A second-term rep from Dorchester, Henriquez was found
guilty Wednesday on two counts of assault and battery on a young woman he had a
romantic/sexual interest in. Henriquez
was found innocent of three other charges in the case, which stems from an encounter
in a car parked on a quiet street in Arlington late one summer night in 2012.
From the outset, Henriquez, 37, has vigorously asserted his
innocence. He’s holding to that position
now that he’s begun serving a six-month sentence in the house of correction.
“None of this happened,” declared Stephanie Soriano-Mills,
Henriquez’s lawyer, soon after her client was led from the courtroom in cuffs. The verdict will absolutely be appealed, she
said.
Henriquez’s accuser took the witness stand, testified in
detail as to what Henriquez did in that car, withstood a scorching
cross-examination by Atty. Soriano-Mills, and convinced the jury that she had,
in fact, been assaulted. She alone
deserves our compassion at this point.
After he was arrested in July, 2012, Henriquez said in a
formal statement:
“Putting my hands on a woman is contradictory to my
upbringing and my own morals. As both a
community activist prior to getting elected and as an elected official, I have
spoken with hundreds of youth and adults about the problem of violence against
women. I have worked tirelessly with
multiple agencies and organizations who champion against the issue of domestic
violence. It is a mission I am committed
to in my personal and public life.”
The State House News Service reported that, when Judge
Michele Hogan sentenced Henriquez on Wednesday, she told him:
“You’re a successful, charismatic young man. You’re a pillar in the community. People admire you. They voted for you. They trust you. They trust your judgment. You’re a leader in that community and beyond.
“There’s much too much domestic violence in this country, in
this community. A woman and her word are
to be respected. When a woman tells you
she does not want to have sex, that means, ‘ I do not want to have sex.’ And after she says that you don’t hit her,
you don’t punch her, you don’t take her on a ride she doesn’t want to go on.”
The House of Representatives has the legal authority to
expel Henriquez if he does not resign.
There’s a formal process for the House to follow in a case like this. It must be initiated by the House Ethics
Committee, which was chaired until very recently by Boston’s new mayor, Marty
Walsh, a former legislator. The process
would culminate with a vote on expulsion by the entire body.
It’s hard to see how Henriquez could win such a vote. Who in the House is crazy enough to vote for
a convicted batterer?
Most reps would obviously prefer not to have to
deal with this because expulsion would
keep the case in the public eye. There could
be Henriquez stories in the media for weeks.
He can spare his colleagues that trouble by falling on his sword.
If you are sitting in a jail cell in Billerica, though, how
much can you worry about your co-workers who are free to go about their
lives? And do you want to take the chance of
under-cutting your claim of total innocence, even a bit, by resigning? Then there’s the potential that the expulsion
proceedings could become a high-profile forum to re-argue your innocence.
That’s why I think Henriquez will wait to be expelled.
Getting thrown out of the House will not add much to the
embarrassment he’s already suffered.
Should he be exonerated on appeal, he can claim he was doubly
victimized: first by the court system, then by the legislative system.
It’s not inconceivable that Henriquez, now justifiably
scorned as a woman abuser, could one day become an object of sympathy. The day could even come when sympathy helps
put him back in the legislature.
Stranger things have happened in Massachusetts politics.
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