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BOSTON HERALD CAMBRIDGE, MASS.  Photo by Ted Fitzgerald
Cambridge cops kept secret for a month the fact that they had driven home a state senator after responding to a report of an intoxicated man just hours before the lawmaker slammed his SUV into a minivan and fled, raising questions of a cover-up. It was 25 days after an Oct. 4 hit-and-run wreck allegedly involving Sen. Anthony D. Galluccio when cops finally wrote up a report on the free ride. And it was not until yesterday that the report surfaced revealing that the Cambridge Democrat, a two-time drunken driver, got a lift home by police at 4:40 a.m. that morning - about 13 hours before the hit-and-run accident that left a teenager injured. “They gave him a free pass they would not give the average person,” said prominent Boston defense attorney John Swomley. Swomley believes Cambridge police higher-ups ordered the report because they realized there may have been witnesses to the earlier incident. “The only reason the report was even written is at some point the Cambridge police decided to cover their own (behind) and not his,” Swomley said. Cambridge police Superintendent Steven Williams said because the call that resulted in Galluccio’s ride home did not “involve a crime,” officers would not normally be required to write up a report. Williams told the Herald the report was ordered after new information came to light as police were preparing evidence for prosecutors in the hit-and-run case. As for the senator’s ride home, Williams said: “The Cambridge Police Department does not have a written policy on transporting citizens, but it is not unusual for an officer to give someone a ride. In this case, the officers did not violate any department policy.” “I’m surprised that the Cambridge police wouldn’t have disclosed that,” said Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei (R-Wakefield). “It’s a glaring omission. According to the newly disclosed report, which was filed Oct. 29, a gas station attendant called police to report an “intoxicated” man trying to drive away. When police arrived, they found Galluccio, 42, and an unidentified friend who told cops he tried to drive the lawmaker home but was “unable to locate his residence.” The man was holding Galluccio’s keys and turned them over to cops, who first took him to his former Sunset Road address then eventually to his current Trowbridge Street home, where one of the cops “helped” Galluccio inside, the report states. Galluccio’s car was parked around the corner from the gas station at New Street bar/cafe Basha, but police said there was no evidence he had tried to drive. About 13 hours later, police said he crashed his car into a minivan not far from his home. He’s due back in court Friday to face charges from the hit-and-run. Galluccio has said he “panicked” and fled the scene because of his past driving record, which includes two drunken-driving charges and a suspicious 2005 late-night crash in Boston. Yesterday, he would say only, “There’s a legal process going on.” A “disappointed” Senate President Therese Murray said, “The Senate will be prepared to act when there is a final disposition of his court case.”
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