Posted on 10/23/2012 5:36:52 PM PDT by RummyChick
Romney’s arrest came in June 1981 when he proceeded to launch his motorboat at Wayland’s Lake Cochituate only moments after a park police officer had told him not to launch the craft or face a $50 fine
According to Romney’s version of the events, he had taken his family to the lake for a summer outing. As he was about to launch his boat, a park guard informed him that the license number of the boat had been painted over.
Romney said the guard told him not to put the boat in the water or he would be ticketed and fined $50. Frustrated and feeling that the license was still somewhat visible, Romney defied the order, saying it would be worth his while to be fined $50 to enjoy the day on the lake with his family.
“I figured I was at the state park with my kids. My five kids were in the car wondering why we weren’t going out in the boat, so I said I’d launch and pay the fine.”
The charges were later dropped. According to the Globe:
[t]he charges against Romney were dropped several days later and officially dismissed in February 1982 at Natick District Court….
Romney said … the reason the case was dropped was that he had threatened to charge the officer and his agency, then called the Department of Environmental Affairs, with false arrest.
Why did the Globe have to rely on “Romney’s version of the events,” you might ask? Because,
[a]t Romney’s request, the judge also agreed to seal the records, making them unavailable for public inspection…. The district court has refused a Globe request to unseal the files.
(Excerpt) Read more at bluemassgroup.com ...
Dear lord, I do six worse things than this before 11:00 am.
Unlike Admiral Kerry who hides his yacht in another state to avoid paying taxes on it.
And lets not forget U-Boat commander Kennedy and his aqua troubles.
Let me see if I understand.
We have a Kenyan-born, homosexual President who smoked crack in gay sex limo orgies, and all that is hunky dory with the Press, but Mitt Romney launched a boat with an obscured registration number thirty years ago, and he’s suddenly unfit for the Presidency?
FFS!
30 years must be the statute of limitations on GOP “dirt”....
It gets worse: Evidence has now surfaced that Romney once taped a baseball game without the expressed written consent of the Commissioner of Baseball.
Romney the Rebel! Who knew? Makes me like him a little more.
Actually showing contempt for small-minded petty-tyrannical laws and their officious enforcers is a solidly American tradition. Even if the court records showed Romney cussed at the park officer, made rude gestures and blew raspberries as he launched the boat, it would only endear him to me.
This story might actually win votes from young slackers. LOL!
“I can tell you that over thirty years later, you just don’t remember all the details of things that took place.”
—
Not to be argumentative but I remember 30 years ago better that I remember last week.
:-)
.
cut it out...you know this is series
This is actually pretty funny. The “exclusive” appears to be that, in addition to Romney being charged with disorderly conduct, he may also have been charged with driving an unregistered boat.
And the “controversy” seems to be that this is different than what Romney said in 1994, because Romney didn’t mention being charged for the unregistered boat.
The reason that is funny is that, the way Romney tells the story, he gets no benefit from leaving out that point. He actually SAYS that the officer was confronting him because you couldn’t read the registration number on the boat.
Further, Romney admits in his telling both that he defied the officer, and that later he threatened to sue them. So if the story they are trying to push is that Romney used his influence to get out of the charges, Romney pretty much said that, by saying his threat to sue caused them to drop the charges.
Because you could easily infer that such a threat would only be taken seriously if the person making the threat had the means to actually carry it off.
So even if the records were unsealed, there could be nothing in them worse than what Romney has told, and having a 2nd charge dropped is meaningless since Romney did nothing to hide the fact that the boat’s registration was the crux of the issue.
I would presume he asked for the record to be sealed because having an arrest could itself be problematic in the business world, until you have made a name for yourself.
I was kind of hoping the bombshell would be some sort of DUI thing, just to make Mitt more “human”. :-)
I wonder if he got a tattoo in the minutes he was in police custody?
Wow, what a scandal!
If we’re gong back 30 years I guess Barry’s admitted cocaine use is fair game right?
Romney then threatened to give the guy a hair cut.
Oh I forgot, and it is funnier — the other “exclusive” is that Romney said he was released without bail, but the police report suggests he was released WITH bail.
I’m not sure why one is better than the other. We are talking about a guy who was from a somewhat well-connected family, and he had money, so paying bail wouldn’t have been an issue. And he clearly showed up for court, so maybe I’m missing something but I don’t see how whether you paid bail or not is the kind of thing anybody would expect one to lie about.
The first rule of judgment over a misstatement is whether the person gained benefit from the misstatement. If they did (if there is a good reason they would have been motivated to lie), then you judge them for it. In this case, the story Romney told, and the story this article is trying to tell, are no different in scope. One charge or two, and whether he paid bail or not, makes no difference.
It is clear this is just an attempt to get the underlying story back out.
Except liberals — they are kind of stupid sometimes, and fail to realize that 80% of real Americans would be appalled that a man out with his family would get arrested because his boat’s registration number was obscured by paint.
So this story, unlike the dog on the roof story, helps Romney each time it is aired. It shows government overreach in a personal way. Everybody who has been harrased for stupid laws that make no sense will relate to this, and worry about what going to their doctor will be like when Obama is in charge.
Yippee! Another vote for the anti-American islamofascist illegal alien commie! That’s two of us so far. If this trend continues, we can re-elect him and then Madonna “will strip naked” for us.Yippee Halleleujah! I can barely. (Haha) wait!!! Sorry, gotta go now. Desperately need to go take a cold shower..
Yippee! Another vote for the anti-American islamofascist illegal alien commie! That’s two of us so far. If this trend continues, we can re-elect him and then Madonna “will strip naked” for us.Yippee Halleleujah! I can barely. (Haha) wait!!! Sorry, gotta go now. Desperately need to go take a cold shower..
I got a ticket for not having my life jacket in the boat a few years ago. I don’t even need to wear it but it must be in the boat.
What a bunch of horse feathers. Obama’s past is littered with cocaine, illegal acts as President, hidden records, surrendered law license and we are worrying about a boat license? That is going to impress us compared to 16 trillion dollars of debt?
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