There must be something different about being a young, ardent and passionate progressive government official. At least that's the impression you come away with if you keep up with the romantic comings and goings of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's City Hall.
It's like Peyton Place...or what I imagine that was like because I wasn't allowed to watch it.
Come to think of it, maybe it's not, because I don't recall hearing that the steamy and scandalous (for then) soap opera had the various couples duking it out.
That seems to be a specialty of the Rockem Sockem romantics Wu hires.
In mid-May, I posted about a headline-making incident, a romantic contretemps that devolved into fisticuffs and a snackfest between two of Wu's rising stars - Marwa Khudaynazar and Chulan Huang. Boston legend Howie Carr dubbed it The Biteout in Chinatown.
Short version is, the two had been dating, then Ms Khudaynazar somehow wound up with Huang's boss and a booked hotel room, only she went over to Huang's place to let him know about it. Then she bit him, the police were called, and she clocked a cop trying not to get arrested, changed her story, and yelled, 'We work for city hall, this is unnecessary' as they stuffed her into a patrol car. Wild crap.
I've left out a lot of detail for brevity's sake. I think you get the picture, but you can always reread my post.
When we last saw our lovebirds, poor Huang was bereft, they were both suspended and had been scrubbed from the city's site.
I have an update - as of last month, they're unemployed.
The saucy lassie isn't going quietly, though. She's peddling another version of the story so she can get her job back or a settlement.
A former chief of staff for Boston's Police Accountability Office claims she was fired to conceal a scandal involving sexual advances made by a top aide to Mayor Michelle Wu.
"We owe it to her and to the other city employee to have a full investigation that isn't just closed on the administration side," said Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy.
Last month, Marwa Khudaynazar and her boyfriend, Chulan Huang, were fired after being accused of assaulting each other.
Khudaynazar told the Boston Globe that her boyfriend's former boss, Segun Idowu, propositioned her at a bar on the night in question.
The boss in question, Mr Idowu, still has his job.
...Idowu's lawyer stated that he was interviewed for an internal investigation, and "no finding of any improper, unethical or inappropriate conduct on his part was made, because he engaged in none."
What a black eye and bite out of the mayor's office reputation, right?
If only that were all.
Word broke last week that there was yet another passionate romantic outburst of violence perpetrated by someone in the mayor's employ, only it seems there's been a teensy tiny cover-up.
Meet Daunasia Yancey, a feisty, freedom-fighting alphabet soup sex advocate working for Michelle Wu as deputy director of the mayor's office of LGBTQ+ Advancement.
On her own website, she describes herself as a 'Black queer femme leader' and she also claims to be a BLM organizer, having founded their chapter in 2014.
Meet Daunasia Yancey—Deputy Director for Boston’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement
— Bostonians Against Mayor Wu (@AntiWuCoalition) February 27, 2025
Her job is to ‘empower and advance’ LGBTQ+ residents—in one of America’s most LGBTQ-friendly cities
Before this, she was a BLM lead organizer
Why are Boston taxpayers funding a political activist? pic.twitter.com/Y0h77VXOgN
She seems nice.
Radical enough for Wu, I'd say, though, right?
She's also currently on unpaid leave and her picture's been removed from the city website. It turns out Daunasia was arrested for a violent assault that took place back in April, something no one was aware of until last week.
A Wu administration official has been placed on unpaid leave but is still employed by the City of Boston months after being arrested on felony assault charges.
Daunasia Yancey, 33, of Jamaica Plain, was arrested and charged with assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on April 11, after allegedly attacking the ex-wife of her then-girlfriend in a Roxbury home during a dispute the former spouses were having over the return of a birth certificate.
There are questions.
Her arrest happened on April 11th, 2025, but it was kept secret until now.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 3, 2025
She's currently on unpaid leave.
Why was this covered up for three months?https://t.co/Sj44D0gpQj
There are lots of questions. Why the shush-shush?
Yet another scandal in Mayor Michelle Wu's administration. Meet Daunasia Yancey, Wu's Deputy Director for #Boston’s Office of LGBTQIAS+ Advancement. This woke grifter was arrested in April for felony assault & battery, yet she's still employed. And it was kept REAL quiet . . . pic.twitter.com/qH8Pa9uJmK
— Edward Coyle (@SirEdwardCoyle) July 2, 2025
And Howie - Sapphic Scuffle.
The man's a treasure.
Here's story about the arrest (in April) of Mayor Wu's $116,571-a-year dep. director of LGBTQ+ in what a BPD incident report described as a domestic incident.
— Howie Carr (@HowieCarrShow) July 3, 2025
Here's added context about the alleged Sapphic scuffle. Check out the highlighted sections from BPD about Daunasia… pic.twitter.com/bUReOcd3QY
Ms Yancey was pulling some serious coin. And, clocking in at 250 lbs, I certainly hope whoever was on the other end of the attack had some meat on her bones.
...That afternoon, Boston Police responded to a domestic violence call at a residence on 5 Mills Street in Roxbury. According to a police incident report reviewed by Mass Daily News, officers arrived on scene around 1:40 p.m. and spoke with a woman who said she had been physically attacked during a dispute involving personal belongings.
According to a Boston Police incident report reviewed by Mass Daily News, Daunasia Yancey, Deputy Director in the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement, was alleged to have assaulted the victim by striking her in the throat and slamming her into a wall, damaging it. The report states that Yancey then took a locked safe, and left the residence in a Volkswagen Jetta where she allegedly went to Home Depot to try and open the locked safe. The aftermath was captured on body-worn camera, and it should be noted that while officers were taking a statement from the victim, Yancey returned to the scene where she was placed under arrest and transported for booking.
And while not getting paid, Yancey is still employed by the city and had this felony assault arrest hidden from the public for three months.
What is up with that?
...Despite being unsealed, the case doesn’t easily appear in MassCourts and can’t be found without the exact case number — effectively hidden from public view. In the days following the arraignment, Yancey’s name was briefly listed on a daily court calendar — but that listing later disappeared.
Mass Daily News reached out to the Mayor’s Office, the Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement, the Roxbury court clerk, and Yancey directly for comment. None responded.
...The contrast is striking. In one case [The Biters]: media coverage, legal consequences, and damage control. In this one: radio silence.
And OMG, does this chica not talk the revolutionary lingo? I am so over these race-baiting, professional victim class grifters.
.@MayorWu staffer Daunasia Yancey — on leave after allegedly slamming a woman into a wall — says BLM “always included trans lives, always included Palestinian lives” and that won’t change for her or her “comrades”
— Bostonians Against Mayor Wu (@AntiWuCoalition) July 3, 2025
Mayor Wu hid her felony arrest from the public for 3 months pic.twitter.com/IGCW9kfAWP
A 63% raise in one year? It seems Daunasia is a very special person with very special, what - skills?
NEW: LGBTQIA+ Deputy Director facing felony charges received 63% raise in one year.
— Mass Daily News (@MassDailyNews) July 6, 2025
Read more at Mass Daily News https://t.co/9ArkaokRqR
But no one can figure out what makes her so special.
Everyone wants to know why this woman is an exception.
...Mayor Wu's City Hall has a code: protect the connected, discard the expendable. When power’s at risk, silence becomes strategy.
In May, two lower-level Wu administration staffers were arrested in an unrelated domestic incident. The administration moved quickly to distance itself, and both individuals were fired within days. But that same incident also involved Segun Idowu, Mayor Wu’s Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, one of the most senior members of her cabinet. Idowu was not terminated. Instead, an external review was quietly launched, and he remains in his position as of this writing.
Now, with Daunasia Yancey — a deputy director and prominent activist — facing felony charges stemming from an earlier incident, the silence from City Hall is even more glaring. No suspension. No reassignment. No comment.
I will bet Wu is hoping her staffers' spring flings are all flung.
She has other fires smoldering that are going to take all of her attention.
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