A U.S. Secret Service driver for Michelle Obama in Massachusetts was criminally accused of threatening a woman he was dating for not wanting to sleep with him.
Douglas Vines, 53, has been suspended from his post in Martha’s Vineyard after he was charged with criminal harassment and witness intimidation in Edgartown District Court last week, according to the Vineyard Gazette.
Mr. Vines pleaded not guilty to both charges during an Oct. 6 hearing.
The charges stem from a Sept. 27 incident where Mr. Vines went “off the handle” when the woman he had been dating for over two months said she didn’t want to have sex with him one night, according to the Oaks Bluff police report obtained by CNN.
The woman told police Mr. Vines began shouting at her over the phone and texting her that she was “messing with the wrong person.”
“Vines is a driver for the Obama family, and, according to [the woman], used that position to intimidate [her], while attempting to get her to come back out and have sex with him,” the report stated.
That included threats to use secret recordings he had of the woman talking about her citizenship status in order to have her deported, according to the report.
She said in the report that he had also taken nude photos of her without her knowledge during the course of their relationship.
“Vines was also threatening to release the photos he had of her along with getting her deported if she went to the police,” according to the report.
He further told the woman, per the report, that he could get into her cellphone and that he had samples of her DNA.
Oaks Bluff police arrested Mr. Vines later on Sept. 27 and seized his service pistol and ammunition, according to the report. A temporary restraining order was issued against Mr. Vines that same night and he was released on personal recognizance with a bail warning.
A spokesperson for the Secret Service told CNN that Mr. Vines had been suspended and “his equipment and access to any Secret Service facility or protected site has also been suspended pending the criminal and administrative actions.”
He has been removed from the Obama family’s security detail for the time being, the spokesperson said.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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