Middlesex DA won't prosecute Marzilli over Arlington women's claims

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. is refusing to prosecute a criminal complaint charging state Senator J. James Marzilli Jr. with sexually assaulting an Arlington woman, filing a notice in Cambridge District Court today that he will not process the case.

Charges that Marzilli assaulted four other women in Lowell continue in Middlesex Superior Court.

The notice filed in the Cambridge case effectively corks any legal remedy the Arlington woman had in bringing criminal charges against the Arlington senator, who she accused of sexually assaulting her when he brought her home after an arts event.

The woman had achieved a minor legal victory last month when a Cambridge District Court magistrate issued a criminal complaint against Marzilli, charging him with two counts of assault and battery.

But Leone, as district attorney, has the final authority to prosecute, and he has long argued that the case lacks the evidence to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt," the benchmark in securing a conviction, that Marzilli assaulted the woman. He said the clerk magistrate has a lower standards to follow in issuing a complaint, but that the evidence in the case would not hold up in a criminal trial.

Leone said his decision was based on an investigation into the woman's complaint and the evidence that was submitted during the magistrate's hearings.

"Our decision that the evidence in this case does not support criminal charges should not be taken in any way as a sign that we did not take her or her allegations seriously," Leone said in a prepared statement.

"At the same time, we have an ethical and professional obligation to bring cases when the evidence meets a criminal standard of proof. This case does not meet that standard."