Marblehead selectmen cancel Castner hearing, accept gag order on case

MARBLEHEAD – Selectmen have canceled tonight’s scheduled public meeting on a tragic fatal accident – and they have accepted an apparent gag order that leaves Assistant Town Counsel Marc Miller as the board’s spokesman on that accident.Selectmen were scheduled to meet with Police Chief Robert Picariello to discuss his department’s investigation into the Aug. 24 death of Allie Castner, 15, who was hit by a car driven by 19-year-old Thomas Larivee of Salem on Pleasant Street around 7 p.m. District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett has asked Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early to investigate the accident and that investigation is continuing.Miller said last week the meeting would be secret. He then said two days ago it would be public. Last night he appeared before the board, stating that he was acting on his own volition, to ask them to cancel the meeting altogether.Miller said a public question-and-answer session involving the police chief would “hinder and impede” the ongoing investigation, it would undermine public confidence in the police and it would open the door to questions about every police investigation.”You have to have faith in people,” Miller said, noting that selectmen can confer with the chief individually to have questions answered. He also noted that Larivee and the Castner family have their own lawyers and a public meeting could be used to impeach witnesses.Selectmen reversed a previous vote on the issue after listening to Miller’s arguments.Selectman William Woodfin, who made the motion for a meeting, said that blogs and other sources were painting such a dark picture of the investigation that he wanted “to err on the side of openness.””I wanted to talk about administrative procedures, not the investigation,” he said.Miller pointed out that that would be difficult.Selectmen unanimously voted to cancel tonight’s meeting. The vote to name Miller as spokesman was 4-0 with Woodfin voting “present.”A short time later audience member Greg Spanos rose to address the board about Allie Castner. Although he said he agreed that the meeting should be canceled, Selectmen Chairman Jackie Belf-Becker stopped him from discussing the accident. “This is not an appropriate forum,” she said.Spanos told selectmen it was “a shame when a citizen can’t talk to the selectmen” and urged the board to ask themselves, “Why are we here?””Let the investigation be finished first,” Selectman Harry Christensen told him.Former Selectman Bill Purdin later reminded the board, “No matter what lawyers may say you can listen to people.”