On Monday, March 4, a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted a former Boston, Mass. bus driver of lying to police about an armed robbery that allegedly transpired during her shift over five years ago.
Nancy L. Parker, 54, told Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) police that a gun-toting assailant boarded her inbound Route 111 bus in Chelsea on the afternoon of Oct. 2, 2007. Parker relayed quite an ordeal, saying the passenger shot at her multiple times, demanded money, and pushed her to the ground before eventually fleeing the bus.
During last week's trial, conflicting evidence about the incident were brought to light, leading a jury to believe Parker may have deliberately misled authorities. Assistant District Attorney David McGowan introduced evidence and testimony related to Parker's account of a man pulling a gun, which he then fired at her a total of four times (once while she was seated, and then three times when she tried to rush past him). The stranger then supposedly pushed Parker to the ground, where he grabbed her wallet and fled.
Parker showed investigators her uniform jacket, which had three holes in it. Though she described them as "bullet holes," Parker miraculously suffered no injuries from the shooting. She did, however, leave work and promptly file a workers' compensation claim. The claim itself amounted to $7,750.87, in an addition to $2,063.07 in payments to medical providers.
Authorities first charged Parker in Chelsea District Court on April 30, 2009. A district court judge dismissed the case over prosecutors' objections in 2010, only for the Suffolk County Grand Jury to return indictments charging Parker with misleading an investigator, workers' compensation fraud, and filing a false police report. Althought jurors acquitted her of the latter two indictments, they did convict Parker of deliberately misleading an investigator, which is a felony under the state's witness intimidation statute.
The maximum penalty that can be imposed for her crime is 10 years behind bars. Parker's sentencing is scheduled for today at 2:00 pm, so stay tuned for further updates.
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