Marzilli Could Serve out Term as Lawyer Plans Defense

State Senator Jim Marzilli is pictured at left in court recently with his lawyer, Terrence Kennedy. Photo courtesy Gatehouse Media.

More Accusations for Marzilli; Calls for his Resignation Increase

– Bob Sprague, YourArlington.com

As calls mount for Arlington’s state senator to leave office — through resignation or removal — neither of these outcomes is yet expected to occur, and the senator may well serve out his term, ending in January, as his attorney readies a stout defense despite new accusations by more unidentified woman. One of them named in a lawsuit is allegedly a former employee of the senator’s wife.

Republican lawmakers have asked state senator J. James Marzilli (D-Arlington), indicted July 1 in cases involving four women in Lowell to resign his seat. Media organizations have run unscientific public-opinion polls asking whether Marzilli should be removed from office.

Marzilli has issued no comment about any public matter after saying June 5 that he was not seeking reelection. He remains in office, but he has been treated at McLean Hospital in Belmont since June 5 for an unspecified bipolar disorder.

Could Marzilli be removed from office?

David Falcone, press aide to Senate President Therese Murray, declined to discuss it, but The Boston Globe reported July 16 that he wrote in an e-mail:

“‘The Senate has a process in place through its Committee on Ethics and Rules to discipline a senator if and when a legal matter is resolved.'”

The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating whether Marzilli should be removed from office. In a rare and unusual move, the state senate voted unanimously after Marzilli was indicted to launch an investigation, the results of which won’t be announced until after the criminal proceedings have been completed. The Ethics Committee will likely using information gleaned from court cases.

It is expected the timeline for these procedures will continue at least until Marzilli’s term ends at the end of the year.

If Marzilli resigns, his current staff will continue their work until the end of the term, Brian McNiff, press officer for Secretary of State William Galvin, said July 14.

Marzilli’s chief aide, Cindy Friedman, elaborated in an e-mail July 14:

“If the senator resigned, the office would remain open, and the staff would continue to work until such time as a new senator was sworn in and seated — in this case, Jan 4 or so of 2009.

“The staff would represent the 4th Middlesex constituency (as it is doing right now), respond to local issues, help with home rule petitions before the Senate, and provide constituent services.”

The political issues swirling around Marzilli raises one set of questions, but the legal ones raise others.

The July 9 indictment filed in Lowell Superior Court by an attorney for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. lays out charges in four cases involving women in Lowell, all occurring on June 3. They focus on the charge of “accosting,” which basically means that one person is bothering another.

In an interview with YourArlington July 11, Marzilli’s attorney, Terrence A. Kennedy, discussed how he plans to defend his client against those charges.

First, he made clear does not intend to use the fact that Marzilli has been undergoing treatment for a bipolar disorder as a legal defense. A member of Marzilli’s staff confirmed that general diagnosis to YourArlington June 21.

Kennedy said he does not know any specifics about the disorder, which can result in wide mood swings. Nor could Kennedy say whether Marzilli remains at McLean.

As to the indictments, Kennedy said he intends to fight them all, focusing questions at the basis of each in fact and as to constitutional issues they raise.

He said he “would not address the facts of the case with the press,” but that “at this point in time, as with any case, he will look at legal challenges to what is underlying indictment.”

He said he planned to use the implications in Commonwealth v. McCarthy, a 1982 decision that says a valid indictment requires, at the least, that a grand jury hear sufficient evidence to establish the identity of the accused and probable cause to arrest him.

Kennedy asked whether the facts supported bringing an indictment and whether all counts would survive a constitutional challenge. That is, he explained, could these charges, in which women are making claims about a man, be sustained if the roles were reversed – if the charges were brought by a man against a woman?

He complained about media coverage of his statements following his client’s July 9 court appearance in Lowell. He said he had provided more explanation than had been reported and that, in one case, it appeared that a reporter did not wish to know more.

He said that when he tried to further explain his legal approach to veteran Channel 7 (WHDH) news reporter Victoria Block, she called what Kennedy was saying “legal mumbo-jumbo.” He scoffed at her characterization, saying that as a lawyer, “this is what I do.”

In suggesting further legal strategy, Kennedy said he would also consider seeking motions to suppress statements. He called it a “normal process.”

Kennedy expects to seek motions before July 28, the next hearing in this matter in Lowell Superior Court, which is expected to be before Judge Paul A. Chernoff.

Earlier Arlington case to be heard July 30

In addition, there is the accusation made in April by an unidentified Arlington woman. In May, Leone, the district attorney, decided evidence was insufficient to bring an indictment. Since then, the woman has hired Wendy Murphy — an attorney known for her defense of women, including a noted role in the Duke University lacrosse team rape case — is pursuing the Arlington case as a civil matter

That case has been continued twice — the latest time to July 30 in Cambridge District Court.

Kennedy, a graduate of Boston College Law School, has been a lawyer in private practice for 25 years.

A Timeline: Calls mount for resignation, removal

The editorial drumbeat for Sen. J. James Marzilli Jr. to resign his office is rising across the region. In Arlington, it began June 4, the day after he was accused of accosting four women in Lowell when Advocate Editor Nicole Laskowski published a brief editorial asking him “to think of his constituents and consider resigning from the state Senate to get his life in order.”

The state Republican Party kept up the beat later in June with www.marzilliwatch.com, a site that included a poll that pushed the envelope. It asked whether Marzilli should be removed from office.

Five GateHouse newspapers took that cue in July and asked a similar poll question in five of its newspapers. On July 10, it reported that 80 percent of respondents in the unscientific poll had chosen “yes.”

By July 10, a Lowell Sun editorialist wrote that Marzilli “is exhibiting considerable selfishness by insisting on hanging onto his seat despite knowing he will never again participate in another debate or cast another vote.”

Then on July 13, veteran Boston Globe op-ed columnist Joan Venocchi called for Marzilli to quit. She wrote:

“His political career is over, the result of his own destructive behavior. Ceding the title — and salary — of state senator is now a necessary formality.”

On July 15, the Boston Herald reported that state Senate President Therese Murray, Democrat of Plymouth, rejected the call from Sen. Robert Hedlund, Republican of Weymouth, to strip Marzilli of his chairmanship, which pays $7,500. That is in addition to his $58,000 annual salary. Marzilli is co-chair of the Tourism Arts and Cultural Development Committee.

On July 16, The Boston Globe reported followed an initial online report on Wickedlocal that a civil rights suit alleged more women say they were vicitmized.