Groveland man, 65, to be charged after confrontation with 21-year-old woman, police say

GROVELAND, Mass. — A 65-year-old Groveland man will be charged in connection to an incident, in which a woman says he followed her and accosted her for running an errand in his neighborhood.

The man, who has not been identified, will be the subject of a criminal summons for charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, Groveland police said in a statement sent to Boston 25 News Thursday.

“Through their investigation, Groveland Police determined that the man had disturbed neighbors during the incident, and another motorist reported having to drive off the roadway to avoid him while he was allegedly engaged in a verbal altercation with the woman he followed,” the statement read.

A three-minute portion of the incident was captured on a cell phone from the woman’s car. The 21-year-old Black woman, who did not want to be identified by name, had driven to Juniper Terrace Monday afternoon after seeing a Facebook post from another resident who was giving away extra dog food.

She grabbed her dog and took a 6-minute ride away from her Groveland house. As she grabbed the dog food from the person’s front lawn, she says, she noticed a man in a BMW convertible following her.

The woman told Boston 25 News that she was feeling hurt.

“I saw a post on the Groveland town page saying that someone had excess dog food that they were looking to give away,” the woman said.

In the video, the man pulled alongside her parked car and asked her numerous questions about her stop on Juniper Terrace. The following is a transcription of that portion of the video:

• WOMAN: “Actually, if you want to look at the Town Crier, someone offered a bag of dog food, which I have in the back of my vehicle.”
• MAN: “On, on, on…[inaudible]”
• WOMAN: “On Juniper, yup.”
• MAN: “On Juniper Terrace? Where, where?”
• WOMAN: “That doesn’t matter.”

The woman later said she did not feel safe, before the man responded:

“I don’t feel safe with you driving around my neighborhood,” he told her.

She asked if it was due to the color of her skin; he said it was not.

The 21-year-old said the man followed her for at least a mile.

“Once I started to get closer to my house I’m like, ‘This guy is definitely following me.' I started to get really nervous,” said the woman.

“I really feel it was racially motivated. If it was any other white person that just drove up there, I don’t think he would be suspicious,” said the woman.

Police said the man is known to authorities following interactions with other people, but did not specify the nature of those issues.

Boston 25 attempted to get a comment from the man several times earlier this week, but a landscaping truck was barricading the entrance to his house. Boston 25 also left multiple messages on the man’s voicemail and he did not respond with a comment.

The woman told Boston 25 News she wants people to learn from this and get out of the small town bubble mentality.

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