Press Release  Nantucket African Meeting House

Cape and Islands District — In March of 2018 the African Meeting House on Nantucket was defaced by graffiti.  District Attorney O’Keefe said, “There are people on Nantucket who know what happened.  I would hope they will come forward to help the investigators in this case.”  Nantucket citizens in possession of any information are encouraged to call the State Police at 1-508-790-5799.

By way of background, Nantucket Police began the investigation but in the summer of 2019, the Nantucket Police Department asked the District Attorney’s Office to take over the investigation.  The District Attorney’s Office, through the trial court, requested that the sitting Barnstable Grand Jury be made into a statewide Grand Jury in order to hear a Nantucket matter.  A Cape & Islands Assistant District Attorney was deputized as an Assistant Attorney General in order to use the statewide Grand Jury in Barnstable.  The newly designated Grand Jury began to hear evidence on March 13, 2020.  A week later the courts were closed in response to Covid-19.  No new Grand Juries will be empaneled until at least September but sitting Grand Jurors may now be brought back into court with Covid-19 procedures in place.  The case remains under investigation by the Grand Jury and the Massachusetts State Police.

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