Police: T driver attacked after rebuking woman changing clothes

Police: T driver attacked after rebuking woman changing clothes
By Richard Weir  |   Tuesday, November 30, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

Natacha Andre.
Photo by Herald file

A 36-year-old homeless woman was ordered held on $5,000 bail yesterday after police said she attacked an MBTA bus driver in Mattapan, spitting in her face and smacking her with a metal pipe after the operator told her she couldn’t change her clothes on the bus.

Natacha Andre, 36, is charged with assault and battery and wrongful interference with the operation of an MBTA vehicle following Sunday’s 12:30 p.m. tirade that sent the driver to a hospital to be treated for bruises and a sprained left arm, according to a police report.

It is the second time in as many weeks that violence erupting on the T has led to arrests and injuries. On Nov. 19, Carlos Espinoza, 28, of Brighton was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon — a 1.7 liter tequila bottle — following a fight on a Green Line trolley on Commonwealth Avenue.

Police said after assaulting and threatening two men and a woman, all from Waltham, Espinoza then smashed the bottle over one of the men’s faces, slicing his lip.

Sunday’s mayhem broke out when Andre boarded the Route 31 bus without paying and, after being ordered by the driver to come up front and fork over her fare, returned to the back of the bus and repeatedly rang the bell, police said.

The driver then noticed Andre removing her clothes and “told her that she could not change her clothes on the bus,” the report said.

Once off the bus, Andre allegedly brandished a “long metal pipe” and struck the side of the bus before smacking the driver through an open window, hitting her left arm, the report said.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1299740