The race for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office is in upheaval after a campaign bombshell.
It’s been revealed that one of the candidates, Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo was once investigated for sexual assault. Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing and that he wasn’t aware of any investigation. He also sent out police documents that could clear his name. In one document, the detective investigating the 2005 accusation cleared the case as “unfounded” and went on to say there was no crime committed. More on the documents here.
His opponent, Interim Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, released a statement today saying he remains unconvinced.
“Nothing in the file suggests or indicated that the allegations were unfounded. Also, nothing in the file questions the validity of the victim’s statements,” Hayden said.
It’s worth noting that the documents released to the public came heavily redacted.
Arroyo sat down with NBC10 Boston’s Latoyia Edwards for an exclusive interview to discuss his side of the story.
Arroyo arrived to the interview upbeat and said he felt vindicated and was eager to show the newly released documents and point out exactly where the accuser’s claims were found to be “unfounded.”
The most surprising answer came when Arroyo was asked who he thought illegally leaked the investigation against him 17 years ago, and most shocking was how he thinks that person illegally got the file.
“The detective who closed my case who came to the conclusion it was unfounded is actually Kevin Hayden’s driver. And so I think that the connections that we continue to find are troubling. He hasn’t addressed them, ever. Again, back to my call for an independent investigation – he never did an internal investigation, and now we find, because I finally have documents that nobody thought I would ever be able to get, that the detective on this case was Kevin Hayden’s driver.”
Arroyo said he believes the leak was intentional.
Hayden is also facing controversy. He came under fire following a Boston Globe report about his office’s handling of a 2021 case against an MBTA Transit Police officer who allegedly pulled a gun on a driver while off-duty. The newspaper reported that an investigation launched by then-District Attorney Rachael Rollins stalled after Hayden took over.
Read More: Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo Speaks About Sexual Assault Investigation –