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Judge gives Janey the right to fire the police commissioner

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today denied Police Commissioner for Two Days Dennis White's request that she block Acting Mayor Kim Janey from firing him because of a report that raised questions about two alleged domestic-violence incidents in the 1990s.

The ruling does not dismiss Dennis White's suit, but means he can only sue for "irreparable harm" after Janey formally rescinds his position as commissioner.

Judge Heidi Brieger ruled she doubts White would win his case before a jury, in part because a 1962 state law gives the mayor the right to fire top city administrators, such as police commissioner, "for cause," as long as she gives them a hearing at which to try to refute her reasons, which Janey has said she would do for White.

Brieger continued that while the law requires a hearing, it does not require that it be held according to the same rules as a court trial, so there was nothing wrong with the way Janey called White at 10 a.m. one Friday to say she'd be holding the hearing at 3 p.m. the same day. White blocked that hearing by suing Janey and asking for a temporary restraining order.

The Court declines the Commissioner's invitation to graft onto the statute a requirement that the Acting Mayor hold - or participate - in such a proceeding.

And since the law designates the mayor as the "cause-finder" in such a hearing, there's no place for a judge to step in, she concluded.

She added that she did agree with White that because he obviously has a direct personal stake in the outcome of the hearing Janey says she will hold, he has the right to make a case that he would suffer "irreparable harm" from it. But the time to make that case is only after she makes her decision - and that he will have to show that Janey did not have sufficient cause to fire him.

In a statement this afternoon, Janey said she will shortly notify White of the newly rescheduled hearing - to be held over Zoom.

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PDF icon Judge's complete ruling233.47 KB


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Comments

Good riddance to an obvious scum bag. Good for Janey for sticking to her guns on this. Going up against the BPD take some courage.

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So many complaints on police officers are white citizens agains black officers for a wide variety of things....then white IA police supervisors sustaining these complaints.

Just saying it could get complicated if standards are set (gives an advantage to white police officers who study their entire career instead of responding to calls in minority neighborhoods)

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The guy who lives by that nasty Texas guide to making thinly veiled - if veiled at all - threats during union negotiations or whenever citizens start holding police accountable for even odious behavior is now making a thinly veiled threat with no supporting detail or data or studies to back it up.

Imagine that.

Anyone here surprised?

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Back it up.

Identify your data sources or go fish. Enough with your vague threats every time someone calls you out on your "but things will get worse if cops are held accountable" bullshit.

This has shit all to do with being woke. I'm a scientist and I don't do thruthiness or jargon laden nonsense pretending to be in the know. Show your work, show the data, or gargle some Listerine to get that boot polish off your uvula.

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Back up the claims of black officers who get disciplined at a different rate of white officers? Seriously? Are you a white supremacist who doesn’t know how to pretend to be woke or not?

Lol it’s ok, you are a white boomer from the suburbs and got caught trying to be woke. But you are as racist as the rest of Boston. It’s ok. We deserve the reputation because of people like you swirly.

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Beating a dead horse.

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IMAGE(https://media.tenor.com/images/2630cce7443e7b9d2a42da41d9deca6b/tenor.gif)

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You don’t even live or nor are you from Boston. Just stop please!

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I'm shocked - shocked - to learn that the legal profesional who drafted the decision doesn't know how to spell statute!

The Court declines the Commissioner's invitation to graft onto the statue a requirement...
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Tell the class how you would find/check that.

Or find yourself a new hobby,

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You take yourself way too seriously.

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What can be ascribed to a reporter who sucks at transcription ...

The ruling gets "statute" correctly. Unfortunately, Massachusetts courts seem to be in the fax days and so put up PDFs of documents that are basically giant images rather than text documents from which you can copy and paste, so I missed a "t" when transcribing that bit of the ruling.

Which is not to excuse the mistake, because I should have caught it, but just to explain how it happened.

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I wonder if there will be another injunction over the powers of mayor vs acting mayor issue. The decision makes zero mention of the distinction between the two. The judge even states Janey "took office" when Walsh left which suggests she didn't examine that issue since acting mayor is not an office like mayor is.

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This case puts her opponents in a weird spot. On one hand I assume most of them would not want this person in charge. On the other hand Janey is performing a giant flex on this and it makes her look even more like a full on Mayor.

I do not think she has the power to do this as acting Mayor. I don't think any of the people she is running against will challenge it though.

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"The Court agrees with the Acting Mayor" regarding her claim of having statutory and constitutional authority to remove the Commissioner. That's on page 4 of the ruling. Doesn't that address exactly what you say it does not address?

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The judge in that paragraph explained that the mayor can remove the commissioner, but didn't elaborate whether that also applies to the acting mayor.

The judge neglected to discuss at all the powers of acting vs. regular mayor, which is relevant here because an acting mayor is explicitly not empowered to make permanent appointments, and White is a permanent appointment just made by the mayor.

I haven't read White's original complaint, so can't say whether he argued that point already, or saved it for later.

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I disagree with your reading of this paragraph.

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...is living rent-free in your head, isn't she?

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I wonder if I will ever visit every Waffle House in greater nj

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my bad

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oops

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