Disgraced Former Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj Who Once Called Turtleboy A “Hate Blog” Convicted Of Assaulting Worcester Police Officer During ICE Arrest

 

Last May Worcester City Councilor was charged with assault and battery on a police officer after she hit a Worcester Police Officer while interfering with federal officials arresting a woman.

Etel is a well known lunatic in Worcester who has hated Turtleboy since the award winning news outlet’s inception. In 2017 she was serving on the 10 member Citizen’s Advisory Committee, which was in charge of appointing other members of the community to the zoning board. A Worcester Attorney named Margaret Melican, who has previously represented Turtleboy successfully in several lawsuits, including a victory over disgraced former City Councilor Michael Gaffney when he tried and failed to sue TB in 2018, had applied to get on the board. Despite being overly qualified, Ms. Melican was denied a spot on the board when Etel accused her of being a “frequent participant in a local hate blog, that frequently attacks women, women of color, members of this community, people who live in poverty.”

Attorney Melican’s crime? She used to write humorous limericks on the Turtleboy Sports Facebook page underneath blogs we posted:

 

Despite being an avowed community, Etel somehow got elected in 2021. Luckily she was voted in November when she lost to former champion boxer Jose Antonio Rivera. Her charges certainly didn’t do her any favors, especially when all the body cam footage came out.

The special prosecutor brought in from Northampton had her dead to rights. She was seen on video pushing WPD Officer Shauna McGuirk, who was attempting to get her away from the police car where the detained individuals were.

Contrary to popular belief, being mad about something doesn’t give you the right to interfere with lawful arrests and push cops recklessly who are just trying to do their job.

A normal person would just take a plea, get a CWOF, and move on with their life. Not Sojourner Bucktooth though. She decided she was gonna take it to trial and go for a jury nullification, hoping that one of the 7 jurors would hate ICE so much that they looked past the fact that she blatantly assaulted a cop on video. Her defense on the stand was basically “I had no choice but to interfere with a lawful arrest because I represent illegal immigrants.”

“The mention of a mother and women with an infant surrounded by ICE felt very urgent to me,” Haxhiaj said while on the stand. “It has been my modus operandi to show up to constituent crises, whether it’s a fire, a building collapse … I characterized this as a crisis that needed my attention. 

“My sole intention of going to that area was to perform the duties I was elected to do as a city councilor. I believe I was elected as a city councilor to protect my constituents when I see them in danger,” Haxhiaj responded.

It didn’t land the way she hoped on cross:

“Ms. Haxhiaj, were you elected to disobey orders from the Worcester Police Department? … Were you elected to get into the middle of police situations and put your hands on officers? … Were you elected to shove federal officers?” asked Gagne; Haxhiaj’s answers were “no” in every instance.

“Do you believe that you were elected as a city councilor in order to get into scrums like that with federal officials?” asked Gagne after playing police body camera footage from May 8.

Unfortunately for her the jury wasn’t buying it and she was convicted of assaulting a police officer yesterday, and sentenced to 6 months probation and 40 hours community service. Most importantly, she is now a convicted criminal, which she wouldn’t have been if she had just negotiated a CWOF like a normal person charged with their first crime.

After the incident last May she posted on Twitter “we will meet you with hell too” if ICE came back to Worcester.

Turns out she will just be meeting them on the side of the road picking up trash as she does her 40 hours of community service.

 

 

https://thisweekinworcester.com/haxhiaj-eureka-street-verdict/?fbclid=IwY2xjawP69clleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFzUnhVNjJrQlBqanpWM0hwc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrn7IOtJmSPVhQ6FgsKSFanQhj93t95Ux6omp-HrT5ceQGhT3fKDYY9bTHSq_aem_sqDFwebrnZBGnCKHDNoPAA