Monica Cannon-Grant, Husband Plead Not Guilty: What To Know

BOSTON, MA — A Boston activist who organized major demonstrations in Massachusetts following the deaths of George Floyd and Hopkinton teen Mikayla Miller has pleaded not guilty to charges that she misused donations intended for her nonprofit, Violence In Boston.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, and her husband, Clark Grant, 38, are charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy and 13 counts of wire fraud. Cannon-Grant also faces a mail fraud charge.

Clark Grant has pleaded not guilty as well.

Federal prosecutors say the couple spent public and private donations to Violence In Boston – including grants from the state District Attorney's Office, a Cambridge Black Lives Matter chapter and a major department store chain – on themselves.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Deitch said Tuesday that the case against the couple is "complex" and involves a "massive" amount of evidence, the Boston Globe reported. The U.S. Attorney's office previously said the couple used grant and donation money to pay for "hotel reservations, groceries, gas, car rentals, auto repairs, Uber rides, restaurants, food deliveries, nail salons and personal travel," among other expenses.

In one instance, Cannon-Grant applied for and received a $6,000 grant from the state District Attorney's Office to fund a youth trip to Philadelphia for a violence prevention seminar. But prosecutors say the couple spent the $6,000 grant on a trip to Maryland hotel, groceries, car rentals and meals at restaurants across the Northeast.

None of that money was spent in Philadelphia, according to court records.

Robert Goldstein, an attorney representing Cannon-Grant, has said the government "rushed to judgement."

"VIB [Violence in Boston] and Monica have been fully cooperating and their production of records remains ongoing. Drawing conclusions from an incomplete factual record does not represent the fair and fully informed process a citizen deserves from its government, especially someone like Monica who has worked tirelessly on behalf of her community. We remain fully confident Monica will be vindicated when a complete factual record emerges," Goldstein said in a statement after her arrest.

The federal indictment against the activist and her husband also alleges they fraudulently collected about $100,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits and lied on a mortgage application, the Globe reported. Cannon-Grant received $33,426 in unemployment benefits, and her husband, while employed at a transportation company, collected $67,950, according to the indictment.

Cannon-Grant founded Violence In Boston in 2017, the same year federal authorities say she diverted more than $3,000 from a grant intended to feed hungry Boston Public Schools students to buy money orders that she used to pay her rent.

Cannon-Grant rose to prominence in 2020 when she led protests in Boston following the murder of George Floyd. She eventually opened a 4,000 square-foot Violence In Boston headquarters in Hyde Park, which includes a food pantry and podcast studio.

Boston Magazine named her the No. 78 most powerful person in the city last spring, underscoring Cannon-Grant's rising political power in the Boston area.

"[Her work] has the attention of Boston politicians, who increasingly want to work with her and help her, whether with those big protests or her regular work fighting violence and feeding Boston's hungry," the article stated.

But Cannon-Grant clashed with Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan last summer when she began organizing around the death of Mikayla Miller, a 16-year-old Black girl found dead in a wooded area in Hopkinton. Cannon-Grant accused local police and Ryan of not properly investigating the death — and the two women traded barbs on the GBH show "Greater Boston."

At the time, Cannon-Grant was also collecting funds for an independent investigation into Miller's death, including a private autopsy whose results were not released. A state medical examiner ruled that Miller likely died by suicide.

Cannon-Grant fell under scrutiny last fall when prosecutors arrested her husband on charges of fraud and making a false statement on a loan application. Prosecutors said Clark Grant collected special pandemic unemployment benefits while still employed, and listed Violence In Boston's assets as his own on a mortgage application.

Earlier this month, the Globe reported a federal grand jury was probing Cannon-Grant and donations to Violence In Boston. She responded to the article on Twitter, saying she had been cooperating with prosecutors.

"All the White Supremacy & anti-blackness I've endured it doesn't surprise me. We've known & have been fully cooperating making sure they have everything they need so this can be over & my family can have peace," she wrote on her Twitter account, @ReadyToPissUOff.

The account was later deleted.

The U.S. Attorney's office on Tuesday asked a judge for more time to disclose evidence with the defense, given its volume. The judge ordered the government to start sharing evidence with the defense and said she would rule on that request at a later date.

A status hearing has been scheduled for May 23.