Past haunts alleged drug-dealing driver Records reveal run-in with law

Past haunts alleged drug-dealing driver
Records reveal run-in with law

By Richard Weir  |   Saturday, April 9, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

The head of the MBTA is launching a “full investigation” into the background of an accused drug-dealing bus driver after court records revealed she was charged several years ago with impersonating a police officer, negligent driving and refusing to produce her license — all while she was employed by the T.

Cynthia D. King, 46, of Brockton was released on $1,000 bail yesterday after being arraigned on charges of possessing crack cocaine and heroin with intent to distribute after her arrest Thursday by Boston police. According to prosecutors, police launched their investigation after an informant tipped them off that she was “selling crack cocaine from an MBTA bus.”

“The general manager wants answers from any and all T departments that were involved,” said MBTA boss Richard Davey’s spokesman Joe Pesaturo. “He has directed the Human Resources Department to conduct a full investigation into the suspended employee’s record and work history.”

King’s prior legal woes began in 2007, when an off-duty Brockton cop repeatedly asked her to move her car after she parked it in a crosswalk near a detail, a police report states.

“She then told me she was a police officer in Boston and that I should know how to act in a uniform,” wrote Detective Michael Damiano, noting King refused to show her license or badge and “snickered” at him.

“It was a misunderstanding,” her lawyer, Michael Doolin, said yesterday of the case. She was acquitted in November 2008.

“The MBTA was not made aware of the 2007 allegations,” T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.

But after learning from the Herald that Damiano had contacted MBTA police in 2007 to see if King was a cop with them, and even forwarded his report to sergeant in charge of internal employee security for the T, Pesaturo said Davey was launching a probe into King’s past.

Cops arrested King as she arrived for work Thursday and found a plastic bag full of cocaine and three others with crack cocaine, along with $2,636 cash, in her pants pockets, according to a police report.

“I needed the extra money,” she allegedly told the cops who arrested her. “I don’t make enough money.” King’s salary is $62,774.

The officers, the report said, also found in her 2001 Lexus two scales, a tinfoil packet with apparent heroin and a “special” Boston police badge, apparently from when she was a security guard 12 years ago.

Doolin said his client maintains her innocence. “Cynthia King is a real good member of the community,” he said. “She has a wonderful family that supports her very much and she has been a good employee of the T. She looks forward to defending herself in court.”

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