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After misconduct allegations, investigation finds top City Hall official did not violate policies
A former city employee who claimed she was fired to protect Segun Idowu, a prominent aid to Mayor Michelle Wu, declined to participate in the investigation.
An investigation into misconduct allegations against a top City Hall official found no evidence that he violated any policies, weeks after a former city worker said that she was fired in order to protect him.
The investigation revolved around Segun Idowu, the city’s chief of economic opportunity, and his role in an incident that led to the arrests of two other city employees who were dating. One of those employees told The Boston Globe that Idowu rented a hotel room and asked her to join him there. She reportedly refused, but a domestic incident broke out later when her boyfriend found out. That incident, which allegedly involved a physical altercation, led to the two employees being arrested and then fired.
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After the Globe report, the city contracted the law firm Stoneman, Chandler & Miller LLP to review the allegations. The firm sent a brief memo to top officials in the Wu administration Wednesday saying it concluded that Idowu did not violate any city policies.
“The investigation did not reveal any facts that suggest Mr. Idowu violated the City’s policy prohibiting sexual harassment, either by creating a hostile work environment or engaging in quid pro quo harassment, or any other workforce policies,” the firm concluded.
The former city employee that made the allegations against Idowu, Marwa Khudaynazar, declined to participate in the investigation. She also never reported the allegations made to the Globe to the city itself, according to the memo.
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“We’d like to thank Stoneman, Chandler & Miller LLP for their thorough examination of the matter,” a city spokesperson said in a statement.
Idowu said that the findings were a “vindication” that came after “weeks of politically motivated defamatory accusations and assaults on [his] character and work,” in a statement released to the Globe through his attorney.
Khudaynazar worked as the chief of staff at the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency and was dating Chulan Huang, a city neighborhood liaison. In May, police were called to a Chinatown apartment to respond to a domestic incident involving the two.
At the scene, Huang told police that the altercation stemmed from Khudaynazar going on a date with his “boss,” according to a police report. Officers observed bite marks on Huang’s chest and arms, police said, and found visible marks on Khudaynazar’s wrists.
Both were charged with assault and battery on a household member, and Khudaynazar was also charged with assault and battery on a police officer, according to court documents. Both pleaded not guilty.
During the police response, Khudaynazar and Huang told officers that they worked at City Hall, according to the report. They were both placed on unpaid leave and later fired, with the Wu administration saying that Khudaynazar and Huang tried to use their standing as city employees to avoid arrest. Khudaynazar rebuffed these claims in her interview with the Globe, saying that she and Huang’s comments were misinterpreted by city officials.
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Khudaynazar told the paper that she ran into Idowu in a Back Bay bar and that he propositioned her to join him in a room at the Park Plaza Hotel. He kissed her on the lips and she drove him to the hotel, but did not go up with him, Khudaynazar told the Globe. She said she showed Huang text messages from Idowu later that night, angering him and leading to the physical altercation.
Josh Kraft, Wu’s most prominent opponent in the mayoral election, said earlier that the saga represented a “management crisis” in City Hall under Wu’s watch and called for the city to be more transparent.
A spokesperson for Kraft declined to comment Thursday on the new findings.
City Councilor Ed Flynn, a frequent critic of Wu, called for Idowu to either resign or be fired in May. He and Councilor Erin Murphy filed a resolution pushing for “a fully independent, third-party investigation” into the matter, even after the Wu administration announced the Stoneman, Chandler & Miller LLP review. They said that this review would be “partially overseen and interacted with” by the Wu administration and was therefore insufficient.
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However, the resolution was blocked twice and Council President Ruthzee Louijeune determined that it was not appropriate for consideration by the Council because it concerns “specific employment action related to an individual’s employment” with the city. Murphy accused Louijeune of selectively applying council rules and undermining public trust in the body.
When reached for comment Thursday, Flynn took issue with the latest findings.
“No reasonable person thinks it is okay for a cabinet chief or superior to pursue their subordinates’ partners. That would clearly create a hostile work environment. There are also concerns on power dynamics at play when it comes to a cabinet chief and a city employee,” Flynn said in a statement. “As ambassadors for the city, public officials and those in positions of public trust need to maintain the strongest ethical standards. Unfortunately, these character issues continue to hurt the credibility of the city.”
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