Nero said she is being made the scapegoat for countless vehicular indiscretions on the part of Phillips Brooks House drivers. She alleged that King himself had violated the vehicles policy on more than one occasion, a charge the president denied.

"The whole issue of this being a violation of [the deductible] statute of the insurance is just hogwash," Nero said.

"The issue is that we are trying to present ourselves as the best possible institution," she said. "There are rampant violations of the PBHA vehicles policy in our association."

With insurance costs rising and Harvard tightening regulations on the PBHA vans, Nero said King and other board members are looking for a head to hand to the University's insurance office is order to make peace for years of vehicles violations.

"Why single me out?" Nero asked in an interview Wednesday. "I think one of the reasons that I'm being singled out is that we need a scapegoat."

But an examination of the charges leveled against Nero shows she was not always honest in her dealings with the PBHA board and with her counselors at Academy Homes.

Three Accidents

The three driving accidents which resulted in the revocation of Nero's driving privileges occurred on July 5, 6 and 7 as the secretary carried her campers and fellow counselors to and from Academy Homes, the Roxbury development which houses the 15-year-old summer program.

According to both Nero and Smith, the July 5 accident involved a rear-ending at a Boston intersection. The case is under dispute because the driver of the other car claimed Nero's brake lights were not it.

On July 6, a truck passing the van on the right gouged its side and buckled its door hinges, Smith wrote. Nero said she did not notice the collision.

Nero took the van on an unauthorized U-turn on July 7. She completed it, but then hit an off-duty police officer who issued a citation on the spot.

In an August 9 letter to the PBHA board of directors, Nero said she was at fault only in the third accident. She also said Smith's instructions that she not drive after the accidents were unclear.

"Since it was not explicated, it was my judgment that this was subject to my evaluation, much like the vast majority of issues associated with the running of Academy Homes Summer Youth Enrichment Program," she wrote.

But Smith said Nero's driving was not a matter open to interpretation. In a letter to Garth O. McCavana, Nero's senior tutor in Kirkland House, Smith wrote:

"In the case of Ms. Nero, three accidents were reported within a seven day span; Lee Ann [Ross] and I revoked Harvetta's permission to continue operation the vehicles; and Harvetta blatantly drove them following this revocation. By her actions she has thus jeopardized the agreement under which the insurance is extended; has operated a motor vehicle illegally (without insurance, namely, as she is not insured without our authorization); she has risked the reputation of PBHA, Inc. operations in general."