139-Year-Old Newspaper Shut Down Over Mayor’s $1.1M Defamation Lawsuit Win

The Everett Leader-Herald, a cherished Massachusetts newspaper with a history spanning 139 years, will close its doors this week after a devastating legal blow.

The paper has been forced to pay $1.1 million following a defamation lawsuit filed by Mayor Carlo DeMaria, who accused the publication of spreading false reports that severely damaged his reputation.

The lawsuit, initiated in 2021, centered on allegations that the Leader-Herald published fabricated stories about DeMaria, calling him “Kickback Carlo” and painting him as a corrupt politician. The mayor claimed the paper’s editorial team deliberately sought to ruin his political career for financial gain.

In court, DeMaria presented a damning case against the paper’s leadership. The editor, Joshua Resnek, admitted to intentionally publishing false information aimed at damaging the mayor. Resnek’s emails, included in the court documents, revealed his disdain for DeMaria:

“The mayor is my enemy… It takes me two days away from important writing every week to create this shit,” he wrote.

Resnek even boasted about his strategy, calling his attacks on the mayor “dropping bombs.” The editor’s confession of fabricating stories raised serious questions about the paper’s journalistic integrity.

DeMaria, reflecting on the impact the newspaper’s actions had on him and his family, issued a powerful statement after the settlement:

“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 were 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.”

The settlement, which left the paper with no choice but to shut down, marks the tragic end of a publication that had been a cornerstone of Everett’s community for nearly a century and a half. Founded in 1885, the Leader-Herald had been known for its deep local roots, but the fallout from this scandal has been too severe to recover from.

For many residents of Everett, the closure represents more than the loss of a newspaper—it’s the end of an era. “I grew up reading this paper. It was part of our daily lives,” said local business owner Teresa Barlow. “But when you lie about someone like that, there’s no going back. It’s a sad day for journalism.”

The downfall of the Everett Leader-Herald raises troubling questions about the state of local media, the ethics of investigative reporting, and the dangerous consequences of unchecked power in the newsroom.

The paper’s final issue will be distributed this week, and its legacy will likely be remembered not for its longevity, but for its scandalous end.