Sen. Marzilli Pleads Not Guilty to Assault Charges

Lawyers Says Client is Bipolar

– Allison Goldsberry

State Senator Jim Marzilli (D-Arlington) pleaded not guilty July 9 to charges of accosting and attempting to sexually assault four women on June 3 in Lowell.

Sen. Marzilli, 50, has been charged with four counts of annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex, and one count each of attempting to commit a crime (indecent assault and battery), disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

“These are troubling allegations in which Senator Marzilli is alleged to have engaged in a string of highly inappropriate and sexually explicit acts against four separate women,” said Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone.

Sen. Marzilli was arrested in Lowell on June 3 after allegedly harassing several women, including attempting to grope a woman on a park bench.

In an interview with WBZ-TV, one of the victims said Sen. Marzilli harrassed her while she waited for a bus on Central Street in Lowell. The 59-year-old woman said Sen. Marzilli approached her after looking at her several times and said hello. The woman said hello “to be friendly,” and then Sen. Marzilli, who had begun to talk away, turned around and allegedly asked the woman if she was wearing underwear.

The woman told the senator she was in fact wearing underwear and called him a “dirty pervert.” She said she did not report the incident to police until the next day after she had seen TV news reports about the senator’s arrest.

Sen. Marzilli has been free on $1,500 cash bail since pleading not guilty at an arraignment in Lowell District Court on June 4. His lawyer, Terrence Kennedy, maintains his client is innocent and says he is suffering from a “fairly serious mental health condition.”

The senator checked himself into McLean Hospital in Belmont several days after his arrest. An aide to the senator, Cindy Friedman, recently said Sen. Marzilli is suffering from bipolar disorder.

In a rare and unusual move, the state senate voted unanimously after Sen. Marzilli’s arraignment to launch an ethics investigation against the senator, according to a story published by the State House News Service. The results of the investigation will not be announced until after the criminal proceedings have been completed, which could take years.

Sen. Marzilli, a state representative for Arlington and Medford for nearly two decades before being elected to the State Senate in a special election last year, has dropped his bid for re-election to his senate seat in the fall.