A Brookline man is charged with lifting a woman's skirt and groping her on a 39 bus on South Huntington Avenue around 11:30 a.m. today.
Timothy Sheehan, 49, was arrested near the Brookline Village Green Line stop after getting off the bus near Heath Street, according to an MBTA Transit Police report.
According to the police report, the bus was heading into town near Heath when Sheehan lifted the woman's skirt from behind and began grabbing. She immediately moved away and other passengers, noticing what was happening, began yelling for the bus driver to call police.
The report states the bus driver immediately stopped the bus and Sheehan got off, stopping to take a piss before "quickly walking" up S. Huntington and Rte. 9 toward the Brookline Village T stop.
After being detained and then identified by the victim, he was arrested on a charge of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14, the report says.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
ah, so that's what the flood of MBTA cops were for
By Brett
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 1:35pm
Biking down Huntington, I was passed by at least 3 cruisers, driving so fast I thought for sure someone had gone on a shooting rampage.
About when was that?
By adamg
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 1:37pm
About when was that?
not sure
By Brett
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 2:06pm
Did they mention when this happened? Didn't see anything on the MBTA twitter pages. I take it you have a special Worldwide Jewish Media Conspiracy feed to the Black Helicopter News Network? :)
Um, what?
By adamg
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 2:29pm
I first read about it on Channel 5's site. Just updated the post with details from the MBTA.
kidding
By Brett
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 2:49pm
You seemed to have more details than what was in the initial Channel 5 story.
Did anyone notice...
By anon2
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 2:43pm
That he was on a paid detail(1st line in the narrative)?
yup, I saw the construction work
By Brett
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 2:51pm
The MBTA appeared to be working on the tracks or something, didn't see too closely.
Details = police presence
By Welder
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 5:21pm
This is one reason why cops should be on details instead of flagmen. If a flagman was working that site this suspect could have gotten away and possibly done worse to someone else.
Bull. Fucking. Shit.
By Brett
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 10:18pm
LOLZ. So now cops sitting around at construction sites help with sexual assaults?
Try this on for size: imagine how much more that cop could do if he was actually ON PATROL, instead of standing around.
Plus, half the MBTA police force descended on the scene, and the dude was pretty easy to spot. He wasn't getting away.
I could get a list of 1000 crimes thwarted by detail cops
By Pete Nice
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 10:25pm
That doesn't mean other crimes wouldn't have been stopped by those same cops if they were on patrol though.
a list of 1000 crimes
By Anonymous
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 12:01am
all solved by texting at double time.
I could probably have 3,000
By Pete Nice
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 7:03am
If there were no texting.
Brett, you need to do some research.
By zulu warrior
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 8:56am
I am new here but, just to help Brett, I thought I'd let him know how the detail system works.
For your information, officers who are working details are doing so at a time when they are off their regular shift. So if an officer works a night shift he might work a detail during the day before that shift, get it?
So, they are out there IN ADDITION to the officers on duty. So, that means that there are MORE police officers out there. Get it Brett? More is better.
And, for Brett again, from what I've read, it appears as if the MBTA police force has about 250 officers. From the report it looks as if there were about 9 officers at the scene total. By your calculations there were 125 on scene. And not even all of them where T cops (4 T cops, a trooper, a couple of BPD plain clothes officers and a couple of Brookline cops).
With all the exaggeration and contorted information that Brett is throwing out there (see man-wearing-mask section below), it makes me think he hates cops.
What does "victim, known to the Commonwealth" mean?
By fenwayguy
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 4:43pm
As in the police report, "(officers) met the victim, known to the Commonwealth, onboard Rt. 39 bus..."?
It means
By Pete Nice
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 4:58pm
She is a real person and was willing to identify herself. Often times they use terms like this in reports so they don't have to use their real name. Of course, the real name has to be somewhere, but in some cases it is left out altogether in real sensitive matters.
Most incident reports are
By JakeWark
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 5:17pm
Most incident reports are public documents. If a witness may be subject to retaliation or intimidation, or if a victim of sexual assault discloses, or if there might be some other unintended consequence to a person speaking with police, the officer writing the report can put that in knowing that the person's name, address, and contact info won't show up in a police blotter somewhere. And Pete's right -- the person's particulars are all contained in the accompanying non-public reports.
A second event ...
By JohnAKeith
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 6:46pm
From Terry:
Time: 5:15 PM
Place: #39, passing Northeastern University
Police action on my 39 bus! Guy in business suit with full black stocking mask pulled off bus by cop! Gun drawn.
More details
By JohnAKeith
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 7:43pm
"To conclude: he was pulled off the bus and frisked on the street. He did not resist. Nothing found on his person. He was (white), in his mid-20s and was revealed to have long hair once the stocking was taken off. They were about to look in his backpack but we were ordered off the bus and everyone hopped onto the bus right behind us (you know how the 39's group together!) and off we went."
so, what was the story here?
By Brett
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 10:24pm
What happened? Why was he stopped?
I'll fathom a wild guess: he was on the new 39 bus, a cop was abusing the "look in" system, saw a Deadly Terrorist, and mobilized the Hut Hut Hut response.
I'd also fathom a wild guess that the person was wearing the mask to protest the surveillance systems in the bus.
I'd truly like to know what happened here, because last I checked, it ain't illegal to cover your face in public.
Thats a good guess. Probably a 2% chance that happened.
By Pete Nice
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 10:28pm
Beacuse I know cops love to watch those monitors for mask wearing wierdos. Its one of my favorite pastimes.
in the UK, they sure do.
By Brett
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 12:29am
After numerous studies, the only thing they've found is that the cops using the CCTV systems in the UK mostly use them to check out hot women (many of the cameras are pan+zoom, so it's pretty obvious.)
Yea the quality isn't good enough here to check out women.
By Pete Nice
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 7:02am
Easier to just go check them out in person.
And most camera studies are BS. Although I don't think it does much good to have someone sitting in front of a bunch of screens watching someone, I've heard cameras have done wonders in many urban areas across the US. Chicago is basically a 'big brother' city from what I understand now and the people basically don't care one way or the other about them like they do here.
I think they are fine for checking out crimes after the fact, or if there is a specific lead before hand.
the bystander effect
By anon
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 8:19pm
I was the passenger who spoke out against the pervert and allerted the bus driver. I just wanted to say that nobody else did ANYTHING before I spoke up and he just sat down for a few moments and it seemed like for a few seconds there that he would have gotten away with this before I yelled at him that what he did was unacceptable and he had to get off the bus. I feel that EVERYBODY who rides the busline and EVERYBODY in general needs to STAND UP against people like this, not just sit there pretending they didn't see. What's worse is that some passengers groaned like, "uhh really I'm gonna be late?" when the bus driver pulled over to contact the police. I want to commend the bus driver and the girl for doing the right thing. Mainly I want to bring awareness to everyone that it's not okay just let things like this happen, you have to speak up. The reason he did this is probably because he does it all the time and gets away with it because the victims feel too shocked or embarassed and the bystanders are too afraid or just dont care. The people who witnessed the event first happening and did not immediately speak up should be ashamed. Speak up, anytime you see any injustice, fight back!
"The reason he did this is
By anon
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 9:08pm
"The reason he did this is probably because he does it all the time and gets away with it because the victims feel too shocked or embarassed and the bystanders are too afraid or just dont care"
You don't know that this guy does this all the time. I'm not looking to excuse what the guy did, but let's examine one thing we do know:
"The report states the bus driver immediately stopped the bus and Sheehan got off, stopping to take a piss before "quickly walking" up S. Huntington and Rte. 9 toward the Brookline Village T stop."
Look at his picture. What about that face? And then, the part about him getting off the bus and taking a piss. Is this really the portrait of some lecherous jerk who has been allowed to go too far? It seems more likely that this guy might be living with some kind of mental illness. Who knows what was going on in his head.
BUT! That doesn't change a lot of your point. You're right, when people notice things like this happening, they ought to speak up immediately. I just want to make sure we don't start tarring and feathering this guy without first considering his circumstances.
I look forward to the Boston Herald caliber comments that will surely follow this.
First!
By Dan Farnkoff
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 9:46pm
"taking a piss" said "hammered" to me- but you could be right as well about the mental illness.
Don't know if that bit of useless speculation rises to Herald quality or not.
reason he did this?
By anon
Thu, 04/29/2010 - 10:05pm
Perhaps anon is correct. I read that lithium, for one example, causes frequent urination.
bad example
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 1:25pm
Lithium causes frequent urination as a side effect of actually taking it. Like, high amounts of it. More specifically, people using lithium tend to wake up at night a lot to pee - not the case here.
If he was still acting like this while taking that much lithium, then either his treatment failed or he isn't bipolar.
maybe?
By bostnkid
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 9:28am
he wasnt pissing?
Good on you. Seriously. It
By M
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 10:07am
Good on you. Seriously. It takes a lot to step up in wrong but really awkward-to-intervene situations. A lot of people have the right instinct but squash it back down (see: Gavin de Becker's Gift of Fear, for example), but once someone else affirms their instinct that can usually help them mobilize as well. I bet you planted a seed for a lot of people too - lots of people don't act because they can't believe what's happening/don't know how to act or react/etc. Even before I got to your comment I saw the bit about how bystanders were yelling for the driver after seeing the grope, and was mentally commending those bystanders. Thank you for doing what you did.
Thank you!
By loulou
Tue, 05/04/2010 - 9:06am
I just wanted to say thank you for speaking up. There should be more people like you willing to help out a stranger in trouble.
Ruled not competent
By adamg
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 1:16pm
Ordered to the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center for a 20-day evaluation, at arraignment in West Roxbury District Court today, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports,
Yea I know of this guy.
By Pete Nice
Fri, 04/30/2010 - 1:57pm
He has some problems. I'll leave it at that.