Sandwich road rage incident brings town official's spouse, citizen to magistrate hearing

Rachael Devaney 

Cape Cod Times

Published Dec 22, 2022 

SANDWICH — At about 8:15 a.m., Nov. 2, Cara McNeil sang along to the radio as she drove her 18-month-old twins from her Sandwich residence to daycare. She had no idea, she said, that the trip through her neighborhood would end with a slap.

"I cut through Anthony's Way and Triangle Circle to avoid traffic," said McNeil, who recently moved from Sandwich to West Barnstable. "A white Nissan started following me. The driver was laying on the horn, driving up the sides of the neighbors' yards screaming, and flailing her arms out the window."

To document what she called aggressive driving, McNeil said she recorded two videos, which she provided to the Times.

In the first 36-second video, a Nissan sedan pulls near McNeil's bumper, and then drops back. The car can be seen following McNeil.

According to a Sandwich Police Department police report, provided to the Times by McNeil's attorney Brendan Burchell, the driver of the Nissan sedan was later identified as Jeanne Pozerski of Sandwich. Pozerski is the wife of Peter Pozerski, a captain with the Sandwich Fire Department.

Within a few minutes, the two women were parked next to one another, arguing, and Pozerski allegedly assaulted McNeil.

The Sandwich Police Department and the Barnstable District Court clerk's office declined to provide the police report to the Times.

Now, both women face clerk-magistrate hearings in Barnstable District Court.

What happened when the two cars ended up parked next to each other?

In the second 31-second video, Pozerski pulls her car next to McNeil's, and the two begin arguing when McNeil asks Pozerski if there is a reason she is following her. After McNeil dares Pozerski to get out of the car, Pozerski exits her vehicle and approaches McNeil's driver-side window.

Pozerski can be heard accusing McNeil of blowing through a stop sign. The argument escalates, with Pozerski telling McNeil that she doesn't belong in Pozerski's neighborhood. McNeil then informs Pozerski that she drives through the neighborhood every day.

That will be the last time, Pozerski says to McNeil in the video, using an expletive.

After McNeil calls Pozerski a derogatory word, Pozerski can be seen in the video appearing to reach toward the open driver's side window to take some kind of action but then the video ends abruptly.

McNeil told the Times that she was slapped by Pozerski.

While police weren't present at the time of the incident, it's noted in the police report that McNeil's lip appeared red once officers arrived on the scene.

McNeil provided photos to the Times, taken Nov. 3, which showed her lip swollen and cut.

During the incident, McNeil told police the impact of Pozerski hitting her knocked her sunglasses off her face.

In the police report, Officer Marc Peterson noted that two responding officers — Sgt. John Manley and Sgt. Paul McCarthy — found the sunglasses in a grassy area. Petersen wrote that McNeil told officers her glasses were damaged, but they were found intact.

In the report, Petersen suggested McNeil was lying to the officers.

McNeil maintains that it was Manley who acknowledged the sunglasses were broken and took a picture of them with his phone.

Directly following the incident, McNeil called 911. When she told Pozerski that she called the police, she said Pozerski left the scene before Sandwich officers arrived.

Neither Jeanne or Peter Pozerski could be reached by the Times for comment.

Police interviewed Pozerski at her home after the incident

Police officers found Pozerski at her home at 9 a.m. the day of the incident by using license plate registration information provided by McNeil, according to the police report.

In the report, Pozerski admitted she was present during the incident and agreed to speak to officers. At about 8:15 a.m., she said she left her home to buy a coffee. As she approached Anthony's Way and Triangle Circle, she observed McNeil's white Chevrolet Traverse fail to stop at a stop sign. Pozerski stated that she hit her horn to gain the attention of the operator of the vehicle, but the vehicle continued down Triangle Circle at a high rate of speed.

Pozerski followed the vehicle, she said, and honked her horn. She also told officers that she "lost her cool" and slapped McNeil's phone out of her hand, according to the report.

Both women will face clerk-magistrate hearings

The police report noted that Pozerski will be charged with assault and battery, and negligent operation of a vehicle.

According to the police report, McNeil was charged with negligent operation due to not stopping at a stop sign, and "almost hitting" Pozerski. McNeil was also charged with negligent operation for pulling her phone out to film the incident.

While Lt. Bruce Lawrence of the Sandwich Police Department said he wouldn't speak to specifics of the investigation, he said Pozerski's actions are considered a simple assault. Because officers didn't see the assault happen in real-time, it's not an arrestable offense. The video evidence of the assault, he said, only gives officers probable cause to issue a complaint, Lawrence said.

Because of the circumstances surrounding the incident, neither party was arrested and both Pozerski and McNeil will face clerk-magistrate hearings at Barnstable District Court.

"In some circumstances, we send it to a clerk magistrate so they actually make a determination," Lawrence said.

What is the purpose of a clerk-magistrate hearing?

Marion Broidrick, clerk magistrate for Orleans District Court, said clerk-magistrate hearings are used to determine probable cause for complaints to move forward to court. While assault and battery charges can be presented at a hearing, Broidrick said, the misdemeanor charge isn't often heard by a clerk magistrate.

"You don’t see a whole lot of them in magistrate hearings. Usually, when it’s an assault, somebody calls the police and the police make their own determination about probable cause in their arrest," she said.

While a video recording of an incident could help police make a decision about probable cause, if the police aren’t there to make an arrest, they can file an application for complaint, which the clerk magistrate can use at the hearing, said Broidrick.

The problem with the clerk-magistrate hearing, said McNeil, is that proceedings are private. With Pozerski being the wife of an officer at Sandwich Fire Department, McNeil said she thinks the public should know about what charges Pozerski is facing.

If the complaint moves forward to court after the magistrate hearing, details regarding the incident will be open to the public. If it's resolved in a hearing, details remain private, said Broidrick.

"That’s when you can make a request based on public interest," she said. "If it looks like something is happening that’s not proper, they (the clerk magistrate) have to explain themselves."

McNeil and her attorney try to obtain police report but were delayed

For a month following the incident, McNeil and her attorney were denied the police report by Sandwich Police, before Burchell obtained the report from Barnstable District Court on Dec. 9.

"I just wanted to know who I was dealing with for my own safety and the safety of my children," said McNeil. "I was looking for guidance from the police. I didn't know if I shouldn't drive through that neighborhood anymore. I was met with silence."

Lawrence said there are certain exemptions within the public records law that allows police to deny information to the public, even if a person is directly involved in an incident.

"One of those (exemptions) is the investigatory clause. The case is considered still under investigation at this point," he said.

McNeil said that Petersen, the police officer who wrote the report on the incident, left her a voicemail, which she made available to the Times, saying the investigation was concluded. Petersen left the voicemail after hand-delivering McNeil's citation to her residence on Nov. 6.

"His (Petersen) investigation is over but there is still a judicial process that takes place and that falls under that exemption," said Lawrence.

The time and date of the incident listed on the initial citation was incorrect, and delivered to a home McNeil owns in Sandwich, but no longer lives at. McNeil said she provided officers with her new address at the time of the incident.

McNeil said there are also significant errors within the police report, which she reported to Manley in an email, dated Dec. 15, which she provided to the Times.

Burchell, who is a former Barnstable police officer, said the police report also contains a significant amount of opinion.

"The report should be facts — that's it," said Burchell. "There is a lot of commentary and the report is slanted to make it seem like Cara was the aggressor."

Lawrence said the police report stands.

"That's what was sent down there (to the court) and that’s the way it’s going to stay. And that’s what a court is for. They battle it out down there," said Lawrence.

'She is the wife of someone who is in a position of power.'

For McNeil, the level of anger and aggression Pozerski exhibited throughout the incident is cause for concern for the entire Sandwich community.

"She is the wife of someone who is in a position of power. She shouldn't behave that way," McNeil said. "She was clearly in a rage."

In an email to the Times, John Burke, chief of the Sandwich Fire Department, said the incident involving Capt. Peter Pozerski's spouse has no relevance to his department because Pozerski was not present during the incident.

"He was not on duty at the time of the incident, and the incident did not occur on FD (Fire Department) property," Burke wrote. "This is a private matter that I will leave between the two parties involved."

McNeil said she will continue to push the issue until Pozerski is held responsible for her actions.