Tag Archives: Gloucester Harbormaster T.J. Ciarametaro

Sundance Award-Winning Film CODA Filmed in Gloucester

Paul Vitale of Gloucester has been fishing off his boat, the F/V Angela Rose for 24 years. Most of the time, these days, he heads out to sea alone. Then, in the summer of 2019, a movie crew came to town. “All of a sudden you have the actors, the interpreters, the producers, the cameramen—all these people are on the boat,” Vitale says. “It was a little overwhelming, but not in a bad way.” Vitale and his boat weren’t the only locals to find their way onto the screen. The city harbormaster appeared in the film, as did local businessman Sam Parisi. The state fish pier, a city elementary school, and a popular harborside watering hole all served as shooting locations,, The movie’s title is an acronym for “child of deaf adults,” >click to read< 10:28

Harbormaster amends lawsuit – Mayor, admins accused of free speech, civil rights violations

Gloucester Harbormaster T.J. Ciarametaro’s attorneys have amended his lawsuit against Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, members of her administration and the city, broadening the counts under which Ciarametaro seeks damages and providing more detail on some of his more explosive charges of a  hostile workplace. The initial complaint, filed Feb. 9 in Essex Superior Court in Lawrence, charged that Romeo Theken and members of her  administration harassed Ciarametaro and created a hostile work environment as retaliation for the harbormaster serving as a plaintiffs’ expert witness in a lawsuit involving the 2015 sinking of the fishing vessel F.V. Orin C. >click to read< 08:33

Judge restores Orin C deal, lawyer appeals

A federal judge last Friday ordered the parties in the wrongful death lawsuit tied to the 2015 sinking of the Orin C to adhere to a previous settlement agreement, halting the highly contentious case that was set to go to trial next month in Boston. But on Tuesday, Joseph Orlando Jr., attorney for the three plaintiffs, appealed the settlement order and dismissal by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris.,, The order by Saris and Orlando’s subsequent appeal are the most recent twists and turns in the case that has fixated the city’s waterfront amid accusations by Orlando that Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken and others tampered with his expert witness, Gloucester Harbormaster T.J. Ciarametaro, by trying to pressure him to withdraw from the case or be fired from his harbormaster position. >click to read< 11:23

F/V Orin C Lawsuit – Lawyers say Samaritan, mayor threatened consultant

On Dec. 3, 2015, Capt. David “Heavy D” Sutherland died in the water after his disabled slime-eel boat, the Orin C, sank while under tow by the Coast Guard back into Gloucester Harbor. Now, an ongoing federal lawsuit filed by two surviving Orin C crew members and Sutherland’s estate has erupted with accusations of witness tampering involving Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken and fisherman Philip Powell of Swampscott, the good Samaritan who is a co-defendant in the case and whose vessel F/V Foxy Lady was the first to come to the aid of the Orin C. The witness is Gloucester Harbormaster T.J. Ciarametaro, who through his Five Fathoms Consulting firm, is retained as an expert witness by plaintiffs’ attorney, Joseph M. Orlando Jr. of the Gloucester firm Orlando & Associates. Orlando’s motion also accuses Gloucester lobsterman Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer, the current president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, of contributing to a pressure campaign against Ciarametaro, a Coast Guard veteran. >click to read< 08:05