Prosecutors tried unsuccessfully in 2015 to keep a woman acquitted in a drunk driving case off the road and now that woman is accused of killing an infant and a 5-year-old when she allegedly plowed into a group of pedestrians in Revere on Sunday.
The Boston Globe reports that Middlesex County prosecutors tried to block 42-year-old Autumn Harris of Beacon Hill from getting her license back despite the acquittal in the drunk driving case because “there was substantial evidence that she had consumed alcohol before driving on Feb. 21, 2014, and there was testimony to establish that she posed a danger to the public by a fair preponderance of the evidence,” a court filing reads.
A Medford police report from the February 2014 incident said Harris rear-ended another driver who was stopped at a red light on Route 16 and then became belligerent when she exited the vehicle.
Harris’s driving record provided by the RMV shows that she refused a breathalyzer test in a 2011 incident and also in the 2014 Medford case.
Harris is currently being held on $10,000 bail in the Revere crash that claimed the lives of 5-year-old Adrianna Mejia-Rivera and her 2-month-old sister Natasha Nicole Mejia-Rivera.
Harris pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of motor vehicle homicide and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Prosecutors say Harris told police she had one beer the afternoon of the fatal crash and had taken the sleep aid melatonin and a muscle relaxant. She also allegedly told police she vaped CBD oil in the SUV, had only slept two hours before working all day and that she may have fallen asleep while behind the wheel.
