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Boston Herald
Boston Herald
21 Jul 2023
Joe Dwinell


NextImg:Councilor Kendra Lara’s crash: The police body camera screengrabs

“Is she alive?”

That was the first comment made by the 83-year-old owner of the Jamaica Plain home where City Councilor Kendra Lara slammed the Honda Civic she was driving into at 4:27 p.m. on June 30. It was all picked up on police body camera video.

The owner was stunned to see a car almost in her house, but she first asked about the victims.

Lara’s 7-year-old son suffered a bad laceration over his eyebrow and both the District 6 councilor and her son were taken to Children’s Hospital. The police body camera footage released late Thursday shows police calmly helping Lara and her son first along with firefighters and EMTs and then investigating the crash second.

A police officer takes a cell phone photo of Councilor Kendra Lara's crash. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

A police officer takes a cell phone photo of Councilor Kendra Lara’s crash. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

Lara, according to the audio on the footage, lied to police when she said “No” she did not have her license with her adding: “I can bring it,” she says on video.

That was not possible since Lara was driving an unregistered vehicle and her license had been revoked, as the Herald first reported.

Lara is charged with permitting bodily injury to a child under 14 years old, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, speeding, driving with a suspended license, driving an uninsured vehicle, driving an unregistered vehicle, failing to wear a seat belt, and not placing a child under 8 years old and under 58 inches in a car seat. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment this week.

Councilor Kendra Lara crashed her car into a home on Centre Street at 4:27 p.m. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

Councilor Kendra Lara crashed her car into a home on Centre Street at 4:27 p.m. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

Lara said she swerved to avoid a car that was pulling out, but that witness tells police, “She came by like a bat out of hell and just swerved. … It was bizarre.”

That man stayed at the scene and gave police his license, registration and cell phone number.

“I just couldn’t hit the brakes fast enough,” an upset Lara is heard saying just before she climbed in an ambulance to be with her son. “He did not check his mirrors. The SUV came right in front of me.”

Someone at the scene, who appeared to be helping with the site, quickly noticed the car that was resting almost on the front porch had an expired registration sticker on the license plate.

Another officer helping in the investigation noticed some paperwork in the car that made her quickly say she needed to call back to the station after another officer said Lara appeared to “work for the city.”

The car slammed into the front porch of a home on Centre Street at 4:27 p.m. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

The car slammed into the front porch of a home on Centre Street at 4:27 p.m. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

The owner of the home was told she needed to call her insurance agent and a female officer helped her begin that process and communicate to her son a case number and more. The officer at one point bent over to pick up the elderly woman’s keys after she dropped them.

That Centre Street property is assessed at more than $1 million.

“Thank God this isn’t worse. I hope the boy is OK. What’s your name?” the owner asked the officer. “You’re so sweet. We need more women” on the force.

“My poor kitty-cats must be scared,” the owner added. “I have three of them. I’m going to need to go, I have ice cream in the car.”

The body camera video at one point showed a line of children passing down Centre Street in a daisy chain used often by daycare providers when they take the kids for a walk. The street was busy with cars passing and other pedestrians — illustrating the crash could have been a lot worse.

The car slammed into the front porch of a home on Centre Street at 4:27 p.m. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

The car slammed into the front porch of a home on Centre Street at 4:27 p.m. (BPD body camera video screengrab.)

Firefighters, EMTs, police, the homeowner, witnesses and the other driver who said he never pulled out as Lara reportedly barrelled down the street all remained calm at the scene, the body camera footage shows.

The lead officer is also shown heading inside Children’s Hosptial and to Room 17 to check on Lara and her son. “I didn’t know you did that,” a man who steps out of the room is heard saying on the video. That man, who was not identified, then proceeded to ask what the other driver had told police.

You could hear Lara’s son upset in his hospital room as the officer kept to a professional response.

At one point in the hallway, someone off camera is heard saying “You’re beautiful to the officer.” She again kept it low-key responding, “Thank you.”

Lara’s companion in the hospital room also quizzed her about her heritage. The officer again remained collegial. She also explained since she had to write up the official police report, she wanted to make sure the mother and child’s condition had not changed and all were OK.

Lara is due back in court on August 16 for a pre-trial hearing to argue over motions to dismiss filed by her attorney. A police report said Lara was driving an uninsured, unregistered car that belonged to Somerville resident Thomas Owens with a revoked license at least 53 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone.

Georgia Kalogerakis, the owner of the damaged Jamaica Plain home, said she has home insurance, adding this week Lara “should acknowledge her actions and what they caused and give some consideration to correcting them or providing for the damage. The car hit the foundation of my house, it moved the porch over, forget about the bush and the fence.”

Lara’s driving record shows multiple violations and sanctions, including several in Connecticut, and a police report offers more insight into the councilor’s driving history.

A report from a Boston Police Department auto investigator said Lara was issued a citation in August 2010 for not having a registration in her possession and failing to wear a seatbelt. Her license was suspended in April 2013 after failing to pay fines or costs associated with not wearing a seatbelt.

Law enforcement found in 2015 that Lara was cited in Connecticut for a National Driver’s Registry out-of-state violation “as Lara’s Massachusetts driver’s license was suspended at the time of this incident.”

“Lara then missed a court date in Connecticut on July 1, 2014, and her license was suspended in Connecticut, which was then revoked in Massachusetts by the Registry of Motor Vehicles,” The police report said.

Flint McColgan contributed to this report.