No charges to be filed against Arlington state senator

May 13, 2008 02:57 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

Middlesex County prosecutors said today that state Senator James Marzilli will not face charges for an incident last month in which a woman claimed that he had touched her inappropriately.

State Senator James Marzilli

Prosecutors said they conducted an investigation after police were summoned to an Arlington home in the early hours of April 6 and a woman alleged that Marzilli had touched her "inappropriately against her will."

Prosecutors said the investigation had included "multiple interviews" with the woman and additional witnesses who had seen her and Marzilli at a fund-raising event earlier that evening.

"Based on this investigation, it has been determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt against Mr. Marzilli in this case," the Middlesex district attorney's office said in statement.

Terrence Kennedy, Marzilli’s lawyer, said his client was grateful to prosecutors for conducting a “fair and thorough investigation.”

He said the decision not to prosecute “is exactly what the senator expected because he knew he was innocent of any wrongdoing.”

Marzilli, 49, of Arlington has been one of the leading liberal voices on Beacon Hill for nearly two decades, first as a state representative and more recently as a state senator.

He beat out three other Democrats in a primary Nov. 13 to fill the seat vacated by former Senator Robert A. Havern. He won a special general election in December.