BRA Member Accused of Threatening Man with Baseball Bat to Remain on Board

Boston City Hall Photo by Naquib Hossain on Flickr/Creative Commons

Michael Monahan, the Boston Redevelopment Authority board member accused of threatening to kill a man with a baseball bat in January, will remain in his position as he faces charges next month.

Monahan, who is set to be arraigned in Dorchester on May 5, reportedly threatened a fellow IBEW member for spreading lies about his pending divorce, according to a police report obtained by the Herald.

“You’re dead, your [expletive] kids are dead…and you won’t even see it coming,” Monahan, 53, allegedly told the North Reading man.

Monahan’s lawyer George C. McMahon says the charges were made-up—a “political move” intended solely to embarrass his client. In his motion to dismiss, McMahon calls the IBEW member a “longtime political opponent of the defendant within the union” who has previously filed 10 complaints against Monahan.

Monahan, who also serves as vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was appointed to a five-year term on the BRA board by Mayor Tom Menino in 2013. Monahan was reportedly subpoenaed in the same federal labor probe that wiretapped Mayor Marty Walsh, then head of the Boston Building Trades, discussing how he told developer AvalonBay they would face difficulty obtaining permits for a Boston project if they didn’t use union labor at Assembly Row.

Walsh has denied the Globe‘s report on the probe and asserted that such strong-arm tactics are not his style.