A Melrose woman is facing criminal charges in connection with an incident last winter involving a city councilor, who believes it all started because of a hijab.
Melrose City Councilor Maya Jamaleddine says she and her family are still shaken up over a racist rant they say was directed at them at a gas station last winter.
“We will never heal from this incident,” said Jamaleddine.
Joan Ditomaso, 67, has been charged in connection with the case. She’s accused of assault and battery, but not of a hate crime.
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”We are disappointed that a clerk magistrate decided not to charge the defendant with a civil rights violation. But we respect the clerk’s decision, and we will be focusing our attention on the assault and battery case,” said Barbara Dougan of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Jamaleddine is Muslim and wears a hijab. She was at the Melrose gas station in December with her husband and two of her children.
She says that’s when Ditomaso swore at them and told them to “go back to your country.”
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It prompted a verbal confrontation, with both parties videotaping each other. Police say the defendant eventually pushed Jamaleddine‘s husband, resulting in the assault and battery charge.
”The motivation was not my husband or anything else. It started with the way that I looked. It didn’t start with an interaction between both of them,” Jamaleddine said.
Ditomaso left Malden District Court without comment, leaving the 40-year-old Jamaleddine to talk about the pain her family has endured. Originally from Lebanon, she and her husband have four children. One of them graduated from the schools in Melrose Friday.
“I’ll be able to tell him, we raised you well in Melrose, and there’s still hope that justice is going to happen,” she said.
The defendant was released on personal recognizant and ordered to stay away from Jamaleddine and her family.
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