The defendants in the defamation suit of two embattled White Pine County Commissioners hit back hard in their response labeling the suit not only without any legal merit but also a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) that should be summarily dismissed.
Filed Thursday, the 30 page response from James Adams, Cheryl Noriega and Timothy McGowan answers the defamation lawsuits filed by White Pine county commissioners Mike Lemich and John Lampros.
click links for suit wpslapp1
The defamation suit was brought in response to a recall petition Adams, Noriega and McGowan filed last month against the commissioners.
If the court does rule that the defamation suit is in fact a SLAPP suit not only will the two commissioners be liable for the legal fees of the trio but such a ruling could give a major boost to the recall drive itself.
Such a ruling would almost certainly be hailed by recall supporters as proof not only to the allegations of bullying in the recall petition but that Lampros and Lemich are not very good at it either.
There is also the old political saying that no one loves a loser and if the defamation suit is tossed, Lampros and Lemich will be labelled at least in some corners as ‘losers’, the last thing either would want to be known as if the recall drive is successful and a special election is forced on them.
According to Wikipedia: Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff’s goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate. A SLAPP is often preceded by a legal threat. The difficulty is that plaintiffs do not present themselves to the Court admitting that their intent is to censor, intimidate or silence their critics. Hence, the difficulty in drafting SLAPP legislation, and in applying it, is to craft an approach which affords an early termination to invalid abusive suits, without denying a legitimate day in court to valid good faith claims.
SLAPPs take various forms. The most common used to be a civil suit for defamation, which in the English common law tradition was a tort. The common law of libel dates to the early 17th century and (unusual in English law) is reverse onus, meaning, once someone alleges a statement is libelous, the burden was on the defendant to prove that it is not.
While the defamation suit winds its way through court the recall drive also continues.
While a recall party in an Ely park was rained out last weekend, the drive is said to be gaining a significant number of signatures.
However drive organizer are running into some problems especially about who is and who is not qualified to sign the petition.
The most notable example so far is White Pine County Commissioner Mike Coster who discovered that because he did not vote in the 2010 election he could not sign the petition.
According to state law only those who actually voted in the original election of the office holder being recalled can sign the petition.
According to County Clerk Lin Burleigh recall supporters must garner at 821 signatures of White Pine County voters who actually vote in the 2010 election.
“That’s 25 percent of the total number of voters who voted in the 2010 election.” Burleigh said. “They have 90 days, until October 8th.”
While the number of signatures is not available with the drive at the half way mark the petitioners should have a little more than half the number of signatures to have any hope of success of forcing the special election.
And while the drive would be buoyed if the defamation suit is thrown out of court, losing the summary judgement request could have an equally devastating effect on the movement.
Just as nobody likes a loser, a winner if not loved is at least respected.