Week in Review: Green Line Extension Holdup, Cop Charged with Assault, Markey Rips Tea Party

Here's some of the top stories from around Medford this week:

It's going to take at least a few more years than anticipated to complete the Green Line Extension Project, the Department of Transportation announced Monday. Following a four-month-long cost and schedule analysis, the Green Line Extension project team decided the completion of the project, previously projected for October 2015, will take until fall of 2018 at the soonest or summer 2020 at the latest, according to a press release from the Department of Transportation.

Markey Stands Against Debt Plan, Rips Tea Party: The debt ceiling plan passed Tuesday was fueled by "ideology-fueled Republican Party and its extreme Tea Party faction," according to Ed Markey, a Democrat who represents Medford in the House. “We are being forced to choose between the first default in our country’s history or trillions in cuts in investments that create jobs and benefit the lives of countless Americans across the country," Markey said in a statement Tuesday morning.

An off-duty Woburn Police officer allegedly repeatedly punched a woman in the face during an argument in Medford Square early Friday morning. Charles Stock, 44, of Woburn was charged with assault and battery. Stock, an officer with the Woburn Police Department has been placed on administrative leave while the charge pends, according to a statement from Woburn Police.

A woman involved in a three-car crash on I-93 Sunday should not have been behind the wheel to begin with, police said. Bruna P. Gomes, 29, of Weymouth was charged with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle after an accident on the southbound side of the highway near Roosevelt Circle about 8:40 p.m. Sunday night, said Massachusetts State police Lt. Matthew Murray.

An experienced prosecutor who had left the courtroom to write crime dramas in Hollywood has been appointed as a county prosecutor. Pamela Wechsler will serve as an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County Superior Court in Lowell as the newest member of Middlesex County Attorney Gerry Leone's prosecution team, Leone announced in a press release Tuesday. Wechsler, a Boston native and Tufts University graduate, has 15 years experience as a prosecutor at both the state and federal level. But she most recently worked writing scripts for crime television shows.