BOSTON (AP) – A Boston parking meter attendant suffered first-and second-degree burns on her face and upper torso after a man angry over the $55 ticket she gave him allegedly threw hot coffee at her.

Christi Noviello, 44, was walking her beat in the Back Bay at about 8:30 on Thursday morning when she saw a Hummer parked in a loading zone with a woman in the passenger seat.

She gave the woman a chance to move the vehicle before writing a $55 ticket and slipping it under a windshield wiper.

“I am a nice meter maid,” Noviello told the Boston Herald. “As a courtesy, I gave the lady a chance to move, but she pointed at the Starbucks and refused.”

The driver, Francois Youhanna, came out of the coffee shop enraged, Noviello said.

“He started yelling I don’t accept this ticket”‘ she said. “He had a venti-sized cup of black coffee in his hand and he flung it right in my face.”

Starbucks employees rushed from the store with wet cloths to soothe the burns.

“I went down, I was panicking. It hurt so bad, I thought my face was falling off,” she said. “It was in my eyes, I was screaming.”

She was treated at New England Medical Center.

Youhanna was arrested and charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon -hot coffee.

He pleaded innocent in Boston Municipal Court on Thursday. He was released on personal recognizance and ordered to stay out of trouble and away from Noviello. He is scheduled back in court on Feb. 23.

Youhanna claimed that he spilled the coffee by mistake after slipping on some ice and falling, a claim that the woman in the Hummer corroborated. But witnesses said he charged at Noviello and threw the coffee.

Youhanna told police he owned Gavilier Security Patrol, a bodyguard service that lists his West Roxbury neighborhood home as the company’s address. A man who answered the phone hung up on the Herald without commenting on the incident.

Sixteen meter attendants were assaulted and 48 were threatened or harassed last year, said Tom Tinlin, deputy commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department.

“It’s appalling,” he said. “This behavior should not be tolerated in a civilized world.

“Christi is one of the nicest people I know. For her to be subjected to such behavior while performing your job is a disgrace.”

AP-ES-01-21-05 0438EST