Cannabis Commission head was wrongly terminated, judge says

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Shannon O’Brien, a former state treasurer, should be reinstated to serve the remainder of her term and awarded back pay, the judge ruled.

A judge ruled that Shannon O’Brien, the fired chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, was wrongfully removed from her position and should be reinstated to serve the remainder of her term, with back pay.

O’Brien, a former state treasurer and one-time Democratic nominee for governor, was appointed to the commission in 2022 until her suspension a year later. State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg then fired her in September of 2024.

A spokesperson for O’Brien released a statement on her behalf, noting that she “is pleased to have her good name restored and looks forward to working with” the embattled CCC and its members.

At the time of her firing, Goldberg said O’Brien “committed gross misconduct” and “demonstrated she is unable to discharge the powers and duties” of a member of the state’s five-person CCC. O’Brien was accused of making race-based remarks to colleagues and retaliating against and bullying employees. 

However, Goldberg’s decision to remove O’Brien was made of “a house of cards,” Suffolk Superior Court Judge Robert Gordon ruled Tuesday. 

“(O’Brien’s) concededly ill-considered remarks and other putative failures of leadership reflect, at most, errors of judgment falling far below the statute’s ‘gross misconduct’ threshold for removal,” Gordon wrote. “They do not approach – singularly or collectively – the kind of flagrant, outrageous or unconscionable acts that our case law has recognized as essential to a finding of gross misconduct.”

Judge: O’Brien used racial epithet, but treasurer didn’t consider context

Goldberg fired O’Brien after she used the term “yellow” to refer to people of Asian descent in a meeting, according to the court documents. 

“I guess you’re not allowed to say ‘yellow’ anymore,” O’Brien also allegedly said, which she denied later. She acknowledged that she “should have cleaned it up,” and that “[i]t’s difficult sometimes to know how to say the right thing.”

However, the judge notes that O’Brien was repeating a local real estate developer’s reference to “Black, brown, and yellow investors.” The real estate developer was Black, according to court documents. By not taking in the context, Gordon wrote, the treasurer committed a “clear error.”

In a statement, Goldberg disagreed with the judge. Her office reportedly paid the firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius more than $970,000 in legal fees, according to The Boston Globe.

“I don’t think, under any circumstance, the kind of behavior Chair O’Brien demonstrated should be tolerated. I do not accept that harassment and bullying are just trivial issues in the workplace,” Goldberg, who appointed O’Brien to the position, said in a statement.  “Frankly, we think this judge got it wrong.”

O’Brien was accused of yelling at employees, including threatening to fire the CCC’s executive director when he went on parental leave and referring to that leave as a “personal issue” in a public meeting. She had previously referred to that same employee’s termination as “a blunt instrument” because he was a “terrible” manager and “this place sucks because of him.”

O’Brien was also accused of referring to two Black colleagues repeatedly as “buddies,” despite being asked not to. Goldberg called this “inappropriate” and “unprofessional” but not racially motivated.

The judge ruled that the evidence fell short of “gross misconduct.” 

“Perhaps” some of her comments were rude and unprofessional, the judge wrote. “But the laws governing the workplace do not prescribe codes of general civility … They indicate, at most, the kind of anodyne teasing that has never been considered actionable, much less evidence of extreme or outrageous misconduct.”

O’Brien will be reinstated to her position “effective immediately and without further delay” to serve out her five-year term expiring on Aug. 31, 2027. She is entitled to all due back pay and benefits since she was wrongfully removed as chair, Gordon wrote.

Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.