Meetings to decide the fate of suspended Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien are scheduled to stretch into June after an hours-long closed-door session Friday concluded with no apparent resolution and both sides declining to comment publicly.

Goldberg removed O’Brien from her post last fall claiming “several serious allegations,” including alleged racially incentive comments, led to the move. But O’Brien has pushed back, denying the accusations and accusing Goldberg of “relying on anonymous witnesses.”

As she stepped into a conference room inside her office on Friday, Goldberg did not say if she had any goals for the hearing.

“I’m not allowed to discuss the proceedings,” she told the Herald. As she left later in the afternoon, Goldberg declined to comment on the need to hold a fourth session.

An attorney for O’Brien, Max Stern, said discussions were extending into a fourth day “to get all the witnesses in.” He declined to comment further.

Related Articles

$187,000 pot leadership post opens up to nationwide search

Feds softening view on pot has sellers cautiously optimistic

Shannon O’Brien accuses Goldberg of using ‘anonymous witnesses’ as hearings stretch on

Hearings on pot boss Shannon O’Brien’s suspension kicks off with little flare

Ahead of 4/20, Massachusetts cannabis officials remind people making edibles ‘to be careful’

The next meeting is scheduled for June 17, both Stern and aides to Goldberg said.

Cannabis Control Commissioner Kimberly Roy also showed up to the hearing Friday, entering a conference room where the two parties were meeting around 4:30 p.m., more than four hours after discussions had begun.

Friday marked the third hearing since proceedings kicked off at the start of this month.

The second meeting ended with O’Brien’s lawyers accusing Goldberg of “relying on anonymous witnesses” to build a case. Both anonymous witnesses and on-the-record sources are being used in the proceedings.

Two reports authored by outside investigators, which have not been made fully public, outline the allegations against O’Brien and are likely to serve as the basis for Goldberg’s decision to remove or keep O’Brien at the Cannabis Control Commission.

An independent mediator, Thomas Maffei of the law firm Sherin and Lodgen, has overseen the meetings.