White Pine Recall supporters came up way short not only in the number of signatures but also in hopes they would be saved from the bench.
Needing a little over 800 signatures to force a recall election of White Pine County Commissioners John Lampros and Mike Lemich, organizers delivered slightly less than 400 to White Pine County Clerk Lin Burleigh, Monday.
The failure was not unexpected, four weeks ago the Advocate reported that recall supporters have asked the courts to extend their October 8th deadline to get 821 signatures needed to force a recall election of White Pine County Commissioners John Lampros and Mike Lemich.
“From what I heard it is looking pretty bad,” said one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “They had some success in the beginning but a lot less now. Some people said they would sign it but are afraid they might get sued.”
The fear of being sued was in reference to a defamation suit filed by Lemich and Lampros against recall organizers James Adams, Timothy McGowan and Cheryl Ann Noriega over what the suit described as blatant falsehoods the three wrote in the recall petition statement.
“I don’t know if this has ever been used before,” said Ely attorney Richard Sears who represents both men. “But the statements in the recall petitions were so obviously false that both my clients felt they had no choice but to file the lawsuits.”
That quote also made into the motion to dismiss that the defamation suit was a Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) suit.
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.
Based on the SLAPP definition the three recall organizers through their attorney Julie Cavanuagh-Bill countered sued and asked the judge not only to throw out the defamation suit but also argued to restart the clock on the recall petition.
The original motion to dismiss was filed on August 28 which appeared to give recall organizers the chance that the judge in the case Senior Judge Charles Thompson the time to rule before the October 8th signature deadline.
In fact last week the three defendants in the White Pine County commission recall defamation demanded Thompson render his decision on their motion to dismiss sooner rather than later.
The “Request For Review” reminded Judge Thompson that “all the responsive pleadings have been filed and the matter is now ripe for review Pursuant to NRS.41.660 the Court may now rule on the Special Motion to Dismiss as of September 30..”
The reason for the impatience was simple, if Thompson made a ruling in favor of the recall supporters there was a very good chance he would have also ruled to reset the signature deadline.
However according to the county clerk’s office Wednesday, they were told by one of Thompson’s law clerks that the 30 day deadline was extended when recall supporters either re filed or amended their motion for dismissal around the end of September.
“We were told by the law clerk to expect the decision around the end of October.” said a staff member in the Clerk’s Office.
But now that the deadline passed the best recall supporters can hope for is the defamation suit will be thrown out of court and that Lemich and Lampros be ordered to pay the defendants legal fees.
At the very worst the defamation suit will not be thrown out, go to trial and the recall organizers could be found to have committed defamation.