Ozy Media

My friends in the Boston legal community were shocked when I announced I’d be retiring from what many of them considered a dream job: Judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts.

The Black founder of Ozy Media, under federal indictment for fraud, filed a $2 billion civil suit last month against a former New York Times media columnist, accusing the journalist of smearing and destroying his company while hiding his multi-million dollar stake in a competing firm.

As a rookie reporter with the Bay State Banner close to 40 years ago, I was assigned a story about a METCO student expelled for allegedly stealing from a student locker in one of the pricey suburbs west of Boston. After interviewing the student, a kid from Dorchester, and a school administrator, I filed the story, which seemed pretty straightforward. But something was clearly eating the editor, Melvin B. Miller, as he bent over the copy in the newsroom.