Boston City Councilor Enters Plea In Crash With Child In Car: Report

BOSTON, MA — Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara pleaded not guilty to all charges on Wednesday after she was accused in June of crashing into a Jamaica Plain house while her young son was in the car with her, The Boston Globe reported.

According to Boston25, Lara first faced a charge of driving a car with a suspended license. On Wednesday morning, a West Roxbury Division of Boston Municipal Court judge decided she will also face charges of operating negligently so as to endanger and recklessly permitting bodily injury to a child under 14. In addition, the car Lara was driving was unregistered and uninsured, Boston25 reported.

Lara was ordered Wednesday not to drive without a license and released until her next court date on Aug. 16, according to the Globe.

"I just want to reiterate that I am wanting to be fully accountable for my mistake and I plan on doing everything possible to remedy any issues," Lara said in a video shared by Boston25 reporter Julianne Lima outside the court ahead of Lara's probable cause hearing Wednesday.

"I want to say that there are often circumstances that prevent good people from checking off all of their boxes and that sometimes manifest themselves as things like unpaid fines," Lara continued. "I know that as an elected official I have to hold myself to a higher standard and I intend to do that; and I also know that because of the situation that I find myself in today, I understand intimately the challenges that my constituents are struggling with."

Georgia Kalogerakis, who lives in the home that Lara allegedly hit in the crash, also spoke to reporters at the scene in another video shared by Lima.

"The car hit the foundation of my house. It moved the porch over. Forget about the bush and the fence ... [there seems to have been] no attempt for safety to stop the car before it hit the house," Kalogerakis said. "We have to be responsible for our actions and we have to be accountable for them."

Lara was driving more than double the speed limit when her car went through a fence before crashing into a Centre Street home on the afternoon of June 30, according to a police report.

Police said Lara was driving 53 miles per hour in 25 mile per hour zone and hasn't had a valid license since it was revoked 10 years ago.

According to police, Lara's four-year-old son was in the car, but was not in a proper booster seat, as required by law. The boy went to Boston Children's Hospital and ended up with several stitches over his left eye, police said.