Somerville official ‘went too far’
Authorities investigating if Affordable Housing trustee participated in insurrection
An appointee to the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust Fund is defying calls for her resignation and denying allegations that she was among the mob of President Trump’s supporters who last week stormed the U.S. Capitol building and sparked a deadly riot.
Trustee Jessica Turner said she was in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday “observing” proTrump protesters and not illegally on the grounds of the Capitol. A growing number of Somerville officials are calling for her resignation based on tweets from her account on the day of the insurrection that they say suggest she was part of the mob.
At 3 p.m., as the Capitol was being overrun, Turner tweeted: “We have breached the steps.”
“I was there observing, from far away and never took part in any trespassing and other things that were done by others. My tweets are being taken completely out of context in an attempt to vilify me and cancel me,” Turner said in an email to the Herald.
William Tauro, publisher of the Somerville/Medford News Weekly and a candidate for mayor of Somerville, said Turner “should be removed.”
“To me, that was an act of treason. That was domestic terrorism. We can’t have that in city government,” Tauro said.
Turner says the tweet, which was posted in a reply to a thread about protesters’ movements, was “taken out of context” and “a general statement, not specifically referring to me at all.”
“Although I am unhappy with the current political climate on both sides of the spectrum, I would never so carelessly do anything like what others did that day, and what I am being accused of. They don’t represent me and I don’t represent them, and I was not involved in the criminal activity nor do I support it,” Turner said, calling the day’s events “awful” and “very tragic.”
Turner’s Twitter profile was set to private as of Sunday.
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, in a brief statement posted to Twitter, said, “We share your concern. We’re taking it seriously and doing our due diligence. Will have more information soon.”
Curtatone appointed Turner to her position with the trustees in March 2019.
City Council President Matthew McLaughlin said it is his “belief” that Turner “will not be serving in that position in the future.”
“She’s said a lot of pro-Trump things in the past. People are allowed to have their political views, but we weren’t aware she would be part of an insurrection. These people in D.C. took things too far. I think she took things too far,” McLaughlin said.