Years of political intrigue around the leadership of the Cannabis Control Commission will soon end, after a Suffolk Superior Court judge rules on whether former chair Shannon O’Brien was wrongfully terminated.
In a final hearing in O’Brien’s lawsuit Tuesday, Judge Robert Gordon questioned whether her behavior amounted to gross misconduct and warranted termination by state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg in September. The attorney representing Goldberg — one of three appointing authorities for the commission — argued she has broad authority to remove its leaders for bad behavior.
Goldberg previously explained in an 80-page report that O’Brien would “bully, humiliate, and abuse her colleagues,” and “cavalierly” and repeatedly made racially insensitive remarks.
The impending decision will settle questions that have plagued the bedraggled commission since 2023 and end a battle that has gone on so long that the judge himself pointed it out on Tuesday.
With this case, he started, everyone is “thoroughly familiar.”
Joe Baerlein, a spokesperson for O’Brien, said, “we appreciate the amount of time and thoroughness that the judge has given to this matter, given that it’s been going on for almost two years.”
The court is poised to weigh in on whether Goldberg overstepped her authority and infringed on the agency’s independence by firing O’Brien. And that decision will come in the midst of a larger debate in the State House over whether to restructure the Cannabis Control Commission and move forward from an era of near-continuous scandal at the agency.
O’Brien’s removal two years ago was the first in a string of personal disputes and workplace misconduct allegations that a commissioner herself said stem from a “toxic culture” at the agency.
Should O’Brien prevail in court, it could shake matters up once again. She hopes to return as commission chair for the two years remaining on her term and rejoin an agency that underwent massive turnover after her tenure. Senior leaders who filed internal complaints against O’Brien — including former executive director Shawn Collins, commissioner Nurys Camargo, and communications head Cedric Sinclar — have all left. Travis Ahern, the commission’s new executive director, started in March.
In O’Brien’s absence, the commission has crafted a new governance charter and addressed some longstanding issues concerning town agreements with cannabis businesses, marijuana testing regulations, and rules for cannabis cafes, among other provisions.
The court battle between O’Brien and Goldberg has commanded legislators’ attention and a fair bit of taxpayer money. Goldberg has spent nearly $1 million on legal fees during O’Brien’s termination hearings, public spending records show. Meanwhile O’Brien collected her $181,000 annual salary before being formally terminated.
Over many hearings and appeals, both sides have litigated the particulars of the same few incidents.
Goldberg faults O’Brien for making critical comments about the former executive director’s parental leave and threatening him with termination, which Goldberg said “deprived [Collins] of a graceful exit from the Commission.” Attorneys have also rehashed incidents where O’Brien referred to people of Asian heritage as “yellow” and allegedly implied without reason that multiple employees of color knew one another. (O’Brien says she was repeating another person’s comment and later apologized.)
Goldberg has argued that O’Brien’s “habit of asking successful Black women if they know other successful Black women conveys an objectively race-based limitation” on them and their capabilities.
O’Brien’s appeal challenges the recollection of interactions she had with members of the commission’s staff and claims that Goldberg “ignored the investigators’ testimony” when deciding to terminate her. She also claims Goldberg gave too much credence to comments made in writing or anonymously.
In the Tuesday hearing, the judge also questioned Goldberg’s use of the 25th Amendment — which deems officials unable to perform their duties — to terminate O’Brien, noting that the provision usually relates to a physical disability and not a person’s performance.
A ruling is expected in the coming weeks.
Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_.