MAY v. MARCHETTI II: THE PLANET PRESENTS A PRIMER ON ‘DISCOVERY’
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY NOV. 17, 2025) — Subsequent to THE PLANET‘s coverage of the lawsuit Victoria May has filed against Peter Marchetti, Pittsfield Co-Op Bank, and two others, we found a general unfamiliarity of the trial process.
To recap, THE PLANET reported a trial date set for May 18, 2026. At May’s request, the judge extended the discovery phase of the trial to mid-December. Turns out that many folks don’t know what that is
Today THE PLANET shares this information on the discovery process.
We thank the website justia.com for this information.
———- ooo ———-
The Discovery Process in Lawsuits
If a lawsuit gets past its initial stages, the plaintiff and the defendant will go through a period of discovery. This involves asking the opposing party or other people to provide information that would not be publicly known or readily available to the party seeking it. Discovery allows each side to build evidence for their arguments at trial. It also can help narrow the case and streamline the process by focusing the litigation on the issues that are actually disputed. Generally, anything that is reasonably likely to lead to discoverable evidence can be sought through discovery.
Depositions
The classic example of a discovery tool is a deposition. This happens when either party asks the other party or a potential witness to answer questions under oath. The person being deposed usually will come to the office of the attorney for the party requesting the deposition. A private court reporter will make a record of the deposition. It can be a useful way to determine what a key witness will say at trial so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Also, if their statements at trial clash with their statements in the deposition, a party can use this conflict to impeach the witness’ credibility.
Requests for Production of Documents
Each party can mail these written requests to the opponent or their attorney. They will seek documents or sets of documents that are relevant to the lawsuit. For example, if an employee is suing for racial discrimination, they may want access to the employer’s records to show that similarly performing employees of other races were treated better than they were.
Requests for Admissions
The plaintiff will tell a certain narrative in their complaint, while the defendant will outline their version of events in their answer. These stories are often not entirely different, and the parties may disagree on only a few key points. Requests for admissions are ways to narrow the dispute by identifying points on which the parties agree. This can make the litigation more efficient by limiting the evidence presented at trial to genuinely disputed matters. You should respond candidly to requests for admissions, since you will be answering under oath.
Interrogatories
Interrogatories are written sets of questions sent by one side to the other. If the party answering the interrogatories has a different answer at trial, the other party can point this out to challenge their credibility.
Limits on Discovery
Failing to cooperate with a legitimate discovery request or tampering with discoverable evidence before disclosing it can result in sanctions. These may involve an instruction for a negative inference at trial or even the dismissal of a claim or counterclaim. However, sometimes a party will abuse the discovery process by making extremely onerous requests that have minimal relevance to the litigation. They may hope that the other side will give up on the case rather than undertaking this burden. If you feel that your opponent is making unjustified discovery requests to harass you, you can object to the requests. The court will rule on whether all, part, or none of the requested materials must be made available to the opposing party.
In other situations, a party may request information that falls within the definition of an attorney’s work product. This is a term for an attorney’s analysis and ideas, as well as their strategic development of the case. Work product can take tangible or intangible forms. It generally does not need to be disclosed in discovery.
———- ooo ———-
Hope this helps.
——————————————————————
“A good man always acts with benevolence” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
Copyright (c) 2025 By Dan Valenti, PLANET VALENTI and EUROPOLIS MANAGEMENT. All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed in the comment section or in the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not necessarily endorsed by the operators of this website. PLANET VALENTI assumes no responsibility for such views and opinions, and it reserves the right to remove or edit any comment, including but not limited to those that violate the website’s Rules of Conduct and its editorial policies. Those who leave comments own all the responsibilities that are or can be attached to those comments, be they rhetorical, semantic, or legal. Such commentators remain solely responsible for what they post and shall be and remain solely accountable for their words. PLANET VALENTI shall not be held responsible for the consequences that may result from any posted comment or outside opinion or commentary as provided in, but not limited to, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and this website’s terms of service. We serve as a marketplace of ideas, without prejudice and available to all. All users of this site — including readers, commentators, contributors, or anyone else — hereby agree to these conditions by virtue of this notice and their use of/participation in this site. When PLANET VALENTI ends with the words “The Usual Disclaimer,” that phrase shall be understood to refer to the full text of this disclaimer.
In other words, the color of justice is green = MONEY.
Settlement or Appeal(s) or years of one’s life in court….
The illustration for Pittsfield is the GE scam(s) that left PCBs everywhere.
Peter Marchetti will do the same thing he did with the public school scandals, the Munn’s, Evan Skubel, the $341,000 Nuciforo pot permits settlement, etc.
He seems to be lashing out by raising taxes again.
Did anyone see the article where VP White was diligently scanning the budget for potential waste or excess? Anywhere he could show the taxpayers that he was doing his job? No? How about any of the rest of the councilors? Do they even know it is part of their job? No?
Maybe there wasn’t one because it did not happen.
Hopefully someone will tell any new councilors that, why yes, it is indeed part of their duty to be a guardian of taxpayer money. It is,in fact, one of the most important ones even though there is little evidence of it in the last 20 years. And no one should be discouraging you from doing so, even in Pittsfield.
I believe Lumpy wants to settle this matter asap and will spout something like , I settled because it is a distraction from being able to lead Bitchfield in a direction I was elected to do. I myself hope it goes to trial and ends his leadership one way or another.
And to Totally make the Planets Day. Matt the Hat Tucker has his own show on P C T ……..G W I 20 xx
November 17, 2025
Re: Pittsfield politics spend, spend, spend….
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
Ricardo Morales is asking the Pittsfield City Council to borrow (up to) $15.2 million for improvements to Pittsfield’s wastewater treatment plant, which was referred to the City Council’s Finance Subcommittee for review.
The Commissioner of Public Works and Utilities wants a new administration and laboratory building there (at the wastewater treatment plant).
It is NOT the only public utilities project that the city is looking to spend many millions of taxpayers’ MONEY on. They want to improve the city’s two water plants, too. They hope to have the new design completed next year, 2026.
Later on this month of November 2025, the Pittsfield City Council is going to vote to giveaway $1 million to BIC from the GE Fund. Earlier this month, they decided the average home increased in value by over $20,000 in one year, resulting in a 4.1 percent property tax increase on residential homeowners.
Let us NOT forget about the city’s cash settlements with the marijuana businesses over the pot permits court cases, including millionaire Nuciforo’s $341,000 cut of the loot from the city, the 6-figure secret legal report, the public school settlement(s) and NDA(s) that cost taxpayers 6-figures, and so on.
It is a FACT that Pittsfield’s current fiscal year 2026 municipal operating budget is over $62 million dollars more than Westfield’s annual spending, while Pittsfield and Westfield are similarly sized small cities in Western Massachusetts. What is wrong with that picture?
Blogger Dan Valenti wrote about Pittsfield’s municipal debts and unfunded liabilities that he stated are close to $1 billion. I sarcastically wrote that Pittsfield’s debt obligations will be paid off by Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Unicorns, Nuciforo’s would-be change of heart, Kufflink’s future lottery winnings, and the like.
The fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family are always spending their hard-earned money on Pittsfield’s spending spree(s), as well as digging their own graves when they have nothing left over except for “Jon Melle’s pretend” homelessness sidewalk on the corner of First Street and Fenn Street in my native hometown of good old (boys’) Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Jon Melle
Water?.. Bills? You had an advocate against this rebuilding monstrosity except for a few updates that the even Wiz would have agreed on. Wiz May have not been the most unpopular guy on the city Council meetings when he had the institutional knowledge which was most important. Did you know John that they’re still going to use the Krofta Flotation which has been upgraded a little bit to fit the needs of the monstrosity either planning. I e Big Dig…..
One other item. Why doesn’t the media report on the complete failures at the waste water treatment plant.
Holy Ballasted Floculation Batman !
It might be cheaper for every homeowner to just dig their own well and put in an outhouse.
Right. Anti Freeze your pipes ans shit in your yard.
As God intended. He did not provide toilets or even toilet paper when he created Adam and Eve did he? Even Jesus pooped in the wild according to the Bible, verse 111 John the Baptist.
So be it said the Lord!
The fuck up at the water sewage plant is now referred to as Ricardoughs Big Dig. It’s on piss T V if your interested.
Which is more important? Marchettis upcoming world renown Marchetti Sports Emporium on Waconah street or the sewage plant? But of course he will do both as he has the power to basically print money using the taxpayers hard earned money. Money they would rather spend on raising their children. Marchetti could care less about families and children as one can see by observing his schools and the secrecy he surrounds them in. Perhaps he should adopt a kid to see what it cost to raise one.
And where is our Administration at the meeting on this nonsense?
This is what happens when your leadership is shit to begin with.
$15 million project due to “insufficient locations of electrical receptacles”…you have to be a sociopath to be able to say that with a straight face
Sue the architect. Sue the contractor. Let he politician who signed off on the design pay for it out of his or her own pocket.
No. No. You’re paying for it.
If you know so much tell me who is paying for all the lawsuits against the city? Also, is the number now higher than ever before?
Sounds a little bit like the Caine Mutiny movie where the ship’s commander (Humphrey Bogart) is trying to find out just who ate his strawberries on his crew. The Co-Op higher ups were too afraid to reprimand Marchetti in the event he would be the next mayor.
There is only one alternative for seniors especially. Get the hell out.
Stooge says he’s impressed with the new Super
He was also impressed with The last three.
Buffoon.
I agree to a point FlocU but, don’t think the problem is generational as much as it ideological.
You are right to not ever mention the Epstien pedophiles that Musk said Trumps name was all over them.Bondi will stop the vote in its tracks protecting the American King.
Key word “redaction”, report will be released but it will be 99 percent blacked out. No way in Hell trump would release this thing in its natural state. No way in hell, guaranteed. He is just trying to buy even more time.
“Protect the Children Please” should worry about what is currently being done to children and young women by the Democrats. Young women are being told they are trans and need surgeries that will ruin their lives, but the Dems want to bring down Trump because it never ends with them so they are putting all their hopes into Epstein, but they are fighting once again a losing battle. It’s pathetic to watch Democrats get so excited about their latest take down Trump attempts while they totally ignore the current poisonous environment they have created for young women in this country. Such hypocrisy.
November 18, 2025
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
Mayor Peter Marchetti said this year had its rough patches. He learned lessons from this year’s debates about homelessness and panhandling. He said that he threw the community into chaos, but new conversations from it all have taken place in Pittsfield.
He is looking at longer-term planning. He hopes to collaborate with North Adams Mayor Jennifer, as well as with state officials, to find additional financial resources to deal with complex social issues.
He said that until state support comes to Pittsfield, his hopes of new housing units and related services may not happen over the next two years in Pittsfield.
I found that questionable because local governments in Massachusetts are being under-funded by Boston by a 6 percentage point average. The average state aid to local government is 31 percent of the average local government’s budget, while in Massachusetts, it is around 26 percent in fiscal year 2026.
He knows that he is promising housing and other public services that won’t happen in Pittsfield due to Boston’s shortchanging Pittsfield on state aid.
He said that he has been involved in Pittsfield politics for the past 25 years, and the city’s annual operating budget always looks the same.
I found that interesting because Pittsfield’s operating budget is the most predictable part of Pittsfield politics. They always increase city spending by 5 percent per fiscal year going back over the past 40-plus years. It is due to the city and state government bureaucrats playing financial games with each other that have nothing to do with the taxpayers’ situation. It goes over most peoples’ heads.
Mayor Peter Marchetti knows what he is doing, which is being a useless public manager who is full of nonsense to the people and taxpayers of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He is using chaos to distract from his own failed tenure as mayor.
He cannot effectively lead his own city, but he hopes to drag North Adams Mayor Jennifer Macksey into his mess. He says that he hopes to provide housing and other public services, but he also says it won’t happen without state aid dollars that simply are not there.
His statement of the city’s budget is accurate, but it is also a disservice to local taxpayers who pay tens of millions of dollar more per fiscal year than similarly sized small cities to Pittsfield.
He had nothing to say about the city’s Level 5 (failed), Group 11 (underclass) public schools.
I hope the incumbents and newly elected Pittsfield Officials will return the favor(s) by throwing him into chaos, letting North Adams Mayor Jennifer Macksey know that they support North Adams’ progress, telling Mayor Peter Marchetti that his hopes for more state aid are not worth him holding his breath over, that Pittsfield’s operating budget is both predictable and unsustainable, and for him to stop all of his nonsense already, and start becoming useful on at least a few matters that will actual help improve the quality of life for the fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski family that is paying their hard-earned money for a dysfunctional city government that has little to no power in Boston.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
—–
“Mayor Marchetti says election results affirm Pittsfield’s focus on housing and growth”
By Maryjane Williams, The Berkshire Eagle Maryjane Williams, November 18, 2025
PITTSFIELD — Fresh off the election, Mayor Peter Marchetti says voters sent a clear message: stay the course on housing growth and economic development.
The Nov. 4 results — which saw incumbents prevail in every race, including contested ward seats, and all four at-large councilors appear on more than half of all ballots — left the mayor feeling confident that Pittsfield’s priorities remain on steady ground.
“Pittsfield’s moving in the right direction,” Marchetti said. And while he wasn’t on the ballot himself, he considers the outcomes a sign of support for the work his administration and the City Council have been doing. “Much of it is my agenda that the council has been supporting,” he added.
With only two new councilors joining the body — Cam Cunningham in Ward 2 and Kathy Moody in Ward 7 — Marchetti believes city priorities are “pretty set in stone.” His agenda continues to center on economic development and increasing foot traffic downtown, expanding housing options and improving perceptions about public safety.
Marchetti said the city has built a “really solidified economic development approach,” pointing to recent wins such as the tech hub grant for the Berkshire Innovation Center. He also highlighted $3.2 million in newly secured Community One Stop for Growth grants that will help the city expand housing development, revitalize downtown and underused properties and support infrastructure and community planning efforts.
Marchetti described his working relationship with the current City Council as “great,” praising members for their ability to compromise and find “a path forward.” Still, he acknowledged that the year had its rough patches.
While he said he is always open to hearing new ideas, Marchetti noted that during debates over some of the year’s more controversial proposals — like the camping ban and the median safety ordinance — councilors sometimes put forward petitions that make the council “look like a superstar,” but end up sending him on a “fool’s errand” because the city simply doesn’t have the money to make them happen.
“We are short-staffed in a number of our departments, and so to add additional responsibilities to the staff and to the financial resources [is] not possible,” he said, citing a request from councilors to create a sanitation cleanup every day from 6 to 8 a.m.
Still, Marchetti said that finding solutions to these issues will remain at the forefront. He plans to continue working with the new council to address long-standing concerns around unsafe or unsanitary downtown activity and homelessness, applying the lessons learned from this year’s debates.
The mayor acknowledged that “the criminalization approach was probably not the best step out of the gate” when it came to the camping ban ordinance. But he added that taking that path ultimately pushed him into conversations with community leaders — including members of the Homes Not Handcuffs Coalition — that might not have happened if the proposal had gone straight to the Board of Health.
“There was a bumpy road through that process, but I think we are coming closer together,” Marchetti said. “If I haven’t thrown the community into chaos, these conversations and the actions that are coming out of that chaos would have never taken place.”
Now, Marchetti said, the administration is shifting toward longer-term strategic planning, taking a close look at Northampton’s model and the possibility of creating a similar Division of Community Care in Pittsfield. He said the focus is on collaboration, working with local partners — including North Adams Mayor Jennifer Macksey — to raise awareness of the need for state-level support and additional financial resources.
Marchetti emphasized that housing production remains one of the city’s most urgent needs. Pittsfield expects 112 new units to come online soon, but aims to increase that total to around 255 units over the next two years.
But, until that state support comes — if it ever does — these efforts may require new funding approaches.
Looking ahead to next year’s budget season, Marchetti said he plans to ask department leaders to “think outside the box.”
“I’ve been around for 25 years and the budget book has looked the same,” he said. “Can we think about things differently?”
As he looks ahead to next year, with the new housing units on the horizon and the Berkshire Innovation Center’s expansion moving forward, Marchetti said these milestones are encouraging — but the work is far from over.
“We need to continue searching for every housing opportunity we can find. We need to continue to be as supportive as we have been to our existing businesses. And if there’s a roadmap for their expansions, the city needs to play a role in it,” he said. “We can’t change the past, but we certainly can create a stellar path for the future.”
—–
Lumpy’s statement is him laying the groundwork on why he settled the case pending against him if it is settled before going to trial. He is saying things are going great in BITCHFIELD because of his leadership and it is a distraction from serving the citizens of BITCHFIELD going forward.
Letter: “Pittsfield raises taxes again while problems go unfixed”
The Berkshire Eagle, November 18, 2025
To the editor: After reading the Nov. 14 Berkshire Eagle article “Pittsfield homeowners will see their tax bills increase about 4.1 percent next year,” I feel compelled to voice my opinion and ask the burning question: Why?
Why have my real estate and utility (water and sewer) taxes increased significantly over the past few years while Pittsfield reaps hundreds of thousands of dollars from the (twice-taxed) citizens in the form of marijuana taxes and the associated host fees as well as multiple grants for being providers of services for the drug-addicted, homeless, mentally handicapped and physically disabled, yet our streets are lined with the homeless, the addicted and many mentally and physically challenged citizens?
There is state funding for medical and mental treatment yet no providers for the needed services.
There is state funding for parks and recreation that could keep our kids stay safe, active and learning, yet there are no daily guided activities providing guidance, recreation and support at our many parks, especially throughout the summer months.
There is state funding for elementary and secondary schools, yet, without question, there are staffing “issues” at all levels.
There is state funding for economic development, yet thousands of dollars are dumped into restructuring downtown (North Street) only to repeatedly change it.
Why does the city continually charge their homeowners for its poor planning, poor decision-making, poor engineering and poor results?
Denise Messana, Pittsfield
Denise? Because They Can !!! Lumpy is a imposter. Jughead Dumpster will tell you we need it now or it will cost much more later? When we don’t need it at all.