“I think it’s very important that I bring this fight to its conclusion, because there are a lot of families out there. A lot of them don’t ever find out who shot their loved one because there are district attorneys out here saying we don’t have to release the name, which is not true at all.” — Eric Mack
On November 22, 2021, Fall River police officer Chelsea Campellone shot and killed 30-year-old Anthony Harden in his bedroom. Since then, Harden’s brother Eric Mack has been fighting for access to the investigative records that could shed some light on what happened that night.
For the eighth episode of Lights Out Mass, we talk with Mack about his lingering questions and suspicions about the shooting, his lawsuit to force the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office to release more records, the important ramifications the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s interpretation of a 2020 police reform law will have for transparency of police shootings and misconduct in the state, the DA’s strained arguments for its secrecy, and why it’s OK to hate (some) lawyers.
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Links
You can read news coverage of the Anthony Harden shooting and Eric Mack’s fight for transparency from The Public’s Radio, The Herald News, and The Boston Globe
The briefs in Mack’s Supreme Judicial Court case are here
The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office’s report on the Harden shooting and the records it has released thus far are here
Bristol DA Thomas Quinn’s interview with Mass Lawyers Weekly, in which he falsely claimed that his office released “all the evidence,” is here
Read about Andrew’s separate public records lawsuit against the Bristol County DA’s office (which will be the subject of a future episode) here:
Our episode about the limited nature of the police disciplinary information released this year by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission is here:
This podcast is hosted by Andrew Quemere and Jeff Raymond:
Andrew writes this newsletter and is also on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon
Jeff is the founder of MassTransparency and is also on Twitter and Bluesky
Our theme music is “Sun Bleach” by Lifeformed. More music available at Bandcamp.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant!
If you missed it, check out our Banned Books Week episode!
One Brother’s Fight for the Future of Police Transparency (with Eric Mack)