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Cleared of attacking one woman, state senator arrested on charges of attacking another
By adamg on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 7:32pm
Jim Marzilli of Arlington was arrested today in Lowell, charged with attempted indecent assault and battery on a woman on a downtown street - in broad daylight.
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Comments
Stunned
This isn't like the Jim that I know ... but do we ever really know anyone (I haven't seen him in a year or so, either)? Makes me wonder if he has a brain tumor too? This certainly sounds like a mental or physical health issue has brought about a personality change.
Oh if it was only as simple
Oh if it was only as simple as every dirty birdie having a brain tumor.
This is different
This seems to be an abrupt change in personality. That rarely occurs without some underlying, often physical pathology.
I have spent a fair amount of time with Jim. More importantly, I know a lot of women who have spent a lot of time with him for various community causes and campaigns, and this is quite frankly a surprisingly shocking new behavior. I think he would have been caught long before this if it is something he has been doing all along. I don't think women have suddenly started to object to something he's been doing for years - this appears to be very recent, and that points to some underlying change that is very possibly physical.
absurdity
Sorry, but making excuses for a pervert such as 'makes me wonder if he has a brain tumor' is absurd and an insult to those who actually suffer from the dreadful infliction.
Ignorance and Inexperience
But you don't know this guy, and you cannot possibly comprehend how much a personality change this is. Do you have the medical knowledge to possibly understand what that could mean? I doubt that you do if you think that it is "absurd". Can you state the diagnostic criteria you consulted and the decision tree for that determination which rules out physiologic or psychologic pathology? It would be interesting if "personality changes" wasn't on your list, since it is a huge marker of risk for various insidious neurodegenerative diseases both malignant or "benign" in origin.
I doubt that you are old enough to have seen somebody degrade quickly like this before either - like a long-time friend and mentor of mine who went in a matter of months from a vital and productive professor and family man to a confused man with poor impulse control who had to be watched 24/7. We also had a neighbor who died of a brain pathology a few months after he suddenly left his wife and started acting in bizarre ways.
Would you prefer the standard masshole anonymous respsonses we get of "yooo don't nowww him -he coudnt done it, I noww he culdnt ... you is betr watchs yerslfs"?
There is something very wrong here ... given age, personality changes, etc. It could be drugs or alcohol, or pathologic changes to the areas of the brain responsible for impulse control. Either way, your denouncement of the possiblity as "absurd" is naive in the extreme.
Are you a doctor? I didn't think so.
You're naive in the extreme! A good friend of mine was diagnosed with a brain tumor one year ago. Exucsing a pervert's behavior to a brain tumor is an insult to people who have suffered from one! Are you a medical doctor? I highly doubt it. Your medical opinions are nothing, but ignorant opinions. Your arrogant attitude is infuriating.
no. really.
this kind of change in behavior really can be a sign of a physical problem. why do you find that infuriating? it's just how our minds work/fail to work. I've known a couple of people who exhibited extremely out-of-character anti-social behavior out of the blue--and it turned out to be, in one case, the first sign of schizophrenia and, in the other, a brain tumor. it' not an excuse. it's for real. nothing personal about it.
My Formal Name Includes Dr.
ScD in Epidemiology, with advanced coursework in pathophysiology at Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health.
I have also worked on formulating patient chart review case definitions of neurologic outcomes for epidemiologic studies of workplace exposures.
The simple, well vetted medical fact (included in diagnostic criteria for brain tumors) is that personality changes can signal a number of problematic neurologic conditions INCLUDING tumors. Personality changes may also proceed from drug/alcohol abuse, the onset of alzheimers, infectious processes resulting in masses, and hemhorragic situations.
Ted K. had seizures because the location of his lesion was in an area associated with movement. Some people have personality changes due to similar underlying pathology in areas of the brain that are "in charge" of impulse control, emotions, and social functioning. Your friend's brain tumor did different things to him/her I'm betting, also because of where it was located and what it destroyed.
So you can STFU about my "ignorance" of these things that I am professionally trained to understand - and you are obviously not if you can't even google "brain tumor personality change". You are the one who is stunningly ignorant here. This sort of denial of the breadth of expression of underlying disease pathologies can - and has - cost people their lives.
Another Doctor chimes in
Okay, yeah, I'm not a medical doctor either.
But one of my dissertation advisors (and a close personal friend) died of a brain tumor (a bunch of them, actually), and his behaviour in the months up to his diagnosis and death was increasingly peculiar. No, he didn't get all pervy, but he did act in socially inappropriate ways sometimes and at other times very paranoid. It's certainly possible for brain tumors to change personality, and I've seen it with mine own eyes.
So yeah, what Swirly said. Go educate yourself.
Let's face it, unless you're
Let's face it, unless you're the senator's doctor, you CANNOT diagnose him with a brain tumor. I do know that a brain tumor can alter one's personality, but Swirly's ridiculous assumption that he might have a brain tumor based on nothing but inappropriate interactions with women is laughable. If the senator is acutally diagnosed with a brain tumor, I'll eat my laptop. Satisfied?
Differential Diagnosis
I won't waste my time explaining what one is. Google is your friend.
Rereading is your friend
I think what Swirly said was she knew that this was a significant personality change and *that's* what caused her to posit brain tumor, not the specific behavior itself.
Who is diagnosing?
You seem to be pretty slow with English. Is it your native language?
Look up the word assumption and the word suggestion. There's a difference. What Swirly made was not a diagnosis, and not an assumption, but a suggestion. Her suggestion is not ridiculous.
not to mention
the word "might."
one last thought
"When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras".
Unless you live in Botswana.
I think you both need to calm down a bit.
WTF?
Looks like Green Line trains aren't the only
thing around here going off the tracks.
Guess the party
You are correct. The word "Democrat" is not found in the article. If he was a Republican it would be in the headline.
This is Massachusetts
The "D" is assumed.
There are only five Republican state senators
out of 40 total. It's safe to assume, even without reading the article, that none of the five are from Arlington.
This is a very sad story. Marzilli should not run for re-election. Unfortunately, it is now too late for him to withdraw his name from the primary ballot.
Even more allegations
Dan Kennedy rounds up the news from the Lowell Sun, the Globe and the Herald.
The Sun reports he may have tried something funny with another woman hours before the incident for which he was arrested.
Marzilli identified self as different state senator upon arrest
Boston.com: Prosecutor: Senator gave name of fellow lawmaker during arrest
Touched?
I gotta agree with Swirly. A fellow has to have something seriously wrong with him to think this is a good line.
I'd say that Marzilli himself is a bit touched. According to the Lowell Sun, a couple hours later, he's still roaming around and trying to grab women on park benches. Did someone slip le weekend in his coffee?
Agreed
He has quite an accomplished legislative record gained in large part by articulate, persistent persuasion. He definitely could do better.
(this is so depressing)
He needs to resign
I hate to say it, but I see no alternative. I assume that the short amount of time before the regular September primary means that a special election would not be necessary.
The Arlington Advocate story mentions that "Judge Neil Walker ordered Marzilli to stay out of Lowell before releasing him." -- which means he won't be at the Democratic State Convention this Saturday.
Resign and...
Resign and see a freaking neurologist. Or go to rehab, or whatever it is he really needs.
I didn't believe it before, but that lame pickup line convinced me. The man has got to be sick.
My money's on Rehab
It's de rigeur when a public figure
does something egregiously stupid, and then needs
to be perceived as "turning his life around."
Usual until proven guilty caveats.
I don't care if he's batarse
I don't care if he's batarse crazy, no excuses. It's not like *some* sexual predators are completely sane. And it's not like other sexual predators don't have productive lives outside of their extracurricular activities.
Making excuses only enables other deadbeats and puts their potential victims at risk.
I agree with Ron, he needs to resign.
Not an excuse
I didn't see anyone making excuses for Jim. It sucks because I've known him for eons, and as others have pointed out, it's not in the character of the man as we knew him in the past.
Of course he has to deal with the legal ramifications -- it certainly sounds like laws were broken. But he also needs some sort of medical / psychological help. Sad. I was looking forward to seeing him at the convention Saturday.
I'm also bummed because I participated in impugning the character of the woman who first accused Jim, just because she hired Wendy Murphy as an attorney.
I also agree that Marzilli needs to resign.
Legally crazy
IANAL, but I believe that being batarse crazy actually IS an excuse in terms of criminal prosecution - so long as you are so batarse crazy that you are deemed to be unable to control your behavior.
Like that woman in Southeastern MA who killed her baby a year or two ago ... she's locked up, sure, but wasn't even fit to stand criminal trial.
No need to quibble about
No need to quibble about that. As long as he is locked up, they can call it whatever they need to.
It's too bad that people aren't as enthusiastically supportive of the women who had to experience Marzilli in all his glory.
Even more women?
The Herald reports up to five other women are now talking to investigators.