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Rep. Ayanna Pressley declined to say whether she would withdraw her support for District Attorney candidate Ricardo Arroyo, who is pushing for the release of police records that he says will exonerate him for past sexual assault allegations.
“I think we still have a lot to learn about this,” Pressley, a Democrat, told reporters Saturday at a campaign rally in Boston, where she endorsed Attorney General gubernatorial candidate Maura Healy and AG candidate Andrea Campbell.
“But today I’m here to talk about this justice seeker on the ballot and why we need her at this moment, and I’m going to vote,” she said, before abruptly shutting down media access.
While three other prominent endorsers, City Council President Ed Flynn, former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III and Ironworkers Local 7 withdrew their support for the Arroyo campaign in favor of the Suffolk District Attorney following a Globe report detailing allegations of sexual violence in Arroyo’s late teens. , Pressley is among those who remain silent on the matter.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declined to take a stand, and US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey ignored requests for comment on two previous complaints filed against Arroyo, who is currently vice president of the council.
In a statement given to the Herald, Arroyo said he supported pressure from fellow city councilman Frank Baker, who filed a “Section 17F” order urging Wu to release all documents “related to any Boston Police Department investigation.” candidate for district attorney, “while maintaining the privacy of the victims.”
“I have already requested these files from the Boston Police Department with patches to protect the privacy of applicants, and I also fully support these efforts,” Arroyo said.
“I know that the release of all documents, including those that were deliberately hidden by those who illegally leaked them, will confirm that the allegations were found to be unfounded.”
Arroyo, a 34-year-old Hyde Park councilor, denies allegations made against him when he was a teenager for which he was never prosecuted and criticized what he says were incomplete documents leaked from the office. rival District Attorney Kevin Hayden as a political hit.
Despite the controversy, several Arroyo council members continue to support him, including Tanya Fernandez Anderson and Kendra Lara, who reaffirmed their support on Saturday.
“I think this is a very obvious illegal leak from the office of District Attorney Kevin Hayden,” Lara said, adding that it was intended to influence the Sept. 6 primary. “The accusation was deemed unfounded and the case was closed. Councilor Arroyo has not been convicted of any wrongdoing.
Hayden responded to these claims by focusing on what he called the discrepancy between the Globe report and Arroyo’s changing history of what happened several decades ago.
“In recent Globe history, Ricardo Arroyo has been blatantly caught lying to reporters multiple times as he has made seemingly insane attempts to cover up troubling allegations against him,” Hayden’s rep said.
“In a statement he made after the fact, he continues to change his story, and also makes completely false and unfounded accusations to distract from his own wrongdoing,” he said.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Warren, Wu, and former Boston Mayor Kim Janey formally endorsed Shannon Liss-Riordan for attorney general at a Copley Square early voting rally.
Herald reporter Marie Sanislo contributed to this report.
