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Parking Rage: Jury Disbelieves Racist Senior Citizen

THE FACTS

While trying to find parking near the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, our client (a respectable, professional man of foreign descent) encounters a 65 year-old caucasian woman standing in the middle of a parking space.

Go back to where you came from!

He starts to pull into the parking space but notices that the woman does not intend to move.  He rolls his window down to ask her to move, and in response, the woman tells him to “go back where you came from!”  After the woman sees her friend find a different parking spot, she walks away from our client’s car, but not before striking it with her walker.  Our client parks his car, and as he approaches the woman to ask her why she hit his car, the woman swings her walker at our client’s head.  He blocks the blow, and ends the confrontation.

Upon returning to his vehicle he is confronted by Boston police officers and questioned about the incident.  At this point, our client learns that the woman has accused him of hitting her with his car while she was trying to save a parking spot for her friend.  After hearing his side of the story, officers arrest our client and charge him with Assault & Battery with a Dangerous Weapon, and  Assault & Battery on a Person 60 Years of Age or Older, both of which are a felony punishable by 2 1/2 years in the house of correction.

THE TRIAL

During the trial the woman admitted to the racist comment, but maintained that our client had driven his car towards her until it came into contact with her knee.  The woman initially denied ever hitting our client’s car with her walker, but after diligent questioning, Attorney Pidani got her to admit that her walker might have “accidentally” came into contact with our client’s car as she was walking around it.  Other inconsistencies and half-truths eroded the woman’s credibility even further.

THE VERDICT

After deliberating for less than ten minutes, our client was found not guilty of Assault & Battery with a Dangerous Weapon, and not guilty of Assault & Battery on a Person 60 Years of Age or Older.