As the appeal of her firing inches through the court system, former Cannabis Control Commission chair Shannon O'Brien is pressing on multiple fronts to get information about her tenure at the CCC and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg's decision to fire her into the public record.
The Supreme Judicial Court last month kicked O'Brien's appeal down to the Superior Court, where a judge held a hearing Tuesday morning to consider whether a 1,733-page appendix that O'Brien filed with the court system alongside her appeal should be made publicly available in full, in part or not at all. O'Brien's lawyers say the public should have access to the appendix -- which includes reports from investigators who looked into complaints against O'Brien, testimony from the closed-door hearings Goldberg held before firing O'Brien, and Goldberg's written removal decision -- "so that [O'Brien] can clear her name and rehabilitate any damage done by the Treasurer."
Goldberg fired O'Brien, herself a former state treasurer and Democratic Party nominee for governor, in September after considering more than 20 hours of meetings held this summer as well as various documents, case law, and policies. The treasurer has not released any document outlining her decision, but said she fired O'Brien because she "committed gross misconduct and demonstrated she is unable to discharge the powers and duties of a CCC commissioner."
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