The Everett Leader Herald newspaper, a 139-year-old local paper, will pay $1.1 million dollars to Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria to settle a defamation lawsuit. The paper will also be shutting down as part of the settlement agreement, according to an attorney representing DeMaria.
In a press conference Monday, DeMaria described a “deliberate, purposeful, relentless campaign” against him.
“The defendants have admitted not only to fabricating false accusations, but to fabricating supposed ‘quotes’ — and here I use quotation marks because they were made up — and even fabricating supposed notes of interviews that had never taken place,” said DeMaria, reading a prepared statement.
Articles and editorials in the paper made allegations that the mayor solicited and received kickbacks, stole money, extorted people and made threats against people.
“The phrase ‘Kickback Carlo’ was used constantly as a theme, but this was not simply a kind of a rhetorical flourish. The defendants admitted that what they in fact alleged ... [was that] he had taken kickbacks in the form of cash, in the form of envelopes in the form of I think a million dollars worth of chips in Las Vegas and other garbage like that,” said Jeffrey Robbins, DeMaria’s attorney.
Publisher/editor Joshua Resnek — a defendant in the case along with owner Matthew Philbin — declined to comment on the settlement.
DeMaria described the “reputational and emotional damage” done by the paper, including the impact on his family.
“What the Everett Leader Herald, its owner, and its publisher and editor did to my family and me — publishing article after article, accusation after accusation about me that they knew was false, that they knew they had no basis for, for the avowed purpose of destroying my reputation to serve their own personal financial interest — wasn’t just dishonest. It was corrupt,” DeMaria said.
His lawyer described the toll the stories had taken on the mayor’s health, and added that DeMaria’s father at one point told him, “If this [these stories] is true, you’re not my son.”
The paper’s last edition will come out on Wednesday.
Asked why they sought for the paper be shut down, DeMaria’s attorney said the public should look at the public record to see the texts, records, and admissions of the defendants.
“Because the conduct was so egregious, we thought this was an enterprise that shouldn’t be functioning,” Robbins said.
Along with the fabricated stories about the mayor, the paper also offered a familiar local news mix: everything from divisions over the city budget and the contentious school committee meetings, to local obituaries and sports.
Everett, a diverse city of roughly 50,000, now has two local papers: the Everett Independent and The Everett Advocate. The city of Everett has worked with a public relations consultant to amplify stories in the Everett Advocate.
Longtime critics of the mayor say it will be hard to find independent news.
“It will be very hard to find either local paper writing anything that isn’t pro-mayor or pro-administration,” said Everett resident Paula Sterite. “We’re stuck with propaganda.”
