sure the District Attorney appreciates your help in rounding up witnesses to testify against you as to the several illegal actions you took.”
Mr_Twister added: “We’ll all be *VERY* happy when the judge throws the book at you.”
Greer, 57, pleaded not guilty Monday in East Boston District Court to charges that included assault and battery on a police officer. She is accused of closing her window and ignoring an order to move out of a bus lane from the trooper, Sergeant Danial Wildgrube.
What followed was described in court papers as a battle of wills between a trooper with a ticket book and an executive in a hulking SUV. Matron defended herself, saying she was “blocked in by a bus on one side, and cars parked in front of me, and behind.” The chase on the turnpike “was slow speed, and required five state cruisers,” Matron wrote, “I was freaked out and traveling at 50.”
When the posters turned nasty, Matron sharpened her rhetoric.
Hey, LYING ASSHOLES DESERVE IT!! They BRING IT ON THEMSELVES!!!!!!
“Wake up people, you are being controlled by a government who thinks they can do anything,” she wrote. “. . . When has it become a crime to pull up to the curb to pick up your husband at the airport?”
A rambling lecture followed.
“Why did the State Police come after me?” Matron wrote. “The same reason that the IRS audits every pizza parlor owner in town, but never audits Enron Corporation. The same reason the SEC audits all those you know who are a registered brokers, but never audited Bernie Madoff. . . . Because it’s easy for the cops to pick on these helpless people. . . .
“Please do not think you are holier than me, because you are not,” Matron continued in her posting. “When it happens to you, I hope I can be there to support you.”
Yeah, yeah, CRY ME a RIVER, lady — and THEN GO TAKE a DRINK (that was KINDLY OMITTED from the Globe’s follow-up report, imagine that).
–more–”
And the SYMPATHY does NOT STOP THERE, folks(?)!!!
The full-size pickup truck was there only seconds when the burly State Police trooper approached and blew a whistle that echoed throughout Terminal C at Logan Airport, urging the car to move.
But Paula Anderson just waited. “I was trying to get my son’s attention,” the Saugus woman said, as her son loaded his luggage into the truck yesterday. Then they were off.
Her timing was perfect. But for others, the system of picking up a relative or friend at an airport terminal can be confusing, frustrating, even intimidating.
With federal policies banning parking outside airport terminals, state troopers are quick to move cars picking up passengers who are not yet waiting by the curb with their luggage ready in carts that ironically read, “Go Ahead and Push Me.”
The question is where do you go? Drivers who do not correctly time their arrival, whether they are early or their passenger is still retrieving luggage, can expect to pay to park at a rate of $3 just to enter the lot, and $6 for those who are there for more than 30 minutes. Few know about a cellphone lot where drivers can wait at the other end of the airport.
Some choose to just drive in circles around the terminal until their passenger is curbside. Melissa McCagg of Malden circled the busy roadways three times to pick up a relative after a trooper shoed her away from Terminal C yesterday, after she was there for just seconds.
“They have been moving us constantly,” she said. “They should at least give us a minute.”
This is a “newspaper” I’m reading a reporting on?
Luis Falcon, 27, of Puerto Rico found a perfect spot away from troopers’ view in between two terminals, where parking is still prohibited but in an area that seems to get less scrutiny. Falcon, who had already been shoed away from Terminal C while waiting to pick up his aunt, was checking the rearview mirror for approaching troopers.
“They just told me I got to move,” but never said anything about that spot, he said.
David Procopio, a State Police spokesman, said the federal Transportation Security Administration prohibits curbside parking at terminals as a safety and security policy. He said troopers do have discretion in letting drivers park momentarily, letting them wait if they can see their passenger nearby or if the passenger is just grabbing luggage. Many times the decision depends on the traffic, he said.
But in today’s post-9/11 world, troopers remain vigilant, he said, pointing out cases in which people have parked their car, got out, and entered the terminal, leaving the car alone.
Did she OPINE about THAT WHOPPER of a LIE, Globe?
See why you need to FACE UP to 9/11 TRUTH, readers?
“In this day and age, that’s a red flag and something we can’t allow,” he said. “We have a job to do; one is to keep the traffic moving and, two, to keep the safety and security of the airport.” For some, the system can be intimidating, as state troopers in uniform whistle and holler at cars to move. Some see it as confusing and many as frustrating.
I’m tired of the Globe playing good cop, bad cop.
This guy was a BAD COP in the Globe’s eyes and WE KNOW WHY!!!!
State Police allege a Wellesley woman refused to move her sport utility vehicle Sunday, then drove at a trooper who tried to record her license plate number. The woman, Margaret M. Greer, 57, a former Wellesley School Committee member, faces several charges, including assault and battery on a police officer. Through a lawyer, she has disputed the police version of events and has pleaded not guilty.
Nothing about the BOOZE in the CAR, ‘eh?
Bob Cummins of Holliston has perfected the system after 13 years driving limousines. He has been frustrated by some troopers who seem a little overzealous, he said, and confused by the system of roads at the airport.
Unless, of course, they are ending the life of young Mr. Woodman.
But Cummins, who was picking up a relative yesterday, has learned to use what is somewhat of an unknown at the airport: the cellphone lot. The lot seems far from the central part of the airport and difficult to find by following signs. But it allows drivers to wait and contact their passenger for a perfect arrival.
Cummins waited with a coffee and a newspaper, then wasted no time picking up a relative who called to say she was ready. “It took me less than two minutes to get here,” he said. “When you follow the rules, it runs perfectly, it really does.”
