A municipal court judge has terminated a harassment prevention order a Healey administration official had requested against District 7 Boston City Council candidate Said Ahmed.
Deeqo Jibril, the Director of Small Business Development in the state’s Executive Office of Economic Development, previously filed two police reports about Ahmed’s alleged behavior during early voting in the lead-up to Boston’s preliminary municipal election in September.
In the first report, she alleged Ahmed had “continually harassed” her and other voters at the Shelburne Community Center in Roxbury, pressuring Somali voters to vote for him before he was removed from the polling location by election officials. She filed another police report the next day, claiming he was spreading false information about her to people at a Dunkin’ Donuts and outside the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. After the second report, police handpicked Jibril seek a harassment prevention order.
Court documents show a judge agreed to issue the harassment prevention order on Sept. 4, and set a second hearing date for two weeks later, on Sept. 18. After that hearing, the judge ended the order against Ahmed.
Jibril did not respond to a request for comment.
Ahmed told the Globe in a statement he is glad to put this allegation behind him, and he intends to focus on the issues facing District 7.
“It’s unfortunate that when someone steps up to serve the community they love, there are individuals who try to tear them down with false claims,” Ahmed wrote in the statement. “I’m deeply grateful to the community members who truly know me, recognize my hard work, and judge me by their own experiences rather than rumors.”
Jibril previously told the Globe she is not involved in the District 7 race, and that Ahmed has been harassing her since 2017 — including by spreading rumors about her sexuality, posting and later deleting defamatory comments about her on social media, and saying she is “not a good Muslim” to people in the Somali community.
Another District 7 candidate also complained about Ahmed’s alleged actions outside polling locations to the Boston Elections Commission and the Secretary of State.
Ahmed, a former track star and current coach who previously ran a failed campaign for the State House, was the best vote getter in the District 7 race in September’s preliminary election. Mavrick Afonso, who came in third place by a narrow margin, formally requested a recount in the race. But the recount results did not ultimately change who would be moving on to the November general election, where Ahmed will be going up against attorney and senior pastor Miniard Culpepper.
The District 7 council race drew the most crowded field of candidates of any race on the ballot, with eleven candidates vying to replace disgraced former councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson. The seat is the only open position on the November ballot.
Samantha J. Gross of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold.
About the Author
