(no subject)
Marblehead address can't prevent arrest Attitude strikes a nerve with the judge
By Julie Manganis
Staff Writer
SALEM - When police found 22-year-old Taylor Jackson hiding near the scene of her wrecked car early yesterday morning, they say Jackson made one thing clear:
"I'm not going to get arrested from a (expletive) Salem cop," Jackson allegedly told officers. "I'm from Marblehead."
Police arrested her anyway, and Jackson was in Salem District Court yesterday to face charges of drunken driving and leaving the scene of a property damage accident. She also got a lecture from the judge.
"If you were my daughter, I'd leave you in jail for the weekend," Judge Richard Mori told Jackson, whose attitude didn't appear to have changed since her arrest.
After Mori asked why Jackson has a New York license if she is from Marblehead, Jackson responded, "I'm currently living at my summer house in Marblehead."
"Oh," said Mori, who then questioned whether he should increase her bail from the $250 that prosecutors were seeking.
Turns out Jackson, who is actually from Delmar, N.Y., near Albany, is staying with her father in Marblehead while she completes one final course at Salem State College for her bachelor's degree.
Police were sent to the intersection of Lafayette Street and Loring Avenue shortly before 1 a.m. after a nearby resident heard tires screeching and saw smoke coming from a car.
Passenger Sara Greenfield, 22, of Slingerlands, N.Y., told police that Jackson had struck a tree on Margin Street, causing Greenfield's head to hit the windshield.
Jackson decided to drive away in the heavily damaged car, which leaked fluids for more than a mile before screeching to a stop near the Salem State College campus.
Patrolmen Brian St. Pierre and Rafael Gonzalez spotted the young women hiding in some bushes nearby.
The officers asked if the two needed an ambulance. Jackson immediately responded, "I wasn't driving," Salem police Lt. Conrad Prosniewski read from the officers' report.
The officers asked what happened to the car. "I don't know, I wasn't driving," Jackson allegedly told officers.
That's when she mentioned that she's from Marblehead.
Jackson continued to complain, admitting that she was "wasted" after drinking at O'Neill's, a downtown bar but denying that she was driving, according to the report.
Around that point, Jackson's father showed up and asked what had happened.
"Shut up, Dad, don't tell them anything. I wasn't driving," Jackson allegedly said.
During field sobriety tests, Jackson allegedly told Patrolman Michael Dunn, "I feel bad for you that you only make $20,000. My maid makes more than that."
When asked to recite the alphabet, Jackson repeatedly asked the officer, "Are you kidding me?" and called him "pathetic," police said.
When she nearly fell over backward while tilting her head back to touch her nose, the officers told her she was under arrest.
"Why, for being drunk in public?" she allegedly replied. "OK, my lawyer will get me out of this."
Mori, who called Jackson's treatment of the officers "highly offensive," released her on $250 bail but only on the condition that she surrender her New York driver's license to the probation department while the case is pending. (Police are not allowed to seize an out-of-state license during a drunken-driving arrest.)
"How did someone 22 years old, studying political science, become so arrogant?" Mori mused.
Jackson is due back in court Jan. 6.