An ex-city worker fired amid a Boston Metropolis Corridor love triangle scandal is petitioning the federal courtroom to launch police physique digital camera footage from the evening of her arrest that she says contradicts claims that she assaulted a police officer.
Marwa Khudaynazar, 27, filed a movement in Boston federal courtroom Wednesday as a part of her September lawsuit in opposition to the Metropolis of Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu, and Boston Police Officer Luke Payne that she claims will show that she by no means punched a feminine responding officer, as cited by Payne as the explanation for her arrest.
Khudaynazar, the town’s ex-chief of workers for the Workplace of Police Accountability and Transparency, says in her lawsuit she was “arrested because of her protected free speech” — for calling Payne a “dick” for the alleged racist remarks he made to her on the evening of the alleged home incident that led to the arrests and terminations of Khudaynazar and her then-boyfriend and ex-city worker Chulan Huang.
The lawsuit claims that Khudaynazar’s arrest “was contrary to Massachusetts law,” as a result of Payne didn’t witness the alleged assault on the opposite officer.
She mentioned that the police physique digital camera footage will assist her claims, and requested that the courtroom rethink its approval of a movement to seal the footage that was filed by Payne on Nov. 6. Payne had hooked up the physique digital camera footage from the Could 15 early morning arrest as a part of his movement to dismiss Khudaynazar’s grievance in opposition to him, per courtroom information.
Whereas Payne claims that the footage must be sealed as a result of it “contains sensitive information related to” the police division’s “ongoing criminal case and allegations of domestic violence,” Khudaynazar argues that the extraordinary public curiosity within the case and the harm to her fame outweighs privateness considerations.
“The plaintiff has been shunned by friends and society because the public believes that she punched a Boston Police Department officer,” the courtroom submitting made by Khudaynazar’s lawyer, Lucas Newbill states. “ She desperately needs the reality to be identified instantly — she didn’t.
“Substantively, the public’s right to know of police misconduct outweighs the unsworn-to conclusions in Payne’s motion to seal, particularly where here Payne argues that plaintiff is lying about the video, plaintiff’s reputation has been tarnished because of fodder of what happened, and the public is very interested in what actually happened,” Newbill wrote.
The movement to unseal the physique digital camera footage was beforehand reported by WBUR.
Khudaynazar additional argues by way of her lawyer that the physique cam footage could be proven publicly ought to her grievance in opposition to the town go to trial, whereas citing printed remarks made by Suffolk District Legal professional Kevin Hayden.
Her lawsuit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court docket on Sept. 17, however has since been moved to the U.S. District Court docket of Massachusetts.
Whereas Khudaynazar claims that the physique digital camera footage will present she by no means punched Payne’s accomplice, Officer Cris Santana, Payne’s movement to dismiss and seal the footage says the physique cam video will dispute her claims in opposition to him.
“The body camera footage is central to the allegations made by the plaintiff because it contradicts the allegations made against Officer Payne,” Payne’s lawyer and the town’s Company Counsel Adam Cederbaum wrote. “Here, given the sensitive nature of the videos and connection to plaintiff’s ongoing criminal case outweighs the public’s right of access.”
A federal choose agreed with Payne, and ordered the footage sealed. Khudaynazar filed a movement to rethink that call on Wednesday, together with an accompanying affidavit that claims she has seen the police video.
“I, Marwa Khudaynazar, do hereby depose and state that I never punched Officer Cris Santana,” she wrote. “I have witnessed the video and it does not show me punching her. Because of this false allegation, I have been shunned by friends and society because the public believes that I punched a Boston Police officer.”
The newest filings are a part of an explosive lawsuit filed by Khudaynazar, who says the town “destroyed” her life by unfairly firing her to guard a high Wu administration official she had accused of sexual misconduct and spare the mayor of a scandal throughout an election 12 months.
Khudaynazar claims that Segun Idowu, the town’s chief of financial alternative and inclusion, and the boss of her then-boyfriend Huang, propositioned her, which sparked the alleged home dispute between her and Huang that led to each of their arrests and dismissals days later by the town.
Idowu has denied any wrongdoing by way of his lawyer Jeffrey Robbins, whereas pointing to a city-commissioned investigation that discovered he didn’t violate any metropolis workforce insurance policies.
Wu has said Khudaynazar and Huang, the 26-year-old ex-neighborhood enterprise supervisor for the town’s Workplace of Financial Alternative and Inclusion, have been fired for his or her “invoking of official status” as metropolis staff to attempt to keep away from being arrested throughout a police response.
Khudaynazar disputes the mayor’s evaluation as a part of her lawsuit.
Khudaynazar allegedly instructed police that her boyfriend, Huang, was dishonest on her, and he or she went on a date together with his boss earlier that evening, per a Boston Police report.
Huang, who lives on the Chinatown condo the place the alleged incident befell, instructed one responding officer, “She went on a date with my boss.
“And then they booked a hotel and she came here to rub it in my face,” he mentioned.
Khudaynazar instructed police that she bit and punched Huang in self-defense when he was holding onto her wrists and wouldn’t let go.
She later mentioned she was mendacity when police went to arrest Huang, and tried to dam an officer from leaving the condo. Khudaynazar then allegedly “ripped her hand out of the officer’s hand and pushed the officer’s right hand and proceeded to strike the officer on the chest,” per the police report.
After police positioned Khudaynazar in handcuffs and introduced her to the cruiser, Huang allegedly uttered from the again of the car, “We both work for the city. This is unnecessary.”
