Arroyo, sex assault victim take aim at Globe report, Hayden

Yawu Miller

Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO

A woman whom the Boston Globe alleged suspected Ricardo Arroyo of sexually assaulting her after she blacked out at a party in 2007 hit back at the daily newspaper in a statement released Wednesday stating that Arroyo was never a suspect in her assault and charging that an investigator hired by District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s campaign told her she would be part of a political scandal.

Speaking through an attorney, who read her statement during a press conference held by the Arroyo campaign, the woman said she repeatedly told the Globe that Arroyo, who was then 17 years old, had nothing to do with her assault.

“On August 16th I told the Globe that I do not associate anything that happened to me with Ricardo Arroyo,” she said in a statement read by attorney Brigite Melo-Cronin. “Despite me telling them this, the Globe continued to push me to say what they were alleging. On August 17th, I made it clear to them that Ricardo Arroyo never assaulted me. I am shocked, despite that, somehow, they still included me in their story.”

The Globe story, which appeared in on the front page of Wednesday’s edition of the newspaper, reported that Arroyo was also investigated in connection with a sexual assault charge from a 2005 case in which a girl claimed Arroyo pressured her into performing oral sex on him. Arroyo was not charged in that case. The Boston Globe acknowledged that the files on the cases they received were incomplete.

Arroyo said that in neither case was he interviewed by police nor told he was under investigation in connection with a crime.

“Until a week ago, I had never been informed there were any such complaints ever made,” Arroyo told reporters at the press conference, held at his Jamaica Plain campaign office. “I first learned of these complaints last week from the Boston Globe. I was never questioned by Boston Public School officials, the Boston Police Department or anyone relative to any such investigations.”

Arroyo said he learned after meeting with the Globe that the 2005 complaint was determined by police to be unfounded.

Had Arroyo been informed of the investigations, it would mean he lied on his application to be admitted to the Massachusetts bar, on which applicants are asked whether they’ve ever been investigated for any crime.

Police records state that a detective spoke to Arroyo and his attorney at the time, Jose Vincenty, according to the Globe report. Arroyo says Vincenty is a family friend who represented him in school-related issues not having to do with assault allegations.

The allegations were made public less than two weeks before the Sept. 6 primary election in which Arroyo will appear on the ballot with Hayden.

A spokesman for Hayden’s campaign denied the district attorney’s office leaked the police reports and accused Arroyo of lying.

“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 told the Boston Herald. “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.”

City Councilor Ed Flynn and former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III rescinded their endorsements of Arroyo as did Iron Workers Local 7. Mayor Michelle Wu told a Boston Globe reporter she is “watching to see how this story evolves.”

When asked about the allegations Wednesday morning on the podcast “Java With Jimmy,” Wu told host James Hills that sexual assault cases should not be made public and questioned how the Globe received the police reports involving women who were minors at the time.

“There are very serious protections on that kind of information and where it can go,” she said citing state laws barring release of police reports. “It is illegal to share that kind of information publicly. For the media to have it, it got leaked from one of two places that had this information before.”

Wu said the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office are the only two such entities and said that BPD officials assured her there was no leak from inside the department.

“There has not been recent access of these documents on our end,” she said.

The woman who was the subject of the 2007 investigation said in her statement that she is considering legal action.

“Leaking my records is a crime, and I will be exploring all my legal avenues in the coming days and weeks to address this harm that was done to me,” she said through her attorney.

Arroyo was accompanied at the Wednesday press conference by Boston city councilors Kendra Lara and Tania Fernandes Anderson and Chelsea City Councilor Damali Vidot.

Speaking to the Banner after the press conference, Lara urged voters to look carefully at the allegations against Arroyo.

“The allegations were investigated and determined to be unfounded,” she said. “The case was closed.”

The woman in the 2007 case, through her attorney, urged voters to support Arroyo.

“I ask everyone to join me rejecting these disgusting tactics by the Hayden campaign and to join me in supporting Ricardo Arroyo, who I believe is a good person who will support women like me,” her statement reads.