A Cadillac-driving OUI (common acronym for drunk driving) suspect — charged with running a Boston Globe delivery truck off Interstate 93 and onto the Leverett Connector — was carrying three EBT cards, mocked a cop “for paying for food when she gets it for free” and threatened to put a voodoo curse on him, according to a police report. [Recipients with food stamp benefits can use their EBT Card for eligible food purchases at most grocery stores and some other retailers for free]
“I questioned her as to why she had other peoples (sic) EBT cards and she
began screaming that I was a ‘dumb (expletive)’ for paying for food when she gets it for free,” trooper William Kokocinski wrote of Vivencia
Bellegarde, 25, of Everett, noting she had her own electronic benefits transfer card and also the cards of two other people.
“She repeatedly called me a racist and told me she was from Haiti and she was gonna ‘put voodoo on my white (expletive),’” Kokocinski wrote. “(She) told me to Google her name and find out who I was ‘(expletive) with’. She further explained that her name translated means ‘give life take life’ and she emphasized ‘TAKE LIFE’. She then shouted that she was ‘coming for all you white (expletives).’”
A spokesman for the state Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers welfare, said in a statement the agency has been notified of Bellegarde’s EBT cards “and will take appropriate action.”
“DTA investigates every
tip that it receives from members of the public or law enforcement, and refers cases to the auditor’s Bureau of Special Investigations for further action, which has the power to investigate potential criminal matters,” the statement said.
Bellegarde, who is listed as unemployed in court
papers, is being held on $10,000 bail on charges of drunken driving causing serious injury. Surveillance video of the 3:13 a.m. Monday crash shows a car slamming into the Globe truck, forcing it off the roadway and into a frightening 40-foot free fall. The truck came apart on impact with the Leverett Connector
on-ramp below.
The truck driver, Paul Healy Jr., 35, of Brockton, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was in fair condition yesterday. He declined to comment yesterday through a family member.
Bellegarde told cops she’d left a party prior to the crash, and “didn’t care about the guy she hit because he isn’t dead and that all she cares about is smoking a cigarette,” the report says. Her mood fluctuated greatly during booking, the report says, and at one point she began crying about her 5-year-old child.
Bellegarde at first denied driving the heavily damaged 2006 Cadillac DTS sedan, which Kokocinski spotted while on his way to the Globe truck crash, police said. Bellegarde’s attorney, Hassan Willians, said his client “has no comment. She’s looking forward to her day in court.”
Bellegarde’s driving record
includes 10 suspensions, many for failing to pay citations. Last year, her license was suspended for 30 days in connection with a first-offense drunken-driving charge in Lincoln from September 2011. Her license will be suspended for three years because she refused a Breathalyzer test in Monday’s crash, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
The Lincoln arrest report says Bellegarde reeked of booze and had front-end damage on her car when she called cops to ask them for help with her tires on a 5 a.m. trek home from a Boston club. She failed sobriety tests but was “polite and
cooperative,” the reporting officer wrote. – Boston Herald
Mpumalanga’s head of community safety appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of drunk driving and impersonating a police officer, Gauteng police said.
