Staffer fired amid Boston City Hall love triangle scandal seeks release of police body cam footage from her arrest

An ex-city employee fired amid a Boston City Hall love triangle scandal is petitioning the federal court to release police body camera footage from the night of her arrest that she says contradicts claims that she assaulted a police officer.

Marwa Khudaynazar, 27, filed a motion in Boston federal court Wednesday as part of her September lawsuit against the City of Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu, and Boston Police Officer Luke Payne that she claims will prove that she never punched a female responding officer, as cited by Payne as the reason for her arrest.

Khudaynazar, the city’s ex-chief of staff for the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, says in her lawsuit she was “arrested because of her protected free speech” — for calling Payne a “dick” for the alleged racist remarks he made to her on the night of the alleged domestic incident that led to the arrests and terminations of Khudaynazar and her then-boyfriend and ex-city employee Chulan Huang.

The lawsuit claims that Khudaynazar’s arrest “was contrary to Massachusetts law,” because Payne did not witness the alleged assault on the other officer.

She said that the police body camera footage will support her claims, and asked that the court reconsider its approval of a motion to seal the footage that was filed by Payne on Nov. 6. Payne had attached the body camera footage from the May 15 early morning arrest as part of his motion to dismiss Khudaynazar’s complaint against him, per court records.

While Payne claims that the footage should be sealed because it “contains sensitive information related to” the police department’s “ongoing criminal case and allegations of domestic violence,” Khudaynazar argues that the intense public interest in the case and the damage to her reputation outweighs privacy concerns.

“The plaintiff has been shunned by friends and society because the public believes that she punched a Boston Police Department officer,” the court filing made by Khudaynazar’s attorney, Lucas Newbill states. “ She desperately wants the truth to be known immediately — she did not.

“Substantively, the public’s right to know of police misconduct outweighs the unsworn-to conclusions in Payne’s motion to seal, particularly where here Payne argues that plaintiff is lying about the video, plaintiff’s reputation has been tarnished because of fodder of what happened, and the public is very interested in what actually happened,” Newbill wrote.

The motion to unseal the body camera footage was previously reported by WBUR.

Khudaynazar further argues through her attorney that the body cam footage would be shown publicly should her complaint against the city go to trial, while citing published remarks made by Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden.

Her lawsuit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Sept. 17, but has since been moved to the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts.

While Khudaynazar claims that the body camera footage will show she never punched Payne’s partner, Officer Cris Santana, Payne’s motion to dismiss and seal the footage says the body cam video will dispute her claims against him.

“The body camera footage is central to the allegations made by the plaintiff because it contradicts the allegations made against Officer Payne,” Payne’s attorney and the city’s Corporation Counsel Adam Cederbaum wrote. “Here, given the sensitive nature of the videos and connection to plaintiff’s ongoing criminal case outweighs the public’s right of access.”

A federal judge agreed with Payne, and ordered the footage sealed. Khudaynazar filed a motion to reconsider that decision on Wednesday, along with an accompanying affidavit that says she has viewed the police video.

“I, Marwa Khudaynazar, do hereby depose and state that I never punched Officer Cris Santana,” she wrote. “I have witnessed the video and it does not show me punching her. Because of this false allegation, I have been shunned by friends and society because the public believes that I punched a Boston Police officer.”

The latest filings are part of an explosive lawsuit filed by Khudaynazar, who says the city “destroyed” her life by unfairly firing her to protect a top Wu administration official she had accused of sexual misconduct and spare the mayor of a scandal during an election year.

Khudaynazar claims that Segun Idowu, the city’s chief of economic opportunity and inclusion, and the boss of her then-boyfriend Huang, propositioned her, which sparked the alleged domestic dispute between her and Huang that led to both of their arrests and dismissals days later by the city.

Idowu has denied any wrongdoing through his attorney Jeffrey Robbins, while pointing to a city-commissioned investigation that found he did not violate any city workforce policies.

Wu has stated Khudaynazar and Huang, the 26-year-old ex-neighborhood business manager for the city’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, were fired for their “invoking of official status” as city employees to try to avoid being arrested during a police response.

Khudaynazar disputes the mayor’s assessment as part of her lawsuit.

Khudaynazar allegedly told police that her boyfriend, Huang, was cheating on her, and she went on a date with his boss earlier that night, per a Boston Police report.

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Huang, who lives at the Chinatown apartment where the alleged incident took place, told one responding officer, “She went on a date with my boss.

“And then they booked a hotel and she came here to rub it in my face,” he said.

Khudaynazar told police that she bit and punched Huang in self-defense when he was holding onto her wrists and wouldn’t let go.

She later said she was lying when police went to arrest Huang, and tried to block an officer from leaving the apartment. Khudaynazar then allegedly “ripped her hand out of the officer’s hand and pushed the officer’s right hand and proceeded to strike the officer on the chest,” per the police report.

After police placed Khudaynazar in handcuffs and brought her to the cruiser, Huang allegedly uttered from the back of the vehicle, “We both work for the city. This is unnecessary.”

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