Allegations of racism flare in Randolph, Mass. Planning official is accused of bias

[Ian David]

By Matt Carroll, Globe Staff | March 23, 2007

RANDOLPH -- A white homeowner has sued the chairman of the town's Planning Board and accused him of blocking her plan to subdivide her property after learning that she lives with a black man and has two children from a previous interracial marriage.


Barbara Mersal and her son Marcel Andrade stood in the backyard of their home this week. Mersal wants to subdivide her 1.1 acre lot to build another house, as others have done in town. (Tia Chapman for the Boston Globe)

The suit by Barbara Mersal, 56, contends that her civil rights were violated by Planning Board chairman Richard Goodhue, who the suit asserts "unlawfully bullied, intimidated, and threatened" Mersal because of his "racial and gender bigotry."

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Jean A. Pierre-Louis, a Haitian who is the town's assistant civil engineer, said in his deposition that Goodhue used a racial epithet on him on two occasions and the word monkey once.

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James M. Madden, a former member of the Planning Board who is running against Goodhue in Tuesday's town election, said in an affidavit in 2005 that Goodhue used a racial epithet in referring to a black applicant for a subdivision.

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/03/23/allegations_of_racism_flare_in_randolph/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+City%2FRegion+News