A special prosecutor has been named to oversee Kendra Lara’s car crash case just as the city councilor moved to toss the charges claiming she was not served a citation at the scene.
Worcester Assistant District Attorney Joel Luna was tapped by the Suffolk District Attorney’s office as the prosecutor in the case because the wife of William King, an opponent of Lara’s in the upcoming municipal elections, works in the city DA’s office, a spokesman told the Herald.
“We just felt that because there was a connection between one of her opponents and our office, we just thought it would be advisable to have a special prosecutor appointed,” Suffolk DA spokesman James Borghesani said.
Borghesani said the Suffolk DA’s office uses special prosecutors “quite a bit” whenever there is a conflict like an employee having a relationship with someone who is connected to a case.
“So nothing unusual for a special prosecutor,” he said.
A spokesman for the Worcester DA’s office declined to comment, citing the pending proceedings.
Luna was appointed on Aug. 2, according to court documents, and apparently got to work immediately.
In a separate document dated Aug. 2, Luna asked a judge to order the preservation of the electronic data recorder from the 2019 Honda Civic Lara is accused of driving. The car, which is registered to Somerville resident Thomas Owen, was released back to Lara by the Boston Police Department “before any electronic data recorder data was obtained,” court documents said.
The electronic data recorder will allow lawyers to “gather technical evidence that would confirm the defendant’s speed and manner of operation prior to, and during, the motor vehicle crash in question,” Luna wrote in court documents.
But Lara’s attorney, Carl Williams, wants the entire case dismissed because he claims a citation was neither mailed nor handed to Lara at the scene of the crash.
The appropriate remedy for “this improper handling of a citation” is dismissal, Williams said in court documents.
“It was the obligation of the Boston Police Department to give a copy of the citation to the defendant at the time and place of the offense. This was not done,” Williams said in court documents. “The proper remedy for this oversight is dismissal.”
Prosecutors with the Suffolk DA’s office said a delay in handing a citation to Lara does not mean the case should be dismissed “because the seriousness of the defendant’s accident would have put her on notice that the citations would be forthcoming.”
The responding officer mailed citations on the day of the crash to the Saint Rose Street address Lara provided because the city councilor and her son had been taken from the scene of the crash to Boston Children’s Hospital, prosecutors said.
Lara pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the crash at a hearing in July after a police report said she was speeding down Centre Street, crashed into a house, and endangered her son by not putting him in a car seat.
A hearing to argue over the motion to dismiss and consider counter-arguments from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office was scheduled for Oct. 20 at 9 a.m. Lara and Williams appeared briefly in a West Roxbury courtroom on Wednesday.
Williams said a portion of state law allows for a judge to dismiss the case because the citation was never mailed or handed to Lara. He said state law “creates a very clear requirement that a citation alleging motor vehicle infractions must be given to the violator at the time and place of the offense or offenses.”
Williams said there is evidence that police violated that law.
“The appropriate remedy for this improper handling of a citation for automobile violations is dismissal,” Williams wrote in court documents.
Lara faces a series of charges related to the crash including recklessly permitting bodily injury to a child, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, speeding, and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.
A Boston police report said Lara was driving an uninsured, unregistered car that belonged to Owen at the time of the June 30 crash. Lara was also driving with a revoked license when police say she was speeding at 53 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone, according to a police report.
The councilor said she crashed into the Jamaica Plain house because she swerved to avoid a car pulling away from the curb and “could not hit the brakes fast enough before colliding with the home,” according to the police report.
But the driver of the other car said he had barely moved out of a parking spot along the curb and was barely in motion “when he noticed a car driving down the street from behind him at a high rate of speed,” the police report said.
“[The driver] stated he did not pull away from the curb due to the high rate of speed that vehicle #1 was traveling in his direction,” the police report said. “… He emphasized that he was not close to hitting the car and believed that the other driver was speeding. He confirmed that the other vehicle had not damaged or touched his vehicle.”
Flint McColgan contributed reporting.