Mayor seeks sanctions of $100 per day for her continued flouting of Discovery Master ruling
Attorneys representing Mayor Carlo DeMaria in his Defamation lawsuit against the Everett Leader Herald newspaper owner Matthew Philbin, corrupt reporter Joshua Resnek, Andrew Philbin, Sr., and Sergio Cornelio are waiting on a decision by the Middlesex Superior Court’s Discovery Master if he will sanction failed city council candidate Guerline Alcy $100 per day for failing to comply with the mayor’s demand to produce documents, including emails in response to the mayor’s request at her Sept. 30, 2022 deposition.
Alcy received an order by letter from the mayor’s attorneys on March 8 requesting her to comply no later than March 14, but Alcy failed to comply.
According to filings obtained on the Middlesex Superior Court website, the mayor’s attorney states, “Ms. Alcy’s failure to comply with the Order is not surprising given her prior attempts to thwart the Plaintiff’s discovery of highly relevant evidence, and sanctions are now warranted against her.”
The document refers to Alcy’s Sept. 2022 deposition testimony where she refused to admit her own email address in documents between herself and Resnek over her story that made serious allegations of sexual harassment while employed at city hall.
In her sworn testimony, Alcy couldn’t provide any proof of her claims against the mayor; admitting so much as not remembering as much as the day, month or year of any of the incidents she claimed happened between her and the mayor pertaining to the Leader Herald stories written by Resnek in 2021.
Alcy’s legal problems began last year when she failed to respond to an August 2022 subpoena, despite repeated requests. The mayor’s attorneys were forced to serve a motion seeking an order to compel Alcy to respond to the subpoena, when she finally produced a limited number of documents, consisting of only 20 pages of emails and documents, but no text messages.
According to the filing, “During Ms. Alcy’s deposition on September 30, 2022, it became apparent, from her testimony and based on the documents produced by the Leader Herald Defendants, that she had failed to produce numerous non-privileged documents responsive to the Subpoena. Moreover, Ms. Alcy attempted to prevent Plaintiff from discovering the extent of her failure to comply with her discovery obligations. As even the Discovery Master noted in his Order, Ms. Alcy was evasive in her testimony, refusing to answer direct questions.”
Following her testimony, the attorneys requested an Order compelling Alcy to fully respond to the subpoena.
By February 2023, the Discovery Master ruled on the mayor’s motion to Compel and ordered Alcy to provide further documentation by March 3, 2023.
The Order required Alcy to provide an affidavit, identifying all her email accounts, and certifying that she had perform certain searches of her emails, providing copies located from the searches.
But as of March 14, Alcy refused the court order and the mayor’s motion reacted in fashion.
“Simply put, enough is enough,” stated the motion. “Ms. Alcy has ignored her discovery obligations for over seven months, and is now thumbing her nose at the Discovery Master’s Order, causing Plaintiff to incur additional attorney’s fees in bringing the instant Motion for Sanctions. Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, Plaintiff requests that the Discovery Master grant this Motion and order that Ms. Alcy be sanctioned, in the amount of $100 per day, until she fully complies with the Discovery Master’s Order.”
In another twist in the case, subpoenas were served on City Councillor Michael Marchese, his brother, Atty. Joseph Marchese, millionaire businessman Joseph O’Donnell, David O’Connor, Communications Coordinator at Everett Public Schools, Jacob Resnek, son of Joshua Resnek, and Russel Pergament, a personal friend of Joshua Resnek.
The Marchese brothers, longtime nemeses of the mayor, have openly criticized the mayor through anonymous mailings as well as financial and political supporters of Fred Capone, the mayoral challenger in the 2021 election.
Joseph O’Donnell, owner/partner of Suffolk Sterling, which owned and operated the former Suffolk Downs racetrack which, along with the city of Revere and Mohegan Sun, competed for the Class A gaming license which they would be awarded to the city of Everett and Steve Wynn.
David O’Connor, who works in the school administration office, was a former employee at the Independent Newspaper group thanks to Resnek, who would then be hired by former Supt. of School Frederick Forestiere as the communications coordinator, now under Supt. Priya Tahiliani.
It was the stories written by Resnek which would paint Everett as a racist city which Tahiliani would use to base and file her MCAD lawsuit against the mayor and the city.
Resnek wrote in the 2021 election year that the mayor was “a racist, who only liked Italians” – among other inflammatory allegations, which Tahiliani would use to march students down to city hall last year demanding that the city council and the mayor resign due to racism.
After the school committee recently voted down her contract extension, the supt. once again, filed another lawsuit claiming the city was racists for not renewing her contract.
Tahiliani’s tenure so far has produced underachieving MCAS test results, a violent atmosphere at the high school, along with reports of bullying and fear among the teaching staff and school employees.
Resnek’s pal, Pergament, who once published the free Metro tabloid newspaper which could be found on the MBTA subway lines, folded back in 2020. Resnek could be found bragging to Pergament in email evidence where the corrupt reporter bragged about his weekly stories about destroying Mayor DeMaria.
According to a source close to the case, O’Connor is expected to appear in the coming weeks to give his sworn testimony at the Boston law offices of Saul Ewing, LLP.
Jacob Resnek testified two weeks ago stating that his father published the newspaper in order to hurt the mayor since it’s all he talked about.