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Former lottery official says treasurer asked him to delete text exchanges

“Text messages are subject to the public records law, and there are certain retention policies that govern when they can and cannot be deleted.”

October 20, 2024

2 minutes to read

A former Massachusetts Lottery official was repeatedly asked by Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg to delete their text exchanges, according to legal documents.

This information was revealed in a sworn testimony related to the state’s firing of Shannon O’Brien — the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission Chair.

In the legal proceedings, Edward Farley, who was formerly Goldberg’s campaign manager and a marketing chief for the Massachusetts Lottery, detailed a close political relationship going back as far as 2005, according to WBUR. This included phone calls and texts.

The concern at hand from public record specialists was that Goldberg could tell a state employee to delete records that should be publicly accessible due to her state official status.

“It concerns me,” said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition to WBUR. “Bottom line, text messages are subject to the public records law, and there are certain retention policies that govern when they can and cannot be deleted.”

Farley described, in the sworn testimony, conversations with Goldberg about O’Brien. They included conversations about O’Brien’s hiring as well as her performance and dismissal, according to the news outlet.

O’Brien was dismissed after she was accused of using racially insensitive language and bullying the outgoing executive director. She is appealing the decision.

Farley and Goldberg also had a text conversation about O’Brien’s performance as the head of the agency, Farley said in a written statement. Goldberg texted him a link to a recorded official meeting and asked his opinion on O’Brien’s demeanor.

He said he was not the only person to receive this recording. In response, he said, “I’ve seen her do better.”

Following this interaction, Goldberg ordered him to delete the text messages regarding O’Brien.

“These are not the types of text messages that you fire off quickly, saying you’ll be in the office in five minutes, or ‘I’m running a little late today,’” said Silverman, director of the New England First Amendment Coalition according to WBUR. “These are conversations happening over text that are of substance and can give the public a lot of insight into how the commission’s working, and should be retained appropriately.”

Farley is willing to have a forensic expert go through his phone and retrieve the messages, according to WBUR.

“I would challenge that Goldberg does the same,” he wrote in a statement, according to the news outlet.