Boston Policewoman brings search for twin sister to Lynn, reality TV

LYNN – TNT television network’s new police reality show slated to debut on Feb. 27 includes an episode filmed partly in Lynn and featuring twin sisters on opposite sides of the law.In a scene from “Boston’s Finest,” Boston Police Officer Jennifer Penton asks Lynn police officers for help in locating her twin sister, Melissa, a 30-year-old local woman who Lynn Police Lt. Christopher Kelly said is known to local police through several arrests.TNT filmed the scene last Nov. 30 in the lobby of the Washington Street police station.”The lobby was full of people. It was a full-blown production,” said Kelly.The network describes “Boston’s Finest” on its website as an “up-close and very personal” look at several Boston Police Department members, including Jennifer Penton, an Afghan war veteran who, according to a description provided by TNT’s Kristina Stafford, “patrols Boston with a rare intensity and sense of purpose particularly when it comes to getting drugs off the street.”Neither Jennifer nor Melissa Penton could not be reached for comment but, in an interview on TNT’s website, Jennifer talks about her job.”We’re on the front lines. We’re first to get information; first to show up on the scene,” the interview quotes her as saying.Kelly said TNT producers filming the Lynn episode told him “Boston’s Finest” focuses on officers’ lives on the job and off-duty.”They explained that Jennifer wanted to come to the station as part of her attempt to reconnect with her twin sister, Melissa. She wanted to reach out and try to help her sister. I confirmed we’d had dealings with Melissa and she had been arrested on previous occasions by us,” Kelly said.According to District Court records, Melissa Penton has been arrested several times, including last June 24 when she was charged with Class A drug possession and two motor vehicle offenses.A police report filed in court describes how a Howard Street resident saw Melissa Penton drive a car onto the sidewalk, “nearly missing a small female child.”Officers who questioned Melissa Penton at the scene wrote in the report that “?her arms were ravaged from the obvious signs of heroin use that had taken its toll on the woman’s body?”Penton, according to the report, told officers, “I have heroin in my bra,” and told them she was driving home. The report listed her address in Peabody.According to court paperwork, Melissa Penton pleaded guilty to Class A possession on Sept. 26, 2012 and was placed on probation for two years.In the scene filmed at the station, Lt. Vernon “Skip” Coleman pores through computerized records for information on Penton. Coleman said the Lynn angle in “Boston’s Finest” surprised him but he said he spent three hours participating in the production.”I had no idea I was going to be involved – it was kind of fun,” he said.Stafford said the episode featuring Jennifer Penton’s search for her sister airs on Wednesday, March 6 at 9 p.m. on TNT and is titled, “Everything Is Personal.””I honestly don’t know how it ends,” Kelly said.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].