It was just a line in The Republican’s election profile of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, but it was a reminder of one of his longest-running falsities. Sarno still “maintains the court order gave the commission power only over discipline, and not as an overall supervisory body.”
Taking far less time than another judge did on a similar motion last year, Hampden Superior Court Judge James Manitsas has already decided the fate of a claim that lawyers for Mayor Domenic Sarno and his former aide Darryl Moss did battle over on Tuesday. The court dismissed the claim that Sarno violated Moss’s First Amendment rights.
UPDATED 5/14/23 6:42: Judge Manitsas has ruled against Moss and in favor of Mayor Sarno. Full story here.
SPRINGFIELD—Lawyers for former mayoral aide Darryl Moss and Mayor Domenic Sarno squared off Tuesday over whether the former sufficiently pleaded a violation of his First Amendment rights. The hearing came some five months after the attorneys jousted over other claims, two of which a Hampden Superior Court judge ultimately dismissed.
Former Springfield mayoral aide Darryl Moss’s lawsuit against Mayor Domenic Sarno appears just about ready to inch out of the pleading phase. After a judge dismissed some of Moss’s suit in December, he repleaded to revive his First Amendment claims.
In a 5-2 ruling, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reinstated criminal charges arising from the COVID-19 outbreak that killed 76 veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. Former Superintendent Bennett Walsh and former medical director David Clinton were the only officials to face such charges. Hampden County Superior Court Judge Edward McDonough, Jr. dismissed the indictment in 2021 prompting the appeal.
The city of Springfield successfully whittled down the claims former mayoral aide Darryl Moss has alleged, but the meat of the suit endures. Moss, who held multiple roles in Mayor Domenic Sarno’s office, was shown the door after a controversial Facebook post.
BOSTON—On the eve of Governor Charlie Baker’s last day as governor—and Attorney General Maura Healey’s first—the Supreme Judicial Court considered an appeal in the waning litigation from the COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. The indictments reflect one of the Baker administration’s darkest hours.
In September, Britons uttered a phrase they had not uttered in 70 years. “God, Save the King” became the national anthem with the passing of Queen Elizabeth, II. But in Springfield, residents have been crooning this a tad longer.
The death of George Floyd reverberated into Springfield as it had the rest of the country. When the issue crossed Springfield’s employee social media policy, people would lose jobs. Among them was Darryl Moss.
The legal drama around the criminal indictments arising from the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home COVID-19 outbreak has flown under the radar since the appeal began. The case, however, jolted a bit in public view again as Healey’s office sought direct review from the Supreme Judicial Court.