U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley declined to say whether or not she could be rescinding her endorsement for district legal professional candidate Ricardo Arroyo, who’s pushing for the discharge of police data he says will exonerate him of previous sexual assault allegations.
“I think there’s a lot we’re still learning about that,” Pressley, a Democrat, informed reporters Saturday at a marketing campaign rally in Boston, the place she threw her help behind gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Maura Healey and AG hopeful Andrea Campbell.
“But today, I’m here to talk about this justice seeker on the ballot, and why we need her in this moment, and I’m gonna go vote,” she stated, earlier than abruptly ending the media availability.
While three different big-name endorsers, City Council President Ed Flynn, former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III and Ironworkers Local 7, rescinded their help for Arroyo’s marketing campaign for Suffolk DA following a Globe report that detailed allegations of sexual assault throughout Arroyo’s late teenage years, Pressley is amongst those that have remained mum on the matter.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has refused to take a place, and U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have ignored requests for touch upon the 2 previous complaints lobbied in opposition to Arroyo, who’s at present the council vp.
In an announcement shared with the Herald, Arroyo stated he helps a push from his fellow City Councilor Frank Baker, who has filed a “Section 17F” order, calling for Wu to launch all paperwork “related to any of the Boston Police Department’s investigation” of the DA candidate, “while preserving the victims’ privacy.”
“I have already asked for these files from the Boston Police Department, with redactions to protect the privacy of the complainants, and I fully support this effort as well,” Arroyo stated.
“I know that the release of all the documents, including the ones that have been intentionally withheld by those who illegally leaked them, will confirm that the allegations were determined to be unfounded.”
Arroyo, a 34-year-old councilor from Hyde Park, has denied the allegations lobbied in opposition to him when he was a youngster, for which he was by no means criminally charged, and blasted what he stated have been incomplete paperwork leaked by rival DA Kevin Hayden’s workplace as a political hit job.
Despite the controversy, a number of of Arroyo’s fellow councilors proceed to face by him, together with Tania Fernandes Anderson and Kendra Lara, who reiterated her help on Saturday.
“I think that it’s very obviously an illegal leak from DA Kevin Hayden’s office,” Lara stated, including that it was geared toward impacting the Sept. 6 major. “The accusation was found to be unfounded and the case was closed. Councilor Arroyo hasn’t been found of any wrongdoing by anyone.”
Hayden has responded to these claims by specializing in what he described as disparities between the Globe’s report and Arroyo’s altering story about what occurred a long time in the past.
“In the recent Globe story Ricardo Arroyo was clearly caught lying multiple times to reporters as he made seemingly frantic attempts to cover up the disturbing accusations against him,” a Hayden spokesman stated.
“In the statement he put out after the fact he continues to change his story while also tossing out completely false and unfounded accusations in order to deflect from his own misconduct,” he stated.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Warren, Wu and former Boston Mayor Kim Janey formally endorsed Shannon Liss-Riordan for legal professional basic at an early vote rally in Copley Square.
Herald reporter Marie Szaniszlo contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”