In the wake of the latest Boston Globe story detailing past allegations of sexual assault against Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, some of the most prominent backers of his campaign for Suffolk County District Attorney are retracting their support ahead of the Sept. 6 primary election.
On Tuesday, a week after the Globe first reported that Arroyo had been accused of sexual assault in 2005 and 2007, the paper published a piece featuring extensive quotes from the woman involved in the 2005 case, which was investigated when she and Arroyo were high-school students. In it, the woman decried the support Arroyo was continuing to receive from some of the biggest names in Massachusetts politics, including U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
“It makes me feel sick, sick to my stomach,” the woman, who was not named, said. “I see so many people continuing to endorse him without finding out more. As the potential DA, women are not going to feel safe calling [Arroyo’s] office. ... All those people will be afraid to come forward.”
The woman in the 2007 case, through a lawyer, said last week that she was never assaulted by Arroyo.
On Wednesday morning, Markey and Warren released a joint statement saying that, in the wake of the most recent Globe story, they were rescinding their endorsement of Arroyo.
Wu also released a statement Wednesday, in which she called the details contained in the Globe’s latest reportage “deeply troubling,” and said she “can no longer make a public recommendation for a candidate for this office.”
However, Wu’s statement also made clear she believes Arroyo is the target of a concerted and illegal smear campaign.
“Weeks before the election, incomplete Boston Police files naming Ricardo Arroyo and emails from unknown sources were leaked in violation of state law and reported on in the media,” Wu said. “The timing of the release and the fact that some documents were purposely withheld suggests this was a politically motivated leak.”
Pressley pulled her endorsement of Arroyo as well Wednesday.
“The events of the past two weeks have caused renewed trauma for all involved and deeply eroded public trust in our candidates,” she said in a statement.
GBH News asked the two Democratic candidates for Massachusetts attorney general — former Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell and labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan — if they believed Arroyo should remain in the race.
Campbell, who spoke after receiving the endorsement of her former rival Quentin Palfrey, did not directly answer the question.
"I will say I've always worked on issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse,” Campbell said. “They're all connected. And when a victim or survivor comes forward and exercises that courage, I applaud it.
“For me, as the next AG, I would continue to work on those issues which are still prevalent in Massachusetts and this country, shift the culture, reform systems as I did as a city councilor in Boston so they are not retraumatizing victims, so it’s easier for folks to get some justice in cases like this,“ she added.
The Liss-Riordan campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maura Healey, the current attorney general and favorite to become the next governor of Massachusetts, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several former Arroyo backers quickly rescinded their support after the Globe’s initial report, including Boston City Council President Ed Flynn, former Congressman Joe Kennedy III and Iron Workers Local 7.
Arroyo insists he is innocent. He has also said he was never informed of the allegations against him, and therefore did not mention them when asked on his state bar application if he’d ever been investigated for a felony or misdemeanor other than a minor traffic charge.
On Wednesday, Arroyo released a statement in which he described the allegations against him as groundless, and suggested the Globe has been selectively fed information aimed at casting him in the worst possible light. He also announced that he is suing the city to release a redacted police file on the 2005 case.
“I have never, as a minor or ever, sexually assaulted anyone,” Arroyo said.
“Through my lawyer, I have gone to Suffolk Superior Court seeking an emergency order giving me access to these files — with appropriate redactions to protect the identification of the individual,” he added. “Since being informed of these accusations by the Boston Globe, I have become aware that there was a written determination by law enforcement at the time that stated the allegations were unfounded.
“That portion of the illegally leaked file was not shared with the media,” he continued. “If the Superior Court grants me access to these files they will prove that law enforcement determined at the time that these claims were unfounded.”
Arroyo, who is currently the Boston city councilor for District 7, is a member of a local political dynasty.
His father, Felix D. Arroyo, is a former at-large councilor and school committee president who is now Suffolk County Register of Probate. His brother, Felix G. Arroyo, is a former at-large councilor and mayoral candidate who served as Boston’s health and human services chief under former Mayor Marty Walsh. Felix G. Arroyo was dismissed from that post after being accused of sexual harassment and subsequently sued the city.
Ricardo Arroyo is running for the Democratic nomination for Suffolk County District Attorney against Kevin Hayden, who was tapped by Gov. Charlie Baker to do the job on an interim basis after former Suffolk County D.A. Rachael Rollins became U.S. Attorney.
While Arroyo has cast himself as a reformist heir-in-waiting to Rollins, Hayden is campaigning as a more moderate and traditionally minded law-enforcement figure.
Before the Globe dropped its bombshell piece on the allegations against Arroyo, it published a story suggesting that Hayden had derailed an investigation into a road-rage incident involving two Transit Police officers.
A statement summarizing that story, and calling on Hayden to resign, is still pinned to the top of Arroyo’s Facebook page.
Katie Lannan and Saraya Wintersmith contributed reporting.
