Boston city employee fired after May arrest sues for wrongful termination
A former Boston City Hall employee who was fired earlier this year after she and her then-boyfriend were arrested following a domestic incident has sued, saying she was wrongfully terminated to protect Mayor Michelle Wu and her staff.
Marwa Khudaynazar, formerly chief of staff in the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court.
In her complaint, she alleged that the city's human resources staff did not give her a chance to tell her side of the story, and instead fired her to protect the reputation of a top city staffer.
She has previously said publicly that on the night in question, Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion Segun Idowu — her boyfriend's boss — propositioned her for sex and kissed her during a night out, prompting the argument with her boyfriend that led to the arrests.
"Khudaynazar was fired because her statements to the police regarding Mr. Idowu on the evening in question embarrassed Wu, and so damaged Wu's chances for reelection," her attorneys wrote in the complaint.
A spokesperson for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On the night of May 14, Khudaynazar went out to meet a friend at Hue Cafe in Copley Square Hotel to watch a Celtics game. While waiting for her friend, she ran into Idowu, who invited her to join him and bought her a drink.
Later, after her friend left, Khudaynazar spoke to Idowu again. During the conversation, he touched her lower back and showed her on his phone that he had a room booked at another hotel, inviting her to join him there, according to the complaint. She declined, but agreed to drive him to the hotel.
Before getting in the car, Idowu kissed Khudaynazar, her attorneys wrote. She dropped him off and then drove to her boyfriend, Chulan Huang's, apartment, and told him what happened.
Huang got angry, took Khudaynazar's phone and car and left, according to court documents. She called the police and Huang returned shortly before two Boston Police Department officers arrived.
Khudaynazar told the officers that Huang was upset because she "went on a date" with his boss and that he had grabbed her wrists and wouldn't let her go, but she didn't want to press charges. However, one of the officers, identified in the lawsuit as Luke Payne, arrested Huang anyway.
According to the complaint, Khudaynazar told the other officer that "they both work for the City, the Mayor's office, and so they know it's not a joke, and that she knows this does not need to escalate," asking for Huang not to be arrested. She also asked to speak to the officer's supervisor, but was told they were not available.
"Khudaynazar did not intend to use her status as a City employee to avoid Mr Huang's arrest; she had no power to wield," her attorneys wrote. "She was rather conveying that she is familiar with police and city procedure, she knows her rights, including her right to speak to a supervisor and she knows that her phone call to the police does not need to escalate into Mr. Huang's arrest."
Police have said that after the discussion with the officer, Khudaynazar struck her in the chest. Khudaynazar has denied this, and her attorneys wrote in the complaint that police body camera footage from the incident does not show this.
Outside of the apartment, Payne told Khudaynazar that she would not be arrested but would receive a summons for the alleged assault on the other officer, according to the complaint. She again asked to speak to a supervisor, and Payne denied her request, saying, "Am I speaking English?"
In the complaint, the attorneys wrote that the white police officer was posing a "racist rhetorical question" to Khudaynazar, an immigrant of color.
According to Khudaynazar's attorneys, she told Payne, "You don't have to be a dick to me." In response, he arrested her, saying he was doing so because she had assaulted the other officer.
When news of the arrests broke on the morning of May 15, the city announced that Khudaynazar and Huang were being put on unpaid leave. Khudaynazar was told she would have an "investigatory interview" early the following week.
She was unable to secure an attorney for the interview, but agreed to participate "under duress" so she could give her version of events, according to the complaint.
However, her attorneys say she was told in the meeting that she was being investigated for telling colleagues she was on FMLA leave after a surgery, when she was really on sick leave. She was officially terminated later that day.
Khudaynazar says she had applied for and was granted FMLA leave, but under city policy, was required to use all of her accrued sick time before FMLA went into effect. She was terminated before entering FMLA leave, while still on sick leave.
According to the complaint, the situation caused Khudaynazar financial, emotional and physical stress, including losing hair and her skin breaking out.
She has sued the city, Wu and Payne for retaliation in violation of her First Amendment right to free speech and for taking sick time.
She also claims the city defamed her by saying she was fired for ethical breaches when "the real reason was to protect Wu," failed to protect her privacy surrounding the domestic violence incident and failed to provide public records regarding her termination under state public records law.
She has requested a jury trial in the case.
More boston
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
