Posted on 01/21/2005 6:45:17 AM PST by Cagey
A hulking Boston bodyguard was arrested yesterday, accused of hurling a scalding Starbucks coffee at a meter maid who slapped a ticket on his illegally parked Hummer in the Back Bay.
The alleged attack unfolded about 8:30 a.m. when Christi Noviello, 44, was walking her Berkeley and Boylston streets beat and saw the black Hummer parked in a loading zone with a woman in the passenger seat.
``I am a nice meter maid,'' Noviello told the Herald yesterday in an exclusive interview. ``As a courtesy, I gave the lady a chance to move, but she pointed at the Starbucks and refused.''
Noviello wrote a $55 ticket, and slid it under the Hummer's windshield wiper - apparently enraging its driver, Francois Youhanna.
``He started yelling, `I don't accept this ticket!' He had a Venti-sized cup of black coffee in his hand, and he flung it right in my face,'' said Noviello, just hours after she was treated for first- and second-degree burns on her face and upper torso at New England Medical Center.
``I went down, I was panicking. It hurt so bad, I thought my face was falling off,'' she said. ``It was in my eyes, I was screaming.''
Starbucks employees rushed out of the store with wet cloths to soothe the burns, as cops arrested Youhanna for assault and battery with a deadly weapon, the hot coffee, which is a felony.
Youhanna insistedhe spilled the coffee on Noviello by mistake after slipping on some ice and falling, a story his female companion echoed. But witnesses said Youhanna - who is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds - charged at the meter maid and was very close to her face when the coffee was thrown.
He told cops he owned Gavilier Security Patrol, a bodyguard service that lists his West Roxbury home as the company's address. When a relative was reached at Youhanna's home, the man hung up when asked to comment on the incident.
Youhanna, a native of Lebanon, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Boston Municipal Court and was released on personal recognizance on condition he stay out of trouble and away from the meter maid. A pretrial conference date was set for Feb. 23.
Last year, 16 meter maids were physically assaulted and another 48 were threatened or harassed, said Tom Tinlin, deputy commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department.
``It's appalling. This behavior should not be tolerated in a civilized world,'' Tinlin said yesterday. ``Christi is one of the nicest people I know. For her to be subjected to such behavior while performing your job is a disgrace.''
So if I throw a big cup of boiling water in your face, you're cool with it??
You would be charged with felony assault, not some trumped up nonsense manufactured by the cops.
I just spit out my tall skinny double white chocolate mocha all over my computer.
Not only that, they look at you like you have three heads if you just order "coffee". I bought coffee from a starbucks one time. When I was away on business and my co-worker wanted to stop there.
If you just order coffee, they use their pre-emptive snobbery, because they know you don't go in for all of their fancy jargon, and you're going to balk at paying their ridiculous price for a simple cup of coffee. My co-worker got a mocha latte grande or some other foo-foo crap. For the rest of the week I waited outside and had a smoke while she got hers, and I just waited until I got to work and got a free cup of just coffee that I liked better anyway.
I've never been stopped so much in my life. Almost every time I drive it I get stopped. No tickets, just checked out. I was told that the reason is because, with the confiscation laws, drug dealers buy the cheapest cars they can find. They don't want to be in something that the cops want.
Sorry, but I'm far too insensitive to indulge their pretentious games. The first time I went there, my wife ordered her foo-foo drink using the proper terminology. I asked for a large coffee, and the clerk went, "oh, you mean a ..." and I cut her off with "a large coffee, THANK YOU." Since then, they've always seemed to understand my order.
A Japanese Frenchman from Lebanon? As I always said, mixed marriages don't work!
LOL...call me snob, then. I love a venti caramel macchiato. :)
On topic: how disgusting, and appalling. That poor woman.
That should of read: "A Jap Frog Eirab"!
It's a matter of perspective, I guess. For example, I'm 5'3 and (usually) 100lbs; 6'2 and 200lbs seems pretty big...that's how big my hubby is. I wouldn't call him skinny..athletic is more like it. :)
Hot coffee is a deadly weapon???? WE'RE DOOMED!!!!! No, really.
I'd sue Starbucks/... that's where the $$ is.
The coffee was TOO HOT !!
Starbucks has an outlet in the local Fred Meyer's store and I get a cup of Grande size, black coffee, there on Saturdays.
The grocery carts have cup holders.
Tall is 12 oz, Grande is 16 oz and Venti is 20 oz ~ I think. :):)
The Grande (16 oz) costs $1.60.
I've known Lebanese male Christians though, they generally don't engage in this type of behavior towards authority and women...if they did..I would hesitate to call them Christian!
With that kind of behaviour on display....he might not be Muslim but he isn't Christian either!
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