Judge outlines deadlines relating to fired CCC chair's appeal
Image | Courtesy of State House News Service
Former Cannabis Control Commission Chairwoman Shannon O'Brien and her lawyer, Max Stern, spoke with reporters after a December 2023 hearing in Suffolk Superior Court.
The judge handling Shannon O'Brien's appeal of her firing has established a dual-track schedule for her lawsuit against Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, setting deadlines related to arguing the merits of the case and also to the wrangling over how much of the case's underlying information should be public.
The deadlines in an order that Superior Court Judge Robert Gordon issued Friday extend at least two months out and will require Goldberg and the Cannabis Control Commission to work together to inform anyone whose personal information is included in the five-volume administrative record that remains mostly under seal of their right to ask the court to protect it from disclosure.
Goldberg suspended O'Brien as CCC chairwoman in September 2023 and fired her in September 2024 after considering two outside investigations and about 19 hours of private meetings held last summer. The redacted version of Goldberg's decision, released last week as part of the administrative record of the case, said the treasurer fired O'Brien "because the sum and totality of her conduct ... amounts to gross misconduct." The document details claims that O'Brien used language that was racially insensitive and mistreated former CCC director Shawn Collins, a Goldberg ally. O'Brien has contested Goldberg's claims and is appealing through Suffolk Superior Court. Gordon set a straight-forward schedule for adjudication of the merits of her claim.
The suit will proceed using the Superior Court's standing order related to complaints for judicial review of administrative agency proceedings, Gordon said. Under that rule, O'Brien has 20 days from Goldberg filing the administrative record to file any preliminary motions -- that puts the deadline on Tuesday, March 4.
O'Brien has until at least March 14 (30 days after service of the record, or 30 days after the judge rules on any preliminary motions filed by the March 4 deadline, if any) to file a motion for judgement on the pleadings. Goldberg would have 30 days after O'Brien's motion to file her response.
More complicated is the process Gordon ordered for proceedings on Goldberg's motion to have the court keep most of the roughly 3,000-page administrative record impounded. Gordon said the court "has received several informal, e-mail requests from third parties seeking to review the segregated portion" and laid out a five-step path forward:
- Gordon asked that any third party seeking to review the segregated portion submit a formal request to the court in writing and by mail;
- Goldberg and the CCC have until March 7 to alert "any and all third-party data subjects whom they maintain are identified in the administrative record;"
- Any of those people who want to seek redaction or impoundment of their personally-identifying information above and beyond what is already subject to protection will have until March 28 to file a motion and memorandum laying out the grounds for their argument;
- O'Brien and any outside party opposing impoundment or redaction will have until April 11 to file record of those opposition; and
- Goldberg, the CCC and anyone identified in the record who has moved for privacy relief will have until April 18 to reply to any opposition.
Gordon said any and all filings made in connection to those deadlines "shall be provisionally impounded." He also said the court would schedule relevant hearings "following its receipt of such filings."
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