Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg was inextricably concerned within the personnel issues of the state’s hashish fee regardless of Beacon Hill lawmakers intending the board to be impartial, attorneys for suspended pot boss Shannon O’Brien mentioned.
O’Brien’s attorneys used that argument in a Suffolk Superior courtroom as they pushed for a listening to to find out O’Brien’s destiny to be held in public and with what they described as an neutral fact-finder. But state attorneys argued Goldberg, over the course of this 12 months, was doing solely what state regulation permits.
Speaking to reporters after the listening to, O’Brien mentioned if she had a “fair hearing” with an unbiased finder of truth, “I would be successful.” And preserve her $181,722-a-year submit.
“I think that we made our case that the treasurer is not an independent finder of fact. She may be a witness, her general counsel might be a witness. And so ultimately, you can’t allow the person who may be a witness to some of these allegations also be the judge and the jury,” O’Brien mentioned.
Assistant Attorney General John Hitt, who’s defending the treasurer’s workplace, mentioned O’Brien’s attorneys have been asking Suffolk Superior Court Judge Debra Squires-Lee to “draw unreasonable inferences concerning the bias of the treasurer.”
“When you get right down to it, what the treasurer is doing here is just what’s required by the statute,” Hitt mentioned in court docket. “The statute requires her, as the person who appoints the plaintiff to the commission, to be the person who provides the written notice of the basis for the removal proceedings.”
A spokesperson for Goldberg didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark after the listening to late Thursday afternoon.
Squires-Lee delayed a gathering final week between O’Brien and Goldberg that might have resulted in O’Brien’s firing after ruling a listening to must wait till the outcomes of an ongoing investigation are made obtainable to O’Brien’s attorneys and investigators are made obtainable for cross-examination.
O’Brien was suspended in September with pay at Goldberg’s course with no preliminary cause provided to the general public. But weeks later, court docket filings confirmed that O’Brien was accused of constructing “racially, ethnically, culturally insensitive statements” to fellow commissioners and fee workers.
Todd and Weld Attorney Max Stern, who represents Goldberg, mentioned in court docket that the Cannabis Control Commission is an impartial entity.
“That was done deliberately by the Legislature to make it possible to prevent, or at least diminish the possibility of, political interference, political intervention, and so forth in the affairs of the commission and in particularly, personnel issues in the commission,” he mentioned.
But regardless of the necessities of state regulation and the way the fee is organized, Stern argued Goldberg “has been totally immersed into the internal affairs of the commission from the outset of this controversy.”
Squires-Lee requested Stern what proof backs up that allegation, and Stern pointed to what he described as an in depth relationship between former Commission Executive Director Shawn Collins and Goldberg.
“What the evidence shows is that she, for a lengthy period of time, was involved with dealing with this person’s particular personnel status at the commission and in protecting him in that status,” Stern mentioned in response to Squires-Lee.
Hitt mentioned Goldberg will not be “the accuser” on this case.
“She’s simply complying with the statute when she sends the Oct. 4 letter. She’s not the accuser. She’s the one who by statute is required to provide notice of the charges and the opportunity to be heard,” Hitt mentioned.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”