This story contains descriptions of alleged domestic violence.
Gloria Reyes, the former Madison police detective, deputy mayor, school board president and mayoral candidate, alleged in an exclusive interview with Madison365 that Alder Iorfa Charles Myadze physically abused her during a “volatile” three-year, off-and-on relationship that culminated in him knocking her unconscious in November 2021, about seven months into his first term in office.
Neither Myadze nor his attorney responded to an email message with several specific questions about his relationship with Reyes, and when reached by telephone, Myadze’s attorney declined to comment.
Reyes’s allegations come after Myadze’s former girlfriend Michelle McKoy and ex-wife Jamie Johnson made similar allegations earlier this year regarding abuse that they allege happened from the late 1990s through 2013, allegations he denied. And earlier this week, a city investigation found that Myadze had not created a hostile working environment for three women who all made separate complaints of sexual harassment.
In an interview earlier this week, Reyes said she had known of Myadze “from afar” for several years before they began dating in 2018.
“He proposed to me after like six months of dating. It was shortly after that, it was little by little, where I noticed some signs, red flags,” she said. “Some controlling behavior, disappearing for days … seeing other women, texting other women. It was a slow process.”
She said she doesn’t recall documenting the first instance of abuse, but by January 2019, she began emailing herself photos of her injuries.
“I felt like I needed to document what he was doing to me, and not with the intentionality of reporting him, because at that moment, I was in a position … former law enforcement, my professional (career) as deputy mayor, school board president … at that time, I wasn’t ready. I knew that if I were to report it to the police, that it would make it on the news. And I wasn’t ready at that time,” she said.
Two members of Madison365’s staff have reviewed more than a dozen photos Reyes sent to herself from January 2019 through November 2021 which depict Reyes with black eyes and bruises on her arms, hips and legs. We have chosen not to publish those photos.
Madison365 staff also reviewed emails Reyes wrote to herself, lamenting the situation and encouraging herself to leave the relationship, as well as emails she sent to Myadze, showing him some of the photos, and his responses.
“A very volatile relationship”
Reyes grew up in Madison, where she joined the police force in 2002 and became deputy mayor under Mayor Paul Soglin in 2014. She left city government at the end of 2019 to become CEO at Briarpatch Youth Services. She served a single term on the school board from 2018-21, which included a stint as president. She ran for Madison Mayor in 2023.
Reyes said the relationship with Myadze was good for more than six months in 2018, but became emotionally and physically abusive near the end of that year. The relationship was off and on for more than three years.
“It was a very volatile relationship,” Reyes said. “Just when I think that I’m done with him and I was able to get away from him, he would somehow creep back into my life.”
That’s a typical pattern, said Domestic Abuse Intervention Services executive director Shannon Barry.
“It takes an average of six attempts of leaving a violent situation or a harmful situation before people are finally successful in doing so, and there’s a myriad of reasons for that,” she said. “Certainly safety is one of those reasons. Victims are six times more likely to be murdered by their batterers when trying to leave a situation than at any other time.”
Without commenting on the specifics of Reyes’s allegations, Barry said being in leadership positions can make it even harder to speak publicly about or get away from abuse.
“There may be victims in the community, who are themselves community leaders and who are held in high esteem and who may feel a lot of internalized shame about finding themselves in a situation marked by domestic violence,” she said. “Ironically, folks who have been themselves part of the criminal justice response, and then find themselves in a situation where they’re the victim … that can cause a lot of shame for somebody to feel like they should have known better and really internalize a lot of that shame.”
For anyone experiencing domestic violence, resources are available:
National Domestic Violence Hotline: Call 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788
Domestic Abuse Intervention Services: Call 608-251-4445 or text 608-420-4638
UNIDOS Against Domestic Violence: Call 800-510-9195
The campaign for Common Council
Reyes said she and Myadze were broken up in the fall of 2020 when he called from a blocked number seeking help in his run for Common Council from Adelante, an organization that supports people of color running for office. Reyes is founder and administrator of the organization.
“I happened to pick up (the call) and it was him,” Reyes recalled. “He said, ‘Hey, before you hang up, I’m running for city council, you know, looking for your help.’ (I said), ‘I don’t know what you want me to do.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I don’t know, with Adelante.’ And I (said), ‘Well, you know, we do have resources. I’ll connect you, get on Adelante’s Facebook (page). We have a training coming up.’ I treated him like any other candidate (who) would have called me.”
Reyes said she did not personally endorse his campaign, but Adelante did, as they do for virtually every candidate they support. She said they began dating again during the campaign, and she made a financial donation to his campaign at that time. Myadze ultimately won the election, and, Reyes said, became abusive again thereafter.
“I was hoping that he would change because of his position (as an Alder),” she said. “And he would be busy. I really introduced him to people, and the process, City Council processes that I knew about. And things were going well for a little while, and then he reverted back to the same behaviors.”
In June 2021, according to emails reviewed by Madison365, Reyes sent Myadze a picture of a bruise on her throat. The accompanying email message reads, in part, “I have not reported you, but should have a long time ago. I’m not going to even do it now. I will let you shoot yourself in the foot. I regret helping you get elected, knowing what kind of person you are, but thought this would help you be a better person. You obviously will never change. The abuse ends now. You can’t threaten, abuse or lie to me anymore.”
But the relationship didn’t end, and neither did the abuse, Reyes said. Later that summer she told a few friends that Myadze was abusing her physically as well as regularly breaking into her house. Two people confirmed to Madison365 that Reyes told them she was being abused in the summer of 2021.
Reyes said the final straw came just after Thanksgiving 2021, when Myadze struck her so hard she lost consciousness.
“I was out. I woke up, and I didn’t know quite what happened, but he wouldn’t let me go,” she said. “I told him I needed to go to the hospital. He wouldn’t let me go. I told him that I needed to. I told him just to go … he wouldn’t leave immediately. But then he did eventually leave.”
At the time, she was CEO of Briarpatch Youth Services, a job she left months later, in the summer of 2022, to prepare a mayoral bid, which she announced in November 2022. That run was unsuccessful, as she earned about 44 percent of the vote against incumbent Satya Rhodes-Conway in April 2023. But the attempt to rejoin city government as an elected official put her in proximity to the man she said abused her for more than three years, and who had just won re-election to the Common Council representing Madison’s north side.
“Everywhere I went, he was always there,” she said. “I knew that I could never live a full life without looking over my shoulder. I had those same thoughts when I ran for mayor. Him being on city council, how would I handle that? Do I have the capacity? In my mind I thought that I did, (and that) I’d be able to handle the situation professionally.”
After that campaign ended, Reyes started to feel that it might be time to move on from Madison, the only city she’d ever called home. There were several reasons for that, she said, but Myadze’s continued presence was one factor.
“I did a lot of reflection about what happened in my life and what was next for me,” she said. “I knew that getting out of Madison was probably the best thing for me to do. So that was part of my decision-making to leave.”
She had just accepted a position with Ramsey County in Minnesota as the next deputy county manager of the Safety and Justice Service Team in the spring of 2024 when Myadze’s former girlfriend Michelle McKoy and ex-wife Jamie Johnson came forward with allegations that Myadze had abused them. Myadze denied those allegations. Reyes considered making her allegations public as well, but decided against it.
“I wasn’t ready at that time. I was in transition,” Reyes said. “I had just accepted this position. I wanted to move on with my life and not have to have this follow me into this new role, into this new life. And I didn’t want people to Google me and find this. I really wanted to start off new, and I just wasn’t ready to come out at that time. I mean, amazing bravery from Michelle and Jamie … I wish I could have stood in solidarity with them at that time.”
When McKoy and Johnson came forward with their allegations, Common Council leadership said they could not sanction or remove Myadze, as McKoy and Johnson described events that allegedly took place long before he was on the council. Reyes, on the other hand, alleges that he abused her for about seven months after being elected.
But, while she said she doesn’t think someone like Myadze should hold public office, she’s not calling on the Common Council to expel him.
“That doesn’t matter to me anymore,” she said. “What matters to me is that … it’s just got to stop. It’s just got to stop. And people need to be aware of what kind of person he is.”
She said her coming forward now is “part of my healing process.”
“I think it’s about time,” she said.
After speaking with Madison365, Reyes issued the following statement:
BREAKING THE SILENCE – STATEMENT BY GLORIA REYES
Today, I am bravely stepping forward to break the silence and reveal to the community that I am a survivor of both physical and emotional violence inflicted by Iorfa Charles Myadze, the current Alderperson for District 18 for the City of Madison.
For too long, as a public figure and leader in the community, I have carried the burden of fear and shame. But now, I stand resolute, empowered, and determined to raise my voice against this pervasive issue.
Domestic violence and intimate partner violence are harsh realities that affect countless individuals, families, and communities. It can happen to anyone. It happened to me.
I stand in solidarity with the survivors who have bravely shared their experiences of abuse by Iorfa Charles Myadze. Their courage, despite the ongoing failures of systems and policies meant to protect us, speaks volumes. To the elected officials who have remained silent – shame on you. To the community leaders I reached out to after the initial accusations, who continue to prioritize the perspective of Iorfa Charles Myadze-shame on you. And to the recent survivor, close in age to my own daughter, I am deeply sorry that the system has failed you and all who have come forward.
As I continue to heal from my own trauma, I want to share a message to all survivors of domestic violence. I want you to know that you are not alone. There is no shame in what you’ve endured. Your voice and your story matters. With all my heart, I stand with you.
In solidarity and support,
Gloria Reyes
