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Citizens for Limited Taxation

Officer Narrative: Reardon, Gregory
On 06/15/07 at approximately 0345 hrs, I was travelling north bound on Speen St. from Cochituate Rd.  As I was approaching the TJX Corporation I noticed a male party dressed in blue jeans and a dark colored spring jacket walking at a fast pace.  The male party was walking in the roadway on the right side of the south bound travel lane in. This particular area is a business district with minimal lighting on the roadway and no sidewalks which resulted in the male having to walk in the roadway.  A ramp to the Mass Pike passes over the roadway at this location and the Mass Pike is approximately 100 yards where I observed the male.  The nearest house/neighborhood is approximately 1/2 mile away.

With the time of night in mind, the location to which I observed this male, and at the pace he was walking I decided to turn my cruiser around and check on the party's well being.  (I figured his car was broken down either on the Mass Pike or just up the road, and he was trying to get to the gas stations on Cochituate Rd.)

When I turned around and pulled along side of him I asked him if he was all set. He continued to walk at his fast pace with his hands in his pockets and he yelled back at me "Leave me alone".  I was quite shocked by his response so again I asked him if he was all set.  This time he said to me "Mind your own business and get away from me".

His response worried me and this encounter went from a well being check/community care taking encounter to a suspicious activity/well being check.  Because of the way he answered me I became worried that he was either up to no good in the business district or he had a mental health issue. I then pulled my cruiser ahead of him and exited my car and walked over to him and asked him to come speak with me.  He told me he did not have to and he walked away from me.  I then yelled for him to stop and come over to me and he complied.

While walking over to me he said "What do you want?" Due to his angry attitude I called my situation in to dispatch so I would get a back up car sent to my location.  When I tried to explain to him why I wanted to speak with him he interrupted me and told me I was harassing the citizens of Framingham and that is all that we do is harass people.  I then asked him his name and he continued to yell at me and tell me that he did not have to tell me his name, and that he had the right to walk down the street in Framingham.  He then put his hands in his pockets and I asked him not to put his hands in his pocket while I was speaking with him.

When he pulled his hands out of his pockets he was holding a 3 in. long silver colored object.  He then held the object up and told me that he was recording me.  I asked him several times to turn off the audio recording device and not to record me.  He refused and told me that he is allowed to record me since he informed me that he was doing so. Realizing that he was not going to turn if off I continued with my investigation as to who he is and why he was in this area.  I again asked him his name and he told me that he doesn't have a name.  Several more times over the course of our encounter he would tell me that he doesn't know his name.  When I asked him where he was from he told me that he did not know.

Again I explained to him the reason for the encounter and again he told me that he did not know his name.  He then told me that I was going to have to arrest him.  I told him I was not going to arrest him.  He then stated that he would be here for a while.  (At this time I still was not sure if this was a potentially criminal situation or a mental health issue.)  Again I asked him his name and he told me that I should ask Mr. Carl about the guy who walks at night.  I asked him who Mr. Carl was and he called me an "Idiot" and told me it was Chief Carl.

When I again asked him his name he responded by asking me my name.  I told him that my name was on my chest.  He told me that it was too dark to see my chest so I shined my stinger flashlight on my chest for him to read my name.  He proceeded to reach in his right pocket (I don't know if it was his jacket or pants), and point a small blue flashlight at me.  He then approached me quickly and got about 1.5 feet away from me as he was trying to read my shirt.  Prior to this I was very nervous about this male so I kept about 5 feet between us.  However when I shined my flashlight on my chest I looked down to make sure my name tag was illuminated.  In that second he approached me very quickly and was able to get right on me. Once he was up close to me I stepped to my left to create some distance from him.  I then reached out with my left hand and took hold of the recorder in his left hand.  (Through past training and experience I know that weapons can be disguised as different objects and I not only did not want this recorder in my face for safety issues but I also wanted to make sure it was in fact just a recorder.  He pulled the recorder away from me and then smacked my left forearm with his right hand.

At this time in my mind the encounter had just become an arrest.  However I wanted to wait for back up because I was still unsure of the male's mental stability and I wanted to avoid a potential wrestling match on the side of the road.  While waiting for back up I confronted him about hitting me and several times he denied hitting my arm. He then told me that I was either going to have to arrest me or let him go.  I told him that I was going to arrest him and I asked him to turn around and place his hands behind his back.  He complied and I proceeded to handcuff him (double lock) and place him under arrest.  As I was arresting him he stated "Good, this will go great in the lawsuit."  I then checked his person for any weapons or an ID.  On him he had a very small pocket knife.  I also located his ID through which he became known to me as Wolfe, Harold, 08/17/49.  He was then seated in the rear of my cruiser and transported back to the station o be booked.  During transport I advised him of his Miranda rights however he would not respond to me when I asked him if he understood his right.

Upon the conclusion of the incident Mr. Wolfe was charged with the following charges:  Ch. 265/13D Assault and Battery on a Public Employee and Ch. 272/53 Disorderly Conduct.

Taken into evidence was the flashlight, the recorder, as well as the taped copy of the conversation he recorded from his recorder.

Ofc. Gregory M. Reardon, #283, 4 Lee Lane, Medway, MA 02053

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