A collision with Boston City Hall over Wu’s car accident
In what appeared to be an example of the classic practice of dumping unfavorable news during holidays, when the public is clearly distracted, the Boston Police Department last week released an internal investigation related to a June car crash in Roslindale between two cars, one of them carrying a very important passenger: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
The unfavorable revelation in the middle of Thanksgiving week is that the Boston police officer who was driving Wu, Keyanna Smith, did contribute to the crash “by driving her vehicle contrary to the traffic signal,” according to the documents, which were originally obtained via a public records request by Boston 25 News. The Globe’s Danny McDonald verified the station’s report on Friday.
What’s particularly interesting is that the newly released finding contradicts an initial police investigation that concluded that Smith’s actions did not contribute to the crash. You may be even more surprised to learn, as I was, that all of the above was fresh news to Yosmery Peña, the woman who was driving the vehicle Smith crashed into at the intersection of Blakemore Street and Hyde Park Avenue on June 6. Peña told me in an interview on Sunday that she had not heard about the new police investigation.
That may have been because Peña retained a lawyer in June. Ricardo Patrón, Wu’s press secretary, confirmed that Peña filed a legal claim related to the accident against the city and that the city’s legal department is working to resolve it with Peña’s attorney.
Peña said that from the beginning she felt the police and the city “wanted to blame” her for the crash. “There was a lot of speculation, people saying I was at fault,” she said. Peña insists that the siren in Smith’s car was not activated, contrary to what the police report from the crash indicates. “She just suddenly appeared in a way that I couldn’t brake,” she said. “How was I supposed to see her car if the siren was not on?” And if they were on, they were not loud enough because she did not hear anything, Peña told me for a previous column. At the time of the crash, Wu was heading to a full Cabinet meeting at the Copley Library — hardly a city emergency.
The new findings about the crash are detailed in a memo dated July 20 and written by Captain Leighton Facey of the Boston police chief ’s office. Facey wrote that he did not agree fully with the findings of the initial police investigation into the crash but he recommended “no actions be taken against the officer in this matter,” citing that Smith “was exercising her discretion with care and due regard, following standing operational practices of the Dignitary Protection Unit and the Boston Police Department as a whole and in other such escort circumstances and that this is the first Department Motor Vehicle accident in which the officer’s actions resulted or contributed to the incident.”
Peña said her 1-year-old, who was in the car during the crash, is doing great. However, Peña said she was left with severe pain in her left shoulder. “I pulled a muscle because of the pressure from the seat belt,” she said. In the immediate aftermath of the crash, someone from City Hall was in communication with her, Peña said. “It’s as if they wanted me to drop the issue and leave it behind,” she said. She believes that the mayor should have immediately offered help with the expenses that she incurred from the crash. Peña said she was afraid her insurance would charge her for the full amount it cost to repair her car — more than $8,000; it’s why she contacted a lawyer. “Everything is now in my lawyer’s hands,” she said.
Boston 25 News, which also broke the news of Wu’s crash in June, noted it fought for months for the release to the public of the crash investigation, even taking the fight to the secretary of state’s office, which ruled that the Boston police should respond to the station’s request.
“Boston Police released the records to 25 Investigates around 5 p.m. on Wednesday,” or Thanksgiving eve, wrote Boston 25 News’ Marina Villeneuve and Drew Karedes. It’s certainly a win for transparency, but should it really take nearly six months for the public to learn the truth, however inconvenient?
There is something unsavory about releasing negative news in a manner that minimizes the chances of the public learning about … well, public information from government officials. Call me cynical but I know the practice is unlikely to change. Here’s what I want to know: Why did Peña have to hire a lawyer to get fair treatment from City Hall about her involvement in a collision that could well have been prevented?