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A steaming-mad Rhode Island woman reacted to a $25 parking ticket by hurling hot coffee at a 64-year-old meter maid in Brookline Village yesterday, police said.
Krystle Charley, 23, of North Smithfield, R.I., will be arraigned today in Brookline District Court for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon: a $1.85 cup of joe from Cutty’s coffee shop.
“There’s no need to throw coffee on someone who’s doing their job,” said traffic supervisor Sgt. Paul Kelliher.
The anything-but-regulah incident unfolded shortly after 12:30 p.m. yesterday, when veteran Brookline Police Department parking enforcement officer Claire MacPherson was filling out a ticket for Charley’s 1995 Jeep for occupying an expired meter at Washington and Harvard streets.
Charley approached MacPherson and demanded to know what she was doing, Kelliher told the Herald.
When MacPherson explained the car was being ticketed, Charley hurled the contents of a large hot coffee at the meter maid’s waist, Kelliher said.
Kelliher said Charley then warned MacPherson, “Get out of my way,” climbed into her vehicle with the coffee cup and took off. A bulletin was broadcast for the Jeep, which Capt. Thomas Keaveney located near Emerson Park. By then, cops said, Charley had met up with a friend and was sitting on a park bench.
“Like nothing happened,” Sgt. Robert Disario said, incredulous. (Meter maids’) job is very, very difficult. That’s what they do for eight hours: take abuse.”
The dousing didn’t stop MacPherson, who finished her shift with pants sopping wet and reeking of java.
“She’s a trouper,” Disario said of MacPherson. “She was given the option of calling it a day, and she said, ‘No, I’ve got a job to do.’ ”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from Claire,” Chief Daniel O’Leary said.
Charley – described by a pal as a marketing major who works with bipolar adults in Watertown – was released last night on $40 cash bail. She wrapped a sheer green scarf around her head and pushed past waiting reporters.
“She’s a nice girl,” said Vicky Curry, 23, of Brookline, the friend who met up with Charley after the incident. Curry claimed that according to Charley, the meter maid was verbally abusive.
MacPherson’s family said last night she was out with friends, trying to unwind after her tough day at work.
“She’s a little shaken up,” MacPherson’s sister said. “She was wearing a lot of layers, thank God, so it didn’t scald her.”
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