Former Boston City Hall staffer claims Wu administration fired her to protect top aide

Khudaynazar accused police of exaggerating the incident by booking her with assaulting a law enforcement officer. An officer wrote in a report that Khudaynazar pulled her hand out of an officer’s grasp and “proceeded to strike” the officer’s chest. The report made no mention of an injury to the officer.

After Khudaynazar’s arrest, Wu told reporters that “it is never OK to harm a police officer.”

Khudaynazar believes she was fired quickly to insulate the mayor’s most prominent Cabinet chief, Segun Idowu, who was her boyfriend’s boss. The couple’s squabble was about Idowu, Khudaynazar said. Huang, who declined comment for this article, grew angry after she told him that Idowu had made sexual advances toward her.

Khudaynazar said she bumped into Idowu that night at Hue, a Back Bay bar, and he propositioned her, telling her he had rented a room at the Park Plaza Hotel and encouraging her to join him. She showed The Boston Globe texts from Idowu that appear to back up her contention.

“You’re my partner’s boss. You know that this isn’t appropriate,” Khudaynazar recalled thinking. “I told him before we left the bar, ‘I’ll take [you] to [your] hotel, but I’m not coming up.’”

After driving Idowu to the Park Plaza, Khudaynazar said she went to Huang’s apartment and told him about his boss’s overtures. It upset Huang, and triggered a dispute that led to Khudaynazar calling 911, according to Khudaynazar and a police report.

Idowu declined to answer questions from the Globe about whether he made advances to Khudaynazar. Through a lawyer, he denied engaging in any behavior that would constitute sexual harassment. Wu also declined an interview request and did not address most of the Globe’s written questions about Idowu.

The Wu administration’s communications chief, Jessicah Pierre, said in a statement that Khudaynazar and Huang were fired “after determining that they had attempted to invoke their public positions to avoid consequences of an altercation with Boston Police.”

Pierre added that Idowu was not involved in the decision to terminate Khudaynazar and Huang and that City Hall “has not received any allegations of sexual harassment regarding this matter.”

Khudaynazar showed the Globe a text message she said Idowu sent her at 12:47 a.m. that began with an upside-down smile emoji.

“I’m in the room,” the message reads. “I know you’re not gonna join me but I hope I’ve proven that I don’t talk shit and I mean what I say. Let me know when you get home.”

The Wu administration announced the firings of Khudaynazar and Huang, both 26, less than a week later. Both have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.

The city completed an internal review that led to their dismissal and “found no violations of laws or city workforce policies by any other city employees,” according to a statement from the Wu administration.

City policy bars conduct that “creates a work environment that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, humiliating or intimidating.” The harassment policy extends to off-the-clock behavior.

Thom K. Cope, an Arizona-based employment lawyer who has practiced for more than 50 years, said the Wu administration’s swift exoneration of Idowu “doesn’t really pass the smell test.”

“If I’m the employee, I’m saying, ‘He hit on me, he’s got the power over my boyfriend, it’s a coercion,’” Cope said. “I told him no, and then he came after me again and told me he was in the hotel room.”

Another human resources expert, Genea O. Bell, wondered whether the two lower-level staffers had any real power to exert over police.

“To go right to termination does seem extreme in this case,” said Bell, a New Jersey-based employment lawyer who for a decade led human resources departments. “I’m not sure if a reasonable police officer would’ve looked at the two of them and have felt the undue influence . . . that this person could cost me my badge.”

Idowu, 36, was not mentioned by name in Wu’s statement. But as Wu runs for reelection, her rivals have sought to capitalize on the incident.

City Councilor Ed Flynn, a frequent Wu critic, called for Idowu to be fired. Mayoral candidate Josh Kraft criticized Wu and said the mayor “needs to tell the public what she knows about” Idowu’s role.

Idowu is a rising political star whose portfolio is larger than his title as Wu’s chief of economic opportunity and inclusion. He is a perennial fixture on lists of the most influential Bostonians and has been touted as a future mayoral candidate.

Idowu declined a Globe interview request. His lawyer, Jeffrey Robbins, wrote in an email that Idowu was interviewed as part of City Hall’s investigation and there was “no finding of any improper, unethical or inappropriate conduct on his part was made, because he engaged in none.”

Robbins rejected “any suggestion by anyone that Mr. Idowu engaged in any form of sexual harassment whatsoever.”

Boston police denied a Globe record request for the officers’ body camera footage from that night, citing a state law that keeps police records involving domestic violence confidential. Khudaynazar has filed her own request for the footage but has yet to receive it. She believes critics have used the controversy to try to discredit the police accountability office and the body camera footage will show she did not misuse her City Hall position.

On the night of the incident, Khudaynazar said she went out to meet a girlfriend for drinks and bumped into Idowu at Hue. She said she joined him and they bought one another cocktails.

Khudaynazar said she and her friend spent much of the evening kvetching about dating.

Khudaynazar said Idowu made an advance once her friend left.

“He has a hand on my back, he’s whispering in my ear, we’re chatting really close,” Khudaynazar said. “He’s on his phone for a bit and then he just turns his phone toward me and is like, ‘I just booked a room, would love for you to join me.’”

Khudaynazar, who said she had three drinks, declined his offer but agreed to drive him to the hotel. Outside the bar, she said Idowu kissed her on the lips. Khudaynazar said that Idowu repeatedly asked her to reconsider, but she declined.

Later, at Huang’s Chinatown apartment, Khudaynazar told Huang his boss had tried to seduce her, showing him the texts. Huang got upset and snatched her phone away, Khudaynazar said.

She called police shortly after 2 a.m. Huang would not let go of her wrists, she said, so she bit him several times in self-defense. When police arrived, they handcuffed Huang, which upset Khudaynazar.

“I remember specifically telling the officer inside the house, you know, we both work together, we both work for the city,” Khudaynazar said. “If you’re looking at this like a domestic violence situation and you think I’m a victim, escalating this is not what I need.”

Khudaynazar asked the officers to call a supervisor, but they said one was not available. Khudaynazar mentioned her work at the city’s Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, she said, to underscore that she knew how domestic disputes could be de-escalated. “Never once was I like, ‘I work at OPAT; you can’t arrest me,’” she said.

City Hall human resources staff interviewed her four days later. She said they did not ask about Idowu or what occurred at the bar that night. They only wanted to know whether she told police she worked at City Hall.

In Khudaynazar’s May 20 termination letter, the city wrote she had requested not to discuss the events of that night — a claim that Khudaynazar disputed in writing. Khudaynazar had agreed to speak to investigators, the records show, but wrote she was doing so “under duress” because they moved so quickly she did not have time to hire a lawyer.

The termination letter also accused Khudaynazar of failing to get formal approval for medical leave. Khudaynazar disputed the allegation, saying she used sick time for recovery from recent hip replacement surgery.

Niki Griswold and Dugan Arnett of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Andrew Ryan can be reached at [email protected] or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at @andewryan.61