GLOUCESTER, Mass. (Court TV) — A Massachusetts woman has filed a lawsuit against her longtime friend, saying that after refusing to pay back a loan, her friend attempted to kill her using a rag soaked in WD-40.
Phyllis Palazzola is facing a civil lawsuit and criminal charges following the alleged incident at her home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. While the incident allegedly happened in 2024, a grand jury handed down an indictment this week charging Palazzola with attempted murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and intimidating a witness.
Phyllis Palazzola is accused of attacking her friend at her home. (Google Maps)
The alleged victim said in a complaint reviewed by Court TV that the problems with her friend began with a loan. In 2021, Palazzola was allegedly facing insurance fraud charges and asked her friend for money to help defend herself. In October and November, the same friend gave Palazzola checks for $15,000 and $25,000; in February 2022, the alleged victim gave Palazzola a third check for $120,000. Attached to the civil complaint is a copy of a promissory note signed by both women saying that Palazzola would repay $180,000 by July 12, 2022. If the money was not repaid, the note allowed the alleged victim to place a lien on Palazzola’s Gloucester home.
The complaint alleges that Palazzola failed to repay any of the money, despite her friend’s repeated requests. Finally, on Jan. 3, 2024, Palazzola allegedly contacted her friend and asked to meet “under the auspices of going to a local bank together to withdraw the money owed.”
After the alleged victim got into Palazzola’s car, she said, they did not go to a bank but instead went to Palazzola’s home, where she was allegedly physically attacked. The complaint says that Palazzola “took a rag or cloth soaked in WD-40, which she had retrieved from her home, and forcibly held it against [the alleged victim’s] face in an attempt to render her unconscious.”
The alleged victim said she escaped from Palazzola and ran back to her own car, but was unable to keep her friend from getting into the vehicle. Fearing for her life, she began recording a conversation that would span 14 minutes on her phone; in that conversation, she said, Palazzola “admitted that she attempted to sedate [the alleged victim] with the WD-40 so she could then drive off a bridge, killing them both,” the complaint says. “I was gonna kill us both,” Palazzola is quoted as saying. “I figured that I’d drive off and [it] would look like an accident that we both died.”
Palazzola is scheduled to appear in court for her arraignment on July 21.
