Jim Marzilli from Facebook, according to NECN.
UPDATED, Jan. 31: Former state Sen. James Marzilli pleaded guilty to violating his probation at a brief hearing Wednesday, Jan. 27, New England Cable News (NECN) reported.
Marzilli, who pleaded guilty in 2011 of sexually harassing four women, volunteered last year at a school in Burma, and it later banned him for inappropriate conduct, reported NECN, which broke the story about overseas travel in November.
The probation violation focused on his travel and not what happened at the school. A judge had authorized Marzilli to travel to Burma, but prosecutors argued that a trip he took to Thailand was not authorized.
Marzilli’s attorney had argued that he satisfied the probation condition by sending an email saying that he might need to go to Thailand for a medical condition. The probation department accepted $1,000 in court fees Jan. 27, which will be donated to the Hope & Healing charity. Marzilli, formerly of Arlington, was released and his probation continued to the original end date of Feb. 22.
NECN report in November that Marzilli had been allowed to leave the country five times in the past four years while serving probation.
In an investigation, the station said Marzilli vacationed and taught civics in Burma, where his behavior apparently turned bizarre. His requests for travel have been denied by the probation department but approved by a judge on appeal each time, the station reported.
Marzilli served a three-month sentence after pleading guilty to charges of sexually harassing four women.
In a Nov. 20 story, The Globe’s Frank Phillips wrote of the “serious, often annoyingly wonky, legislator” that in 2008, after police chased him down in a Lowell garage, he identified himself as Marty Walsh, the future Boston mayor.
NECN reported Marzilli recently surfaced at a school in Myanmar, where he successfully taught a 10-week civics course two years in a row. But in the third year, the school’s director described his behavior as belligerent and said he began talking about inappropriate subjects.
“Ultimately the school barred him from returning,” NECN reported. “Instead of returning directly to the United States, as the conditions set by the courts for his travel to Myanmar required, Marzilli — who is on probation until 2016 — took off for Thailand and Kuala Lumpur, according to the news report.
“He bragged on Facebook about drinking, hanging out on beaches and ogling local residents.”
The Globe reported: In 2008, “Marzilli’s self-destruction was one of the stranger political stories in some years. He attributed it all to a bipolar condition and even checked into McLean Hospital after his arrest.”
He was a longtime member of the House (he served less than a year in the Senate), where he took on complicated issues.
Read the full NECN report here >>
This report was published Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015, and updated Jan. 31, 2016.
