"Don't you know who I am?": State official accused of assaulting clerk after check refused

Store wouldn't take her check
By Christina Pazzanese
The Boston Globe
Apr. 27, 2007

Governor's Councilor Marilyn P. Devaney has been accused of trying to hit a clerk at a Waltham beauty store with a curling iron after the store refused to accept her personal check for a purchase.

"Don't you know who I am?" Devaney asked clerk Adriana Latif, according to a police report. Devaney pointed to the Governor's Council license plates on her blue 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser and pulled out her State House identification badge, Latif said.

In an interview yesterday, Latif said that she had never heard of Devaney and that she told her customer that the license plates and the badge were not sufficient to accept a personal check, because store policy requires a driver's license. The councilor, who wanted to buy a curling iron, tried to persuade a second employee to allow her to complete the transaction, Latif said.

"She threw the bag at me," said Latif, who was hit in the chest. "She's like, 'Here, here,' " and left the store, Latif said in an interview with the Globe.

A complaint filed yesterday in Waltham District Court by Waltham police charges Devaney, 69, with "assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (curling iron)." The dispute occurred April 13 inside Sally Beauty Supply at 114 River St.

In a written statement, Devaney called the charges "very painful and very serious" to her, but said she will be "exonerated, once all the facts are known."

Yesterday, Devaney said in an interview that she would not directly address the allegations. "I will not respond to rumors and innuendo," she said. "The truth will prevail."

In January, Devaney was pulled over twice by Watertown police, once for driving with an expired registration and once for allegedly failing to stop at a stop sign near her home. Police alleged that Devaney tried to use her status as a governor's councilor to get out of the citation, an assertion she denied. Devaney was issued a $135 fine for the unregistered vehicle, but was not cited for the traffic stop.

Devaney is one of eight elected council members who approve Treasury payments, pardons, and judicial appointments by the governor. Reelected for a fifth term last November, Devaney represents District 3, which includes parts of Boston and Cambridge, Brookline, most of Middlesex County, and parts of Norfolk and Worcester counties. She is also a Watertown town councilor.