Chief Justice Marshall and Chief Justice for Administration and Management Mulligan have issued a joint statement suspending Probation CommissionerO’Brien
All seven Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court signed an order to this effect
A special master, Paul Ware who also conducted the Big Dig investigation has been appointed the “Special Master” to investigate and report to the Supreme Judicial Court.
Supervision over probation officers and judicial court managers should be returned to the court system, specifically to the Presiding Judge for each court, who are best able to evaluate the needs of the courts where they preside. Removal of that authority appears to me to have been influence peddling and payback at its worst, due to the animus against so-called clean elections by then-speaker Thomas Finneran.
Serioulsy. There was nothing in there that Judge Mulligan or Margaret Marshall did not know for some time. Shame on them. I’m still not sure what they are investigating. The Order mentions people getting thier job based on who they know. By that standard every state entity, including the judiciary, should be investigated. They could have come up with a better worded order. I’m not impressed Margaret.
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p>O’Brien deserves what he gets, but let’s not make Judge Mulligan and Judge Marshall heroes in this. If they can suspend him now they should have suspended long ago. They are the ones that dropped the ball as this guy evolved into a monster.
Yes, I think the Court has understood this problem for some time; but the Court, remember, is in the midst of a major budget crisis and is at the mercy of the legislature for its funding. I think the Globe story provided the Justices with the political cover for making a move that I suggest they have wanted to make for a long time.
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p>TedF
First, kudos to the Globe for some excellent journalism. Arguably their best reporting since they ripped the cassocks off the local Catholic establishment.
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p>Second, Ernie is dead on right here. The legislature took a lot of administrative control away from the courts, but it didn’t remove the judges entirely from the picture. They are still the bosses of Probation, as this order demonstrates.
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p>In fact, one might reasonably speculate that the rot described in the Globe story could possibly — gasp! — extend throughout other areas of the judiciary. Maybe right into the chambers of some of the judges. That might be a big target even for the Globe, in their currently weakened state. But if they could take on the Church, why not the judges themselves. Perhaps that is where the Globe’s spotlight will shine next. But I digress.
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p>As to what they are investigating, Ernie, I’d say Mr. Ware’s job is more confirmatory than investigatory: niceties have to be followed i.e. it’s all about process.
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p>As to Ted’s suggestion, his speculation damns more than it praises, if you ask me.
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p>The Judiciary, by it’s very nature, is a responsive, not pro-active, entity. It does precious little on it’s own initiative and nothing at all without clear cause. This is by design.
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p>What is it you would have them do? What would you have them do differently?
What would have made the outcome different from the last time? Or would it simply have resulted in another round of punitive cuts to the courts, to the detriment of the citizens of the Commonwealth?
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p>The corruption problem in Massachusetts is not in the courts.
O’Brien is the latest part of the machine to get taken down by scandal – and it turns out that Cahill is best friends with O’Brien. It’s a cozy little game – Cahill hires O’Brien’s wife and daughter at the treasury department and they hire Cahill’s political contributors at the Probation Department.