'Let Me Out of This Taxi!' Passenger Says on 911 Call From Taxi
Passenger begs to be freed from Boston cab, police say.
Nov. 16, 2010 — -- A Massachusetts cabbie was hit with kidnapping and other charges after he allegedly refused to let a fare leave his taxi.
Authorities say Osei Kwame, 51, sped through the streets of Boston around 2 a.m. on Saturday while his passenger, Kate Patterson, pleaded with him to let her out.
The cabbie was charged with kidnapping and failing to stop for police. He has denied any wrongdoing.
According to police accounts, Kwame picked up Patterson and another passenger and had taken them to the incorrect destination. When an argument developed over the fare, Kwame allegedly let one passenger leave, but hit the gas with Patterson still in the car.
"Let me out of this taxi! Let me out of this taxi!" Patterson could be heard saying on the 911 call that she made to police from inside the cab.
"Please help me," she pleaded. "I'm in a taxi that will not let me out ... ."
She also could be heard telling police that the cabbie was "driving really fast," and she narrated landmarks in the hope that police would catch up.
When they did, Kwame allegedly kept on driving in defiance of the blaring sirens.
He was eventually stopped and charged, but in an interview with WCVB-TV in Boston, he flatly denied the allegations. He said the passengers refused to pay, and that he was going by "procedures."
His friends say the passengers were in the wrong.
"They don't want to pay. He decided to take them back to the place where he picked them up, or the nearest police station. And that was what resulted in their kidnap case," Kwame's friend told WCVB-TV.
The cabbie was reportedly released on $750 bail and his license has been suspended pending the outcome of the court case.
