By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to a Moreland St. last week on reports of a possible break-in.

The reporting party said that a woman, identified as Crystal Clifford, of Brookline, was throwing rocks at the windows and trying to break into his house. He also stated that she was currently in a stolen motor vehicle somewhere in the area of Jacques St. and the Healey School.

Upon arrival, officers spoke with the reporting party, who described a set of circumstances regarding Clifford’s actions around his house. As he was relaying the info to officers, his cell phone started to ring. He stated that Clifford was driving around the area in a stolen motor vehicle and that it was blue in color.

Police asked how he came about that info and he stated that “Crystal told me.” She wanted him to meet her in this area. He stated that she was looking for some money in order to purchase controlled substances.

When his phone started ringing, he told police that it was Clifford calling him. He answered the cell phone and referred to the caller as “Crystal.”

He connected the call in the “speaker on” mode and initiated the conversation with, “Where are you? Crystal, what are you doing?” She reportedly answered with, “I’m over here by the school. I’m in a stolen car. You didn’t call the cops on me, did you? I’m coming by, stay there.” He then told her, “No, I didn’t.”

At this point, police observed a vehicle approaching the intersection of Moreland and Meacham Streets, and noted that a woman, later confirmed to be Clifford, was driving.

Once Clifford observed police officer speaking to the reporting party, she immediately turned right on to Moreland St. and headed north toward Mystic Ave.

The reporting party told police, “That’s her, she’s driving the car. It’s stolen.”

An officer activated his cruiser’s blue lights and followed the vehicle along Moreland St., at which time Clifford started to pull over to the right into a partial opening. As she was pulling over, she struck a parked car, causing damage to the driver’s side front quarter panel and ripping the bumper off.

As a direct result of striking the parked car, she damaged the passenger side, front to rear, of the vehicle she was driving, which was a rental vehicle owned out of Holyoke, MA. The car had been rented to a party in Jamaica Plain.

The vehicle came to a complete stop and police ordered Clifford and a passenger, later identified as Jeffrey Lefoy, of Quincy, to stay inside the vehicle with their hands raised out the open windows.

Somerville Control confirmed that the vehicle was reported stolen on August 28. It was determined that the keys were in the vehicle at the time of the theft.

Clifford and Lefoy were removed from the car and handcuffed.

Police asked Clifford if she had a current Massachusetts driver’s license, and she reportedly nodded her head in a negative manner. The officers discovered through the RMV that Clifford’s driver’s license was suspended.

Police advised Clifford of the charges being lodged against her. They also informed her that she had an outstanding warrant lodged against her out of Dorchester District Court.

Once Clifford was secured, police turned their attention to Lefoy. They noticed that he was wearing a probation type GPS tracking ankle bracelet. They asked him what his status was due to the bracelet. He reportedly stated that he was currently out on bail. He said that he was riding around with Clifford in order to charge his bracelet that was probably dead at this time.

When police informed Lefoy that he was under arrest for the above stated charge, and he reportedly became very belligerent, boisterous, and angry toward them.

According to reports, he started yelling and swearing at the officers because they ruined his life. He started making veiled threats to do bodily harm to one of the officers, challenging him several times to strike him while handcuffed behind his back.

He reportedly made several disparaging remarks toward the officer regarding his age, all the time getting increasingly louder and angrier, accusing police of discriminating against him.

Lefoy reportedly mentioned something about people of color and that one of the officer is a racist. The officer warned Lefoy that if he did not cease and desist his disruptive behavior he would lodge an additional charge against him of being a disorderly person.

Due to the defendant’s tumultuous behavior, numerous residents awoke from their sleep to view the disturbance. The peace and tranquility of the neighborhood was obviously disturbed. At one point, the resident of the house where we were detaining the defendant came out of his residence and demanded that we remove the defendant off his property, due to his disruptive antics.

Clifford and Lefoy were subsequently taken to the Police station, where they were both booked on charges of receiving a stolen motor vehicle. In addition, Clifford was booked on a charge of operation of a motor vehicle with a suspended license, and on warrant charges of receiving a stolen motor vehicle and operation of a motor vehicle with a suspended license.