Paul DeMeo made this statement “Mike Nicholson’s Fan Club parked outside Gardner Massachusetts City Hall.” He also falsely stated, “The publication that keeps attacking residents and doing Nicholson’s dirty work while praising Nicholson. Sad to say, Steve Wendell, WGAW is part of this scheme who bad mouthed Kimberly Blake” Gardner Magazine and WGAW had truthfully reported on Blake’s food pantry for which she received a Cease and Desist order by the Gardner Board of Health. No permits had been sought as required by law.
Gardner Magazine redacted the plate ;number to protect the Mayor’s privacy. The original posting on the DeMeo Facebook group showed the license plate number.
Concern Grows as Harassment Occurs
WGAW’s Steve Wendell is the latest person to be harassed by a person reportedly supporting Kimberly Blake. After Wendell aired a report about his ordeal, we spoke with him about what happened. Listen on any device, CLICK HERE.
Official and Legal: Kimberly Blake and Paul DeMeo are defendants in an initial legal matter brought by a Gardner City official in the Massachusetts Court system. Matter is related to posts and comments made in a Facebook group of which Blake and DeMeo are currently admins. We have noted previously that a number of untruthful statements have been made against Werner Poegel and Steve Wendell in the same group for simply reporting accurately when newsworthy. A number of other officials have also told us that untruthful statements have been made about them.
Past Article: Gardner Magazine recently published an article regarding disruption and harassment by Blake at a recent City Council meeting. See previous article for further information.
DeMeo is known to irritate officials at meetings by coming close to them and taking photos with a flash camera. Both DeMeo and Blake on numerous occasions have encouraged group members to speak up at public meetings knowing that the legislative setup in Gardner only allows members of the public to speak during specific public hearings. DeMeo also posted a photo of Gardner Mayor Nicholson’s vehicle and encouraged group members to look out for it. We have redacted the license plate number from the vehicle shown in the photo. This is concerning as after an interview in May 2024, I came home to find a caravan of vehicles lying in wait on my street and then passing by me. making hand gestures, only to find that DeMeo had posted the whereabouts of my van at City Hall apparently to alert the group. Because of the harassment incident, multiple police reports were filed.
In my opinion, the actions of these individuals have evolved to an organized criminal conspiracy without regard for the damage which could be done to reputations, life, or property. The City of Gardner is very fortunate to have a group of honest, hard-working, God-loving people serving as City Councilors, the Mayor, and various employees. The constant almost broken-record like rhetoric in the Facebook Group is very simply hate speech, some of it protected by the first amendment and much of it very much actionable either civilly or criminally due to the numerous salacious and false allegations either posted directly by the admins or allowed to stay up as comments by group members. In addition, the continued harassment being carried out is despicable.
With respect to the aforementioned Facebook Group, numerous anecdotes exists of members who have been banned from the group for criticizing an admin, for faulting them when untruthful statements are made by them, or for making statements trying to correct false posts or comments in the group.
History of the Two Groups
The Group noted above was even known as Paul DeMeo’s Hate Group for a period of time on March 24, 2023. We captured a screenshot utilizing records made available by Facebook. We do not know the reason why DeMeo changed the name to that or why he changed it back, but it does accurately describe the content and my perceived intent of the group.
Bait and Switch: On a related note, Kimberly Blake now has an anti-racing group which was first established as a group relating to the City of Gardner, used for a short time as a campaign group when she ran for Mayor presumably as a shortcut to obtain members, reverted to a group relating to the City of Gardner, and now recently an anti-racetrack group. Whether members of the group are opposed to the racetrack or not, they instantly became members of a group unrelated to the original title. In my opinion, that approach is unethical and wrong. Another Anti racetrack group is in existence and was created by Carolyn Kamuda – the difference: when created, the purpose and title of the group was transparently disclosed, first relating to Route 140 Zoning-Racing last year and updated recently..
UPDATE: June 28, 2024 10:02pm: Harassment of GAAMHA.
A poster named “Gardner Daily” was allowed to post on the DeMeo group regarding a septic issue already addressed by GAAMHA. There’s a long list of accusations regarding the Board of Health and GAAMHA. Bottom line from Shawn Hayden, President of GAAMHA: “The system was permitted and installed back in 2021 when we renovated the property. The installation was witnessed by the engineer and BOH, and certified to be compliant with Title V according the the engineer’s stamped affidavit and stamped as-built plans. A problem was discovered several weeks ago, we immediately called in engineers and began weekly pumping. The system was scoped, the soil was sent to a lab and determined to be fine, and now parts of it are scheduled to be replaced.” Micah Blondeau, Director of Gardner Public Health has already made a visit and confirmed the truthfulness of what Shawn Hayden posted, yet the harassing post remains at this hour.