The Boston Globe
Cab driver, charged in abduction of passenger, out on $750 bail
By Jessica Bartlett Globe Correspondent / November 16, 2010
A cab driver accused of kidnapping a woman passenger whom he had picked up at a nightclub in Boston Saturday, was arraigned yesterday on kidnapping and other charges in Quincy District Court, prosecutors said.
David Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating, said Osei Kwame, 51, of Waltham, pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on $750 bail.
According to police, Kwame picked up a man and a woman from the Liquor Store Nightclub in Boston. They asked to be taken to an address in Quincy.
When the driver took the pair to Billings Road in Quincy, an argument broke out between Kwame and the male passenger. The man demanded to be let out of the car, and the taxi driver pulled over to let him out.
According to police, the man exited the vehicle, but while the woman was attempting to pay the fare and exit the car, the taxi driver sped away, leaving the woman in the back seat and the male on the sidewalk.
The woman demanded that Kwame let her out of the car, at which he closed the partition and continued to drive at a high rate of speed, police said.
The woman called 911 and remained on the line with a dispatcher, giving out directions to her location, police said.
“Let me out of this taxi!’’ the woman is heard shouting to the cab driver on the 911 tape and getting increasingly emotional.
An officer monitoring traffic received the call from the dispatcher and saw the taxi traveling past him on Newport Avenue, going 62 miles per hour. The officer followed the taxi.
After learning of the woman’s kidnapping, police said, the officer attempted to pull the taxi over, but Kwame continued over the Neponset Bridge and onto Interstate 93 northbound.
The taxi was stopped 100 feet south of the Freeport Street exit on I-93 north, police said.
The officer saw the woman in the back seat, took the operator out of the car, and placed him in handcuffs.
Kwame denied any wrongdoing.
“They refused to pay,’’ Kwame told Fox 25 News. “I was going by Hackney [Bureau] procedure.’’
Kwame said he stopped as soon as he saw police and thought they were coming to his aid, according to Fox 25 news.
Kwame was arraigned on charges of operating with intent to endanger, failure to stop for a police officer, and kidnapping. He is due back in Quincy District Court Dec. 13, Traub said.
Globe correspondent Stewart Bishop contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
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