Former Cambridge city councilor Nadeem Mazen was arrested last month and is facing several charges including kidnapping after an alleged incident at a local hotel, police and court documents show.
Mazen, who left the council in 2017, pleaded not guilty. He “categorically denies the charges brought against him,” his attorney, Zachary Barry, said in an emailed statement. “Mr. Mazen remains confident that a full and fair review of the facts will result in his exoneration. He has faith in the legal process and looks forward to his day in court.”
According to a Cambridge police report, officers responded on the afternoon of April 16 to the Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel in East Cambridge, where a woman said Mazen locked her in a bathroom and tried to prevent her from leaving.
The woman alleged that Mazen had been using drugs and had become paranoid. She alleged Mazen took her cellphone, refused to give it back, and pushed her away when she tried to retrieve it, according to the police report.
When she tried to call police using a hotel phone, the woman said, Mazen threw the landline phone, breaking a hotel window. Eventually, she alleged, she left and alerted hotel staff, who called police.
The police report did not identify the woman but said she was known to Mazen. The report said she wasn’t injured and declined medical attention.
Before his arrest, police said in the report, an officer saw Mazen climbing a fence into an off-limits area and said his hand was bleeding.
The report said he appeared highly agitated and that emergency responders sedated him and transported him to a hospital under the section of state law that allows for people to be treated involuntarily.
The woman told police Mazen had been using drugs in the room. He was not charged with drug-related crimes.
He was arraigned the next day and charged with kidnapping, witness intimidation, malicious destruction of property over $1200, and misdemeanor assault and battery, according to court records. He was released on the condition that he avoid contact with the woman and that he abstain from drug and alcohol use, the records said.
He has a pretrial hearing scheduled for June 25.
The charges were first reported in the Cambridge Civic Journal.
Mazen, reached by phone Monday, declined to comment and referred a reporter to his lawyer.
“Throughout his career, Mr. Mazen has been known for his dedication to public service and social impact, and he remains committed to the values that have guided him both personally and professionally,” said Barry, the lawyer. “Out of respect for the ongoing proceedings, at this time we request privacy for Mr. Mazen and his family.”
An MIT-trained entrepreneur and activist, Mazen was a city councilor in Cambridge from 2014 through 2017 and was, at the time, the state’s highest-profile Muslim elected official. He was the top vote-getter among council candidates in 2015.
He was cofounder and CEO of a Cambridge maker space called danger!awesome, which closed in 2017.
In 2018, he joined a crowded field of Democrats running for Congress to succeed US Representative Niki Tsongas before dropping out of the race.
Mazen is the founder of Cambridge-based creative agency Nimblebot and founded the nonprofit Jetpac, which is designed to help Muslim candidates and organizers.
