BOSTON — The Ricardo Arroyo controversy is rocking the Boston City Council as President Ed Flynn has moved to strip Arroyo temporarily of his committee leadership roles, City Councilor Frank Baker has filed a formal records request into Arroyo — and Arroyo ally Councilor Kendra Lara has filed one on Baker.
The council’s agenda on Monday revealed the extent to which the old sexual assault investigations against Arroyo and his responses to them as he runs for DA have torn the council apart.
Flynn filed a notice that he’s removing Arroyo of his committee leadership for two months, a move Flynn can do unilaterally as president. Arroyo has been the council’s president pro tempore — which means he presides in the absence of the president — and head of the powerful government operations committee.
Flynn made City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune the temporary head of government ops and left the pro tempore slot blank, which means the oldest councilor, Liz Breadon, would preside under council rules.
A Boston Globe report last week unearthed two old sexual assault allegations into the 34-year-old Arroyo from a decade and a half ago, probes that didn’t lead to charges. Arroyo denies he did anything wrong and claims — though documentation from the time suggests otherwise, per the Globe — that he had no idea he was even being investigated.
Arroyo lost a few endorsers, including Flynn, but the rest of his allies have largely stood by him, including Mayor Michelle Wu, who told Politico this weekend after a few days of hemming and hawing that she’s not going to pull her endorsement.
On Friday, the Boston Herald reported that Baker, the district councilor from Dorchester and a supporter of current DA and Arroyo opponent Kevin Hayden, had filed a “17F” formal council public records request seeking documentation about the investigations into Arroyo and his school disciplinary records. Baker indeed has filed that request, according to the agenda.
Lara, a close ally of Arroyo’s who stood next to him last week in a news conference in which Arroyo denied all wrongdoing and went on the attack against Hayden, has filed her own 17F records request into Baker, seeking police reports, school discipline reports and more — the same categories as he sought regarding Arroyo.
Baker was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute pot at 25 in 1993, an incident that was reported on when he first ran for council a decade ago. Baker pleaded guilty after being indicted, according to reports at the time.
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