Marzilli victimized us, 2 more allege

Marzilli will not seek reelection.

Two more women came forward yesterday alleging they were victimized by state Senator J. James Marzilli Jr., including a minister who says the state senator made lewd comments and rubbed up against her at a 2006 Deval Patrick political rally attended by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The second woman, an unmarried mother of two, alleged that while spending the night in Marzilli's guest room Sept. 4, 2007, while his wife was away, she woke up with Marzilli on top of her. The woman worked for WAND, a nonprofit organization headed by Marzilli's wife, Susan Shaer, who fired her within days after another of Marzilli's alleged victims told Arlington police he groped her in April 2008.

The latest allegations were contained in a civil-rights lawsuit against Marzilli filed by attorney Wendy Murphy yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court. In the suit, Murphy asked for a court order barring Marzilli from "assaulting, threatening, intimidating, coercing, following, or harassing" his alleged victims or any other women. A hearing on the request was scheduled for July 31.

Marzilli remains in his Senate seat, but has said he will not seek reelection this year. Marzilli's lawyer, Terrence Kennedy, said yesterday that he had not yet received the complaint, and he would not comment on the new allegations.

Even though Marzilli is already facing criminal charges that he harassed and made sexual comments to four women in Lowell, Murphy said she is seeking a civil rights injunction because violating such an order carries a harsh penalty, up to 10 years in prison.

Murphy called the request "a novel legal proceeding.

"It's rarely done, but it can be done," she said. "This is the kind of case where you want to restrain the guy and hang a heavy, Damocles sword over him, so he does stop."

In her complaint, Murphy referred to a similar court order obtained in 1994 by Attorney General Scott Harshbarger against a Revere man with a history of violence against women, including his wife and three other women.

Kennedy said the judge who sat on Marzilli's arraignment in the four Lowell cases had issued "appropriate conditions of [Marzilli's] release." Those conditions did not include a sweeping injunction, but they did include an order that Marzilli stay out of Lowell.

Even though Marzilli was treated for bipolar disorder at Mclean Hospital, Kennedy said he doesn't intend to use mental illlness as a defense, but will challenge the evidence and the constitutionality of one of the crimes the senator is charged with, annoying and accosting a person of the opposite sex.

Shaer, executive director of Women's Action for New Directions in Arlington, said she did not know her former employee was making accusations against her husband until questioned yesterday by the Globe. The complaint suggests that when Shaer's employee went to police to report her allegations, she was fired in retaliation.

"Any implication that [her] termination was connected in any way with anything other than her job performance is simply untrue," Shaer said. "This is the first time I have ever heard of any accusation involving [her]. I'm shocked and saddened she would imply I would be anything other than professional about her job situation."

Earlier this week, Senate President Therese Murray rejected a request from Republican Senator Robert Hedlund, Republican of Weymouth, to strip Marzilli of his chairmanship of the Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Committee.

"The Senate has a process in place through its Committee on Ethics and Rules to discipline a senator if and when a legal matter is resolved," wrote Murray's spokesman David Falcone in an e-mailed response. In his letter to Murray, Hedlund said Marzilli is "clearly incapable of fulfilling his duties as chairman.

The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating whether Marzilli should be removed from office.