Hopkinton board member faces drunken driving, assault charges
By Norman Miller, Daily News Staff
A Hopkinton Board of Health member is charged with driving drunk with three children in her car on Saturday and assaulting both her husband and a police officer, authorities said.
The Metrowest Daily News report Hopkinton police arrested Jennifer C. Flanagan, 47, at 11:19 p.m. Saturday at her 238 Ash St., home, according to a police report filed Monday in Framingham District Court.
Police went to the home after a report of a domestic dispute. There, they found Flanagan and her husband in the driveway, and Flanagan was “emotional.”
Flanagan told police she got a flat tire after leaving a carnival at Holliston High School, which she attended with her teenage daughter and two friends. She said when she arrived home, her husband accused of her drinking, grabbed her by the throat and began pushing her. Officers wrote in the report they could smell alcohol coming from Flanagan’s mouth.
When they spoke to Flanagan’s husband, he provided a completely different story. He said their daughter had texted him and said Flanagan had hit another car with her car and then a curb, which gave her a flat tire. He said he confronted Flanagan when she arrived home.
“She became angry and swung her arms and purse at me,” Flanagan’s husband told police. “I held onto her arms to restrain her.”
Police then spoke to the daughter. She said that when they were leaving the carnival, her mother backed into a building in Holliston.
“(She) asked if she should stop and her mom told her she only needed to stop if it was another car,” police wrote.
While driving home, Flanagan was driving in the wrong direction and made a U-turn and struck a traffic island, flattening a tire. She drove home on the flat tire, the daughter said. She said she asked her mother to stop, but her mother yelled at her.
Holliston police said they have not received any reports of a building being struck by a car.
Police arrested Flanagan and initially charged her with driving under the influence of liquor, child endangerment while driving drunk, domestic assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a purse).
At the police station, police said Flanagan registered a .29 on a Breathalyzer test, which is more than three and a half times the legal limit of .08.
According to the report, Flanagan got angry during booking and threw her flipflops and hit an officer. Police charged Flanagan additionally with assault and battery on a police officer.
At Flanagan’s Framingham District Court arraignment Monday, Judge David Frank released her on $500 bail. He ordered her not to drive unless she had a valid license and to follow any orders from the state Department of Children & Families.
Flanagan could not be reached for comment. She is serving her first term as a member of the Board of Health after being elected earlier this year.
Flanagan is due back in court on Sept. 2 for a pretrial conference.