Vile Viral Video Star's Raging Past

NOVEMBER 12--The Massachusetts woman seen delivering a racist rant on a viral YouTube video once threatened a cop that she would “chop off” his genitals after he arrested her for trespassing at a community theater rehearsal where she warned cast members they would “get it with a machine gun.”

Erika Winchester, 60, can be seen in the YouTube video using racial slurs as she berates a mailman outside her home in Hingham. The conformation, recorded by the postal worker, can be viewed below.

[The confrontation seen on the YouTube clips occurred last October 13, according to police, who learned of the incident from a postal supervisor. While the mailman involved, Hugson Jean, did not want to pursue charges against Winchester, police went to her home and conducted an interview. While denying that she struck the 48-year-old Jean, pictured at right, Winchester admitted to using racial slurs during her harangue, according to Hingham Police Lt. Michael Peraino.

After reviewing Jean’s video, police filed a criminal application before a clerk magistrate for assault and battery as a hate crime. At a court hearing last November, Jean’s lawyer appeared and said that his client did not want charges filed and would refuse to testify against Winchester. As such, the case was held in abeyance for a year, and will be formally disposed of on November 24.]

Police records show that Winchester was arrested in January 2007 after causing a disturbance at the Hingham National Guard Armory, where rehearsals were underway for an annual charity cabaret. Cops were summoned after Winchester made “frightening comments” to fellow cast members, according to a Hingham Police Department report.

A cabaret organizer told officers that Winchester told a cast member “that anyone who wrongs her would ‘get it with a machine gun.’” A second witness confirmed the threatening comment, adding that Winchester was “making off the wall comments about being wronged in the past.”

A source present during the disturbance confirmed that Winchester was the woman seen in the YouTube videos, adding that the clips have been widely exchanged among Hingham residents over the past week.

When officers asked Winchester to leave the armory, she refused, and “became immediately offensive.” Cops subsequently placed her under arrest, though she resisted when an officer sought to handcuff her. When she refused to get into the back of a police cruiser, Winchester had to be forced into the vehicle by three cops.

“While putting Winchester in my cruiser, “ Officer Philip Tracey reported, “she made the comment that she was going to chop off my genitals.”

Trespass, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest charges against Winchester were eventually dismissed, according to court records.

Winchester was also arrested in August 2005 for drunk driving after she crashed her Volvo through a street sign and narrowly missed driving head-on into a minivan, according to a police report. Cops found a bloodied Winchester, who reeked of booze, in front of her Kimball Beach Road home. There, one officer reported, “I saw her attempt to strike one of the paramedics.” As a result, police and rescue workers were "forced to restrain her in order for them to treat her injuries.”

While at a local hospital, Winchester--who told cops she consumed three glasses of wine before the accident--“at times would make odd statements and would go from being very polite to the hospital staff to rude and insulting.”

Winchester was charged with drunk driving, endangering, and leaving the scene of an accident. She subsequently entered a no contest plea to the drunk driving count and was ordered to attend an alcohol education program. Additionally, Winchester’s driver’s license was suspended for 45 days and she was ordered to pay restitution to the Town of Hingham for damage sustained during the crash. (5 pages)