Clark Grant, indicted for fraud alongside activist wife Monica Cannon-Grant, killed in motorcycle crash

Monica Cannon-Grant spoke to reporters outside the federal courthouse in Boston's Seaport after her indictment last year.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Clark Grant, the husband of Roxbury antiviolence activist Monica Cannon-Grant who was indicted alongside her on federal charges of fraud, conspiracy, and filing false tax returns, was killed in a motorcycle crash Wednesday evening.

Grant’s death was confirmed Thursday by C.L. Malcolm, the lawyer representing Cannon-Grant in federal court. He and Grant’s family are “horrified and deeply saddened by the loss,” he said.

“He will be forever missed,” Malcolm said in a statement. “Monica heard from him as he left work yesterday and was about to head home on his motorcycle. They told each other ‘I love you.’ That was their last contact.

“Words cannot describe her pain and what she is going through,” he added. “Monica can at least find some peace in knowing this will result in his acquittal as all pending charges against him shall be dismissed by the Government.”

The US attorney’s office did not immediately respond to questions about how Grant’s death would affect the case.

Julie-Ann Olson, a federal public defender who represented Grant, said she was “shocked and deeply saddened” by his death.

“I truly enjoyed getting to know him,” Olson said in a statement. “He was a kind, soft-spoken man [whose] driving focus in this life was his wife Monica, and their family. He loved them very, very much.”

Grant, 39, was riding a Honda motorcycle southbound on Turnpike Street in Easton when a Jeep Grand Cherokee leaving a parking lot entered the roadway headed north and collided with the motorcycle, said Easton Police Chief Keith Boone.

Just before 6 p.m.,, police found Grant “lying in the roadway suffering from traumatic injuries,” Boone said in a statement. An officer performed CPR, with assistance from a passerby, until firefighters arrived and provided additional medical treatment. Grant was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, where he died from his injuries.

The Jeep was driven by a 40-year-old Brockton resident and occupied by a 9-year-old passenger, both of whom were not injured, Boone said. The crash is being investigated by Easton police and State Police.

The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, founder and director of the Ella J. Baker House in Dorchester, said he didn’t know Grant well but crossed paths with him and Cannon-Grant many times as a fellow community activist.

“They had understandable, passionate concerns for issues and injustice that affected the Black community,” Rivers said. “They may not have always used the most appropriate strategies, but one could not question the earnestness and the passion with which they approached injustice.”

“During this Lenten season, it’s important [to remember] that people who have good intentions [but] who may have made mistakes deserve grace and empathy,” he said. “My prayers go out to Monica in her loss, and her family.”

Grant maintained a relatively low profile while Cannon-Grant, 42, received accolades as the public face of the nonprofit they ran, Violence in Boston Inc., as well as the organizer of a Franklin Park march attended by thousands in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

For her efforts, Cannon-Grant was honored as a Bostonian of the Year by the Globe Magazine and hailed as the city’s “best social justice advocate” by Boston Magazine.

Grant was arrested at their Taunton home in October 2021 on federal charges of wire fraud and making false statements on a loan and credit application. In a 15-page affidavit, officials accused Grant of running two fraudulent schemes.

At his appearance in US District Court in Boston, Grant didn’t enter a plea and was released without bail.

Then, in March 2022, the couple was indicted on sweeping charges alleging that they raised more than $1 million in grants and donations for Violence in Boston Inc. but spent a substantial amount of it on themselves.

This month, they were indicted on new federal fraud charges, including allegations that they concealed their income to fraudulently obtain $12,600 in rental assistance funds from Boston’s Office of Housing Stability in 2021, around the same time they were buying their Taunton home.

In July 2022, four months after the initial federal indictments, Cannon-Grant posted on Violence in Boston’s Facebook page that the nonprofit was suspending all programs and shutting down immediately.