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.

(Steve Haines/Globe Staff)

Lots of car companies claim to build dream cars. Nearly every luxury and exotic car manufacturer has a department for special orders, and there’s no shortage of tuners that turn these cars inside-out, but aside from Louis Vuitton seats and stainless steel hoods, there’s not much original thought involved. Chinese brand BYD has the lofty phrase “Build Your Dreams” in its name, but its creations are nightmares. Even Tesla Motors can’t climb its way out of a Lotus Elise.

Local Motors of Wareham, Mass., is building bespoke automobiles the old-fashioned way: take a sketch, bring the buyer into the shop at every step, and churn out a car that resembles no other set of wheels on earth. The company’s website even invites designers to compete and submit drawings for potential production.

Globe reporter Emily Sweeney and photographer Steve Haines got a tour of the factory and its handsome Rally Fighter, above, which is an upscale Baja buggy that will cost $50,000 when it enters production this spring. Local Motors also has selected a wild design for a three-passenger electric vehicle, dubbed the “Boston Bullet”.

It’s certainly courageous of CEO John B. Rogers, Jr. – a retired Marine and Harvard Business School grad – to gather millions of dollars and pay 10 employees in these times. Give this man a nice federal loan – he’d deserve it.

• Read the full story here
• See more photos of LM’s shop in the full entry

All photos by Steve Haines/Globe Staff

A sketch of the final version of the Rally Fighter, center, is surrounded by previous mock-ups.

John Rogers, Jr., CEO of Local Motors Inc, sits in a mock-up of the Rally Fighter on the floor of his garage.

John Rogers, Jr. in the midst of the ribs of the Rally Fighter mock-up.

Colby Whipple uses a hand held 3D scanner to scan a Ford axle that they will use in the Rally Fighter. Once scanned, it will be used in the computer so they can test various performance capabilities.

By IAN HURLEY

Hannah Jumper knew how to work a crowd.

On the morning of July 8, 1856, she rallied 200 wives and mothers and convinced them to follow her on a town-wide raid of all the rum in Rockport.

Legend has it that the women met in Dock Square with little hatchets hidden in their lace shawls. After a short speech from Jumper, a 31-year-old redheaded seamstress with some Oprah-style star power, the crowd began patrolling the streets smashing every cask and jug they could find. Five hours later, after every drop of known liquor had been spilled, the women went home to cook dinner.

Jumpergate is interesting for a couple of reasons. The Rockport rum dealers took the women to court but a judge ruled the crowd had a right to take action against a public nuisance. Who knows what effect that legal decision had on families with barking dogs, loud kids and over-the-top lawn ornaments.

But it’s also kind of interesting to imagine what Jumper would do today if she happened to wander over to Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Park, where the first licensed microdistillery in eastern Massachusetts is cooking up its first batch of premium vodka. Bob Ryan and his nephew, Dave Wood, are tending a big-bellied copper still imported from Germany that looks like something right out of Wonka’s chocolate factory. Even Hannah might be impressed.

Ryan and Wood are blazing the way with the latest trend aimed at satisfying our love for gourmet and our reverence for all things local and, of course, our fondness for top-shelf liquor. There are about 100 microdistilleries now up and running across the country. A lot of them have sprung up in the Midwest, where farmers with long family histories of moonshining have plenty of grains and fruits to spare.

But there’s also a good number of guys like Ryan and Wood who have set up small designer distilleries as a second career because it’s interesting, profitable and, probably most important of all, because it’s fun.

“We’ve run through the microbrewing trend, and this is kind of a natural progression of that,” says Wood, a lawyer by day and a state-of–the-art moonshiner by night. “People want a locally produced artisan product made with local ingredients and with attention to quality.”

Ryan figures the market for locally produced sprits is an extension of the Martha Stewart phenomena that has triggered a popular appreciation of quality and attention to detail in all things culinary and domestic.

“And, this is a little bit of ego, but we think Gloucester deserves us,” says Ryan with a smile.

Beauport Vodka, the first batch of spirits created by Ryan and Wood Distilleries, is ready to go. All they are waiting on now is the bottles, which will be hand-filled and corked — probably by someone in Ryan’s enormous extended family.

Beauport Vodka should hit store shelves in January. Next up will be Folly Cove Rum, which Ryan and Wood hope to begin selling sometime next summer. But that’s just the beginning. There are all sorts of ingredients to tinker with, endless combinations of flavors to try. And all sorts of niche markets to tap.

Ryan and Wood are riding the edge of a potentially big shift in the liquor industry, and the edge is often an excellent place to be. Not only could they end up changing what people drink on the North Shore, they may end up changing some of our perceptions about spirits and how we drink them. And that could be some good news for all of us — even Hannah Jumper.

Starting up

Owning and operating a mircodistillery isn’t for everyone. You’ve got to have a lot of time and patience. Having some community good will and a small pile of startup cash also doesn’t hurt.

Ryan has all of that. A lot of people in Gloucester know him from his years on Gloucester’s waterfront running Atlantic Seafood, before declining fish stocks and government regulation forced the fleet and the shore-side fish dealers to do some dramatic downsizing. Other people know him for the role he played in launching Gloucester Bank and Trust. Between Gloucester and his adopted hometown of Manchester, there probably isn’t a volunteer board or commission he hasn’t served on.

After Ryan left the waterfront, he spent some time taking care of his aging parents and helping with community projects, but it wasn’t quite enough.

“I felt maybe I was getting a little too old too quickly,” he says. That changed when Wood happened to mention a story he read about a microdistillery in Vermont. They talked it over and decided, why not us?

They traveled up to Freeport to visit an operation called Maine Distilleries that’s bottling Cold Water Vodka. Sure, there was a side trip to the LL Bean outlet, where Ryan’s wife Kathy picked up lots of new sweaters and fleece, but they liked what they saw at Maine Distilleries and decided to learn more.

They flew out to Flagstaff, Ariz. for a workshop where they learned the ins and out of the microdistillery business — the history of spirits, the secrets of fermentation and the art of distilling.

“I don’t think we knew what we were getting into,” says Kathy Ryan, referring to the equipment, workspace and the long and grueling licensing process. “But after the workshop I was glad Bob found something he was excited about.”

It took about 18 months to get through the paperwork for a state and federal license. There was even a lengthy approval process for the label — it has to include the surgeon general’s warning and you can’t use the American flag or make any claims about health benefits.

But the legwork is done and now, on the ground floor of the meticulous Ryan and Wood Distilleries plant, the enormous shiny copper-pot still is churning and slowly drawing every last drop of alcohol out of carefully fermented batches of mash.

Ryan says people usually have the same reaction when they see the still. It’s an oohh and ahh chorus, a lot like you hear at Fourth of July fireworks. “It’s a piece of old-world style technology right here in Gloucester,” he says.

Wood likes to do the tours. He’ll take you around to several stainless steel vats and explain the chemical process taking place inside each container. He’ll tell you about yeast and enzymes and show all the gauges and tubes and a four-spout hand-operated bottling machine.

There are big sacks of grain in one corner of the plant and in the other corner large wooden barrels, some of which were picked up from the Jack Daniels Distillery, where they were used to store bourbon. Wood says recycling those barrels gives fresh batches of spirits a slightly different taste.

Ryan jumps in with details about the still and all the help the business has gotten along the way from organizations like the American Distillers, local microbrewers and people who stopped by to wish them well. And both guys will talk history and the role liquor plays in American culture.

“This is the second oldest profession,” says Ryan, who adds that throughout history brewers and distillers have all met the need of a particular time and place. “Every farmer and every pioneer had a still,” he says.

And a lot of working families who grew up in cities and towns also tried their hand at distilling. Ryan and Wood say the most common thing they hear from visitors is that their parents or grandparents made small jugs of homemade hooch.

Still, they know there have been plenty of Hannah Jumpers who have long been blaming the product instead of the consumer for a list of troubles that fit under the heading of alcohol abuse.

“People are just getting out of the interruption of Prohibition,” says Ryan. “We’re going to try to fight that and the stigma of spirits.”

A new still in town

While Ryan and Wood hope to be distributing their products throughout eastern Massachusetts, they want to do more than fill and ship orders. They would like to make the distillery a tourist spot where visitors can come in and see the whole process — grains to spirits.

One possibility Ryan has been chewing over is the idea of linking up with Gloucester’s new cruise ship port that will bring thousands of overseas visitors to Gloucester and the North Shore. If those tourists stop by the distillery for a tour and they happen to pick up a bottle of locally distilled spirits as a souvenir, everyone’s happy.

Ryan and Wood have also reached out in other directions. They recently hosted a distilling workshop run by Bavarian Brewers and Distillers, the company that sold them their still. More than 30 people signed up to learn the craft and possibly follow in Ryan and Wood’s footsteps. And that’s fine with them. Camaraderie seems to be big among small brewers and distillers.

In addition to that, Ryan’s soon to be son-in-law Mark Mancini, a Bentley College student who is finishing up a degree in economics and finance, arranged for the start-up distillery to be a student project. Ryan and Wood opened the plant up to 160 students who got lessons in distilling and then came up with business plans on how to put Beauport Vodka on the map.

“We got a huge benefit from that,” says Ryan. The students did focus groups, devised marketing strategies and critiqued how the distillery was running so far. And they apparently all had a good time doing it.

And that was particularly satisfying to Ryan and Wood, who genuinely enjoy sharing everything they’ve learned. They want everyone to get in on the fun — tourists, the business community, but most of all friends and family.

Ryan’s son, Doug, is graduating this spring from Fordham University in New York and is considering applying to law school somewhere in Boston. The thinking is maybe he can work in the distillery while he earns his law degree.

Ryan likes that idea and he especially likes what his new business has done for his image with his kids.

“My son moved out of the house four years ago to go to college and all of sudden he’s back saying, ‘Hey, my dad’s cool,’” he says with a laugh.

Bottom line

As romantic as it may be to run a funky German-made still in a small plant in a corner of Gloucester, the big question ahead for Ryan and Wood is, will their products sell? Will there be a big enough demand for handcrafted spirits to keep the distillery going?

Ryan and Wood are both pretty confident sales will be good, and they’re not the only ones who are predicting success. Lenny Linquata also thinks Ryan and Wood are on to something, and Linquata should know — he owns two of Gloucester’s largest liquor stores, Sea Breeze Liquors in East Gloucester and Rail Road Ave. Liquors downtown.

“Fishermen’s Brew has done quite well,” says Linquata, referring to Gloucester’s hometown lager, which is made by the Cape Ann Brewing Company.

Linquata says spirits might take a little longer to catch on, but they will. The one question he has is price. And one would think that a handcrafted bottle of vodka is going to be considerably more expensive than even the high-end stuff massed produced in large distilling plants. But Ryan and Wood say that’s not the case.

“We’ll be competitively priced,” says Woods. “We can compete because we don’t have the high-paid directors and staff and all the overhead.”

Linquata does have one suggestion for the new business: If you want to sell something from Gloucester, your surest bet is to make it look like Gloucester. And in this case one of the best ways to do that might be to use an image of the city’s famous Fishermen’s Memorial.

“With the Man at the Wheel on the label, you can’t go wrong,” he says. Ryan and Wood already have a label for Beauport Vodka, one they describe as “pretty vanilla,” but who knows where they’ll go with Folly Cove Rum and the rest of their line as it develops.

Linquata figures they’ll go pretty far, and Gloucester and the rest of Cape Ann will be eager to check out the new hometown drink.

“I can see it in ever bar in the city,” he says.

E-mail Barbara Taormina at btaormina@cnc.com.

Lisa Poole/AP Photo

A Hummer is on display at the Herb Chambers GM dealership in Danvers, Mass. Chinese automakers are interested in buying up iconic brands such as Hummer in order to gain technological expertise in the automotive market.

America’s auto titans are dismantling their global empires. But across the Pacific, it’s as if the global economic forces that have pummeled Detroit never struck. Chinese auto sales are up, and this year China is projected to displace Japan as the world’s largest car producer.

Now, the auto world is buzzing that China’s auto industry may try to pick up the pieces of Detroit — at a bargain.

Chinese companies have tried to dampen speculation, issuing regulatory filings that deny bids to buy Ford’s Volvo or General Motor’s Saab. But there’s little doubt among analysts that Chinese automakers are interested in the United States and that Detroit’s automakers are interested in them.

Chinese Beat Chevy to Electric Car Market with the BYD - E6

Buying up iconic brands such as Hummer or Saturn could supply Chinese automakers with the technological expertise to help them leapfrog past long-established competitors, said Kelly Sims Gallagher, a lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, who wrote a book on Chinese automakers.

“That’s where Chinese firms are weakest,” she said. “They have world-class business and manufacturing capabilities now. What they still lack is technological know-how, systems integration, being able to design new vehicles from scratch and get them to a manufacturing line.”

China still suffers from its reputation of being a copycat manufacturer. An acquisition could lend clout to some of the nation’s 100 car companies that are largely unknown outside their home country.

Such a deal would be “off-the-shelf legitimacy that you can purchase,” said Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight.

The global auto industry is restructuring. Italy’s Fiat is on the verge of taking control of Chrysler. Last year India’s Tata Motors, already famous for its $2,000 Nano, acquired Jaguar and Land Rover.

And China’s auto sector has emerged as a threat to the long-standing pecking order. This year, Geely Automobile, one of China’s largest private carmakers, purchased an Australian drivetrain transmission supplier, a leading gearbox manufacturer. Another Chinese company, BYD, which counts Warren Buffett as an investor, launched a mass-market plug-in electric car, ahead of GM’s anticipated Chevrolet Volt.

“When we look back 20 years from now, the year 2009 is likely to be viewed as the year in which the baton of leadership in the global auto industry passed from the United States to China,” Jack Perkowski, a Western transplant and former chairman of a Beijing auto parts company, wrote in his blog “Managing the Dragon.”

Margaret M. Greer, Smith Barney Financial Advisor, Waltham, MA, Arrested

After airport arrest, driver apparently trolled Craigslist for witnesses

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

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff  |  April 1, 2009

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:

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(?)!!!

“At Logan, picking up is an art form; Timing is crucial at busy terminal” by Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff | April 2, 2009

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.

See: Don’t Park at MassPort

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.”