DA Won’t Prosecute Marzilli in Arlington Case
State Senator Jim Marzilli is pictured at left in court recently with his lawyer, Terrence Kennedy. Photo courtesy Gatehouse Media.
The following is a statement issued by Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone regarding a sexual assault complaint brought against State Senator Jim Marzilli by an Arlington woman in April. The DA has determined there is not enough evidence to criminally charge Sen. Marzilli for the Arlington complaint. Sen. Marzilli still faces charges he accosted four women in Lowell in June.
“We take all allegations of sexual assault extremely seriously. When this allegation was first brought to our office, no arrest had been made. We then spent more than five weeks attempting to build the case. Our extensive investigation included multiple interviews with the complainant herself, forensic analysis of evidence from the apartment in which the assault was alleged to have occurred, analysis of records, and numerous interviews with witnesses who spoke to both the complainant and Mr. Marzilli in the time prior to the alleged incident. Based on that investigation, we found numerous factual and legal deficiencies that precluded us from moving forward with a criminal prosecution.
After we announced that we were unable to move forward with a prosecution, a Cambridge District Court Clerk issued a complaint against Mr. Marzilli in connection with the same alleged Arlington incident. The complaint issued by the clerk was based on a much lower standard of proof than the one that we must meet in order to prosecute a case. It also was based on a small fraction of the information that we developed during our five-week investigation and since that time. The clerk reviewed one affidavit submitted by the complainant and her lawyer. During the hearing, the defense was not present, there was no interview of the complainant, there was no witness testimony, there was no additional investigation, and there was no attempt to corroborate any of the information provided in the affidavit.
We have since reviewed the affidavit filed with the clerk to compare with the evidence that we developed during our investigation. There is no new evidence provided in the affidavit that overcomes the significant factual and legal deficiencies that we uncovered during our investigation. As a result, we continue to be unable to move forward with a criminal prosecution and have filed a nolle prosequi of these charges.
We have spoken with the complainant numerous times throughout this process. Our decision that the evidence in this case does not support criminal charges should not be taken in any way as a sign that we did not take her or her allegations seriously. At the same time, we have an ethical and professional obligation to bring cases when the evidence meets a criminal standard of proof. This case does not meet that standard. The complainant still has numerous legal options to pursue beyond criminal prosecution if she so chooses.
We continue to move forward with our prosecution of Mr. Marzilli for the series of crimes that he is alleged to have committed in Lowell – crimes for which our office has indicted him. We will continue to move forward with our prosecution on behalf of the victims in that case.”
Past Coverage…