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Judge tosses lawyer’s dueling lawsuit against Willkie partner in spat over New York Post story

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 01:54:23 +0000

Trials & Litigation

Judge tosses lawyer’s dueling lawsuit against Willkie partner in spat over New York Post story

October 1, 2024, 10:54 am CDT

A Connecticut judge has ruled that a solo practitioner accused of facilitating a negative story about a BigLaw partner in the New York Post can’t sue for a declaratory judgment that his actions were protected by the First Amendment. (Image from Shutterstock)

A solo practitioner accused of facilitating a negative story about a BigLaw partner in the New York Post can’t sue for a declaratory judgment that his actions were protected by the First Amendment, a Connecticut judge has ruled.

Judge Edward Krumeich II of Connecticut tossed a lawsuit filed by Eric Grayson of Grayson & Associates as a strategic suit against public participation that is barred by a state anti-SLAPP law, Law360 reports.

Grayson’s First Amendment retaliation suit had alleged abuse of process and vexatious litigation by A. Mark Getachew, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and his wife, DeNora Getachew.

The New York Post story had alleged that the Getachews stiffed their landlords on rent of $11,000 per month for a mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut; they contended that their repair costs for a pool, a hot tub and a waterfall that weren’t functioning had eclipsed their rental costs and their lease had been breached.

The landlords, who were Grayson’s former clients, were former Disney chief financial officer Lawrence Rutkowski and his company L&S Investments.

The Getachews were the first to sue for alleged abuse of process. They had alleged that Grayson and his then-clients had filed a court affidavit in their rental dispute, so that it could be used in the New York Post article, published in October 2020.

The Getachews filed a federal suit in October 2023 after first trying to add the abuse-of-process claim in their state court suit for breach of the rental lease.

A federal judge refused to dismiss the Getachews’ suit against Grayson and his landlord clients in April.

Krumeich said Grayson couldn’t sue because the underlying matter is about a case of public concern. Grayson’s suit admits that the New York Post article concerned a case of “public interest,” Krumeich said, because of similar situations in which wealthy tenants were accused of “squatting” in mansions to take advantage of eviction moratoriums during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Krumeich also said a declaratory judgment in Grayson’s suit would amount to a declaration that the Getachews’ pending federal suit is invalid, which amounts to an improper advisory opinion.

Grayson and his attorney, Proloy K. Das, did not immediately respond to ABA Journal emails seeking comment. Douglas J. Varga, a lawyer for the Getachews, also did not immediately respond to a Journal email requesting comment.

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Devin Nunes’ lawsuit against Washington Post finally over

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 17:19:56 +0000

Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes is seen outside the U.S. Capitol July 26, 2023 (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images).

After Republican former U.S. representative for California Devin Nunes‘ long-running defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post suffered a damaging blow in June when the trial judge tossed what was left of the case, it seemed that he was prepared to avail himself of the appellate process to the end. A notice that hit the D.C. Circuit docket on Tuesday confirmed, however, that the case is permanently over.

Lawyers for Nunes and the Post have agreed to cover their own costs in an agreement that the case be “voluntarily dismissed with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be brought again.

The defamation case arose just a week after the Post published Ellen Nakashima’s Nov. 9, 2020, article “White House official and former GOP political operative Michael Ellis named as NSA general counsel,” telling of the then congressman’s reported 2017 “midnight run” and attributing statements to Nunes that the Obama administration “spied” on — wiretapped — Donald Trump and his associates in Trump Tower.

Nunes had countered that he “never made the ‘baseless’ claim – or any claim – that the Obama administration spied on Trump Tower” and that he instead “said the exact opposite – that there was no evidence of any wiretap on Trump Tower.” The former House Intelligence Committee chairman said Nakashima should have known his stance on the issue because, in the course of her own reporting from 2017, she wrote down notes with his denials. He also asserted the so-called “midnight run” — through which he “was given access at the White House to intelligence files,” as Nakashima’s report put it — did not actually occur under the cover of darkness.

Though the Post moved to issue a correction, Nunes claimed the fixes defamed him too, only slightly shifting language from “intelligence files that Nunes believed would buttress his baseless claims of the Obama administration spying on Trump Tower” to “intelligence files that Nunes believed would buttress Trump’s baseless claims of the Obama administration spying on Trump Tower.” That revision didn’t stop giving readers the impression that Nunes believed the wiretapping theory, he said, so he moved forward with a lawsuit for nearly four years.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, presided over the lawsuit after it was moved from Virginia state court to federal court in Washington, D.C., where, as recently as June, he granted the Washington Post’s motion for summary judgment. In one part of the ruling, the judge noted that even though Nunes had as early as 2017 said “[w]e know there was not a wiretap on Trump Tower,” his suggestion that it was possible “other surveillance activities were used against President Trump and his associates” worked against him.

“Here, the Court concludes that a reasonable jury could not conclude that the correction was materially false. After all, as Defendants correctly contend, the record demonstrates that Nunes’s public statements in March 2017 after the White House visit had ‘provided some credence to Trump’s concerns,”” Nichols wrote. “It was therefore not materially false to say that Nunes’s comments in March 2017, as reflected in public reporting around that period, were directed toward bolstering President Trump’s claims (even if baseless) about wiretapping ‘by comparing it to other potential evidence of Obama administration surveillance of Trump or his associates.’”

The judge also concluded that Nakashima “simply made a mistake” — an “honest mistake” even — when she didn’t remember Nunes’ 2017 denials when writing the article in question three years later.

Currently, a correction does show prominently atop the article relaying Nunes’ account of what took place:

Correction: As originally published, this article inaccurately attributed claims that the Obama administration spied on Trump Tower to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), rather than to President Trump. Nunes has stated that he did not believe there had been any wiretapping of Trump Tower. This article has also been updated to note that Nunes says an incident known as the “midnight run” took place during daylight hours.

Law&Crime reached out to attorneys of record for Nunes and the Post on the ending of the lawsuit.

Read the dismissal notice here.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

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Judge’s hot tub social media post makes waves with judicial conduct commission; she quotes Cardi B in response

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:01:49 +0000

Ethics

Judge’s hot tub social media post makes waves with judicial conduct commission; she quotes Cardi B in response

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 1, 2024, 11:42 am CST

While attending a music festival in September 2021, Clark County, Nevada, Judge Erika Ballou posted on Instagram: “Life is STILL beautiful, despite the fact that Billie Eilish doesn’t START for 30 minutes and I have a 8:30 calendar tomorrow.” The hot tub photo of Ballou and the two public defenders can be viewed in the complaint. (Image from the Jan. 24 misconduct complaint)

A Las Vegas judge is facing ethics charges partly for a social media photo of herself sporting a bikini while in a hot tub with public defenders.

Clark County, Nevada, Judge Erika Ballou is facing a Jan. 24 misconduct complaint filed by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline. The document cites the hot tub post as well as a second post complaining about an early court calendar.

The hot tub post used a slang word for breasts, while the second post used an expletive in a hashtag.

The New York Post, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, KLAS and Law & Crime have coverage.

The misconduct complaint has specifics on the social media posts:

• In April 2022, Ballou posted on Facebook a photo of herself in a hot tub with two public defenders—one man and one woman. Referring to the male public defender, Ballou said he was “surrounded by great tits.”

• While attending the Life is Beautiful music festival in September 2021, Ballou posted on Instagram: “Life is STILL beautiful, despite the fact that Billie Eilish doesn’t START for 30 minutes and I have a 8:30 calendar tomorrow.” The Instagram post carried the hashtag #VacateTheShitOuttaOutofCustodyCases.

Ballou apparently responded to the controversy last weekend in a Facebook post that quoted lyrics from rapper Cardi B, according to KLAS.

“Went from makin’ tuna sandwiches to makin’ the news,” Ballou posted. “I started speakin’ my mind and tripled my views.”

The misconduct complaint alleges that both posts violate ethics rules requiring judges to act in a way that promotes public confidence in the judiciary; requiring them to comply with the law, including the judicial ethics code; and providing that judges participating in extracurricular activities should not act in a way that appears to undermine their independence and integrity.

The hot tub post also violates ethics rules banning judges from conveying the impression that others are in a position to influence them, the ethics complaint alleges. And the Billie Eilish post also violates ethics rules requiring judicial duties to take precedence over personal activities, according to the complaint.

Ballou became a district judge in January 2021. She was previously criticized for telling a Black defendant accused of battery against a police officer that he should stay away from officers.

“You know you don’t want to be nowhere where cops are ’cause I know I don’t, and I’m a middle-aged, middle-class Black woman,” she said. “I don’t want to be around where the cops are because I don’t know if I’m going to walk away alive or not.”

Ballou had explained that she supports law enforcement, but she tries to communicate with defendants “in a manner that is straightforward and understandable.”

Ballou did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal voicemail and email seeking comment. She also did not reply to requests for comment from publications covering the ethics charges.

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