Treasurer’s attorneys say suspended cannabis chair’s appeal delayed delivery of investigation report
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 Dec. 14 hearing in Suffolk Superior Court.
The results of a second investigation into the conduct of suspended Cannabis Control Commission Chairwoman Shannon O'Brien are in and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg was preparing to share them with O'Brien -- along with a proposed February date for the meeting that could lead to the chairwoman's firing -- when O'Brien appealed a lower court ruling to the state Appeals Court.
Assistant Attorney General John Hitt, who has been representing Goldberg in the legal saga that stems from Goldberg's suspension of O'Brien, said in a new filing Monday that Goldberg "was in the process of preparing to deliver the report to [O'Brien] along with an amended notice letter setting forth, among other things, the date for a meeting in February 2024" but that the delivery "has now been delayed" because of O'Brien's latest appeal.
A Superior Court judge in December rejected process guardrails that O'Brien sought and ruled that Goldberg could go ahead with the meeting that could lead to O'Brien's firing under certain circumstances, including that O'Brien be informed of the results of an investigation into her conduct towards former CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins, a one-time Goldberg lieutenant. O'Brien filed a petition this month seeking to have an Appeals Court judge vacate the lower court decision, and issue a new order meeting O'Brien's demands.
Hitt wrote in a filing Monday on behalf of Goldberg that the Appeals Court should deny O'Brien's petition because "the record reveals ample support for the Superior Court’s decision and Plaintiff-Petitioner fails in her 'formidable task' of showing a clear abuse of discretion by the court below."
The investigation into O'Brien's conduct towards Collins has been looming over the case almost since O'Brien initially filed suit in September. The investigation involves claims that O'Brien mistreated Collins, including by publicly announcing his plan to take parental leave and then resign from the CCC.
One of O'Brien's lawyers said in December that he thought Goldberg and her team "don't want this [second] report anymore" because it might include information that would help O'Brien's case or undermine Goldberg's attempts to fire her. He said the investigation was "going well for" O'Brien when the treasurer's team started downplaying its significance by suggesting there was a possibility that it would never be produced and that Goldberg would only rely on the first O'Brien investigation -- involving racially insensitive remarks O'Brien allegedly made -- when considering her firing.
Under the "protocol" for the eventual O'Brien-Goldberg meeting, which Goldberg's office proposed and the Superior Court judge blessed, the meeting cannot take place until at least 15 business days after that second report is shared with O'Brien's side.
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