"Trooper barred from airport duty; Orders abruptly changed for officer disciplined for improper conduct" by Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | July 15, 2010
Massachusetts State Trooper James Michael Vines was on patrol when he parked his cruiser on Boston’s Tobin Bridge, stepped inside a cramped tollbooth, and asked the startled toll collector for a kiss.
“I was literally in shock,’’ said the toll collector, adding that she felt trapped as the armed, uniformed officer hovered over her in November 2005 as traffic streamed by. “I said, ‘I really think you should leave.’ ’’
She is one of three women who filed complaints with the State Police in the past decade accusing Vines of sexually inappropriate behavior.
In one case, he was cleared. In the two other instances, including the one in the tollbooth, he admitted to acting improperly and was punished.
Yesterday afternoon, after a 30-day suspension for conduct unbecoming an officer, State Police told the 47-year-old Vines he could return to work today at Logan International Airport, where one of the incidents occurred and where two of his victims work.
Then, in an abrupt reversal after inquiries from the Globe, the State Police announced late yesterday that the decision to return Vines to the airport had been rescinded and he would be transferred, effective today, to Troop H in South Boston....
I'm sure that makes the women of South Boston feel a lot safer.
Vines was suspended last month after a 58-year-old restaurant manager at Logan airport complained that he made lewd remarks to her in December, then sat in the food court for hours staring at her after she rebuffed his advances....
The restaurant manager and the former toll collector told the Globe that State Police internal affairs investigators reinterviewed them yesterday about their accusations against Vines and their fears about encountering him if he returned to the airport.
For once the Globe appropriately uses the word.
After those interviews, Colonel Marian J. McGovern, who heads the State Police, and her command staff, decided to transfer Vines, said David Procopio, a spokesman for the State Police....
Vines, a married father of two, joined the Metropolitan District Commission police in 1983 and became a trooper when that agency merged with the State Police nine years later.
Looks like someone will not be giving him a kiss tonight, readers.
He has been assigned to Logan Airport since 2005 and earned more than $129,500 last year....
Was it good for you, too, taxpayers?
And XOXO to you, dear readers.
I say that in all sincerity because I do indeed love you.
Why do you think I am here day after day?
