Deb Filcman's lawyer responds to Monsarrat lawsuit

[ron_newman]

Besides me, the other named defendant in Jonathan Monsarrat's defamation lawsuit is Deb Filcman, a former editor of the Somerville Journal (also known online as Wicked Local Somerville).

I'm pleased to report that the Journal's parent newspaper chain, GateHouse Media, is standing behind Deb. Her lawyer (or at least, one of them) is Zachary C. Kleinsasser of the law firm Greenberg Traurig.

Mr. Kleinsasser just sent this letter to Monsarrat's lawyer Mark Ishman, demanding that Ishman dismiss the lawsuit against Deb by 5 pm on Thursday, May 30. If Ishman does not agree, Kleinsasser intends to seek sanctions against Ishman for filing a "transparently frivolous action".

Kleinsasser's letter also accuses Ishman of negotiating "in bad faith". He says that Ishman originally agreed to dismiss the complaint against Filcman if GateHouse provided evidence that Filcman had been a GateHouse employee during February and March 2010.

After GateHouse produced the requested records, Ishman then allgedly reneged on the agreement, demanding that GateHouse remove Filcman's two blog posts: Will I be arrested? Guess the wheel didn’t answer that one (February 4, 2010) and Not a question best answered by the wheel (March 8, 2010). Ishman is also demanding that GateHouse change the headline of another published article not written by Filcman: Somerville Police bust Question Wheel creator's underage drinking party (February 4, 2010). Kleinsasser says that GateHouse cannot agree to any of these demands.

Comments

[kelkyag]

Good to hear. Thank you for the update, Ron.

[ron_newman]

You're welcome. Nothing new to report from my side, yet, since this May 16 post. My lawyer is still preparing his motion to dismiss (now due June 10), and waiting for Ishman to make a settlement offer.

[gingicat]

That is an EXCELLENT summation and the supporting citations are well-chosen. I half-hope that they don't drop the charges so that sanctions *can* be filed. (But only half; it's really in everyone's best interest that they be dropped.)

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

[contradictacat.livejournal.com]

It's not quite as "BOOM! HEADSHOT!"-y as Booth's letter, but it's very very good, all the same. One can almost hear the author's blood pressure rising as he goes on.

Thanks for the update!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I was just recently wondering how things were progressing. Glad to hear things are progressing well.

[squirrelitude]

I'm glad to see that her lawyer is covering the public-figure aspects.

[ron_newman]

I also enjoyed this footnote on page 4:

Another example (of many) of a patently frivolous assertion is the Complaint's claim of entitlement to "trebled damages" pursuant to M.G.L. ch. 229, § 2 (Complaint, item 11, p. 28), which applies to wrongful death claims. The implausibility -- indeed impossibility -- of this contention is obvious on its face. The First Amendment precludes Plaintiff from recovering any type of punitive or exemplary damages in this proceeding.

[bolding and hyperlink added by me -- Ron]

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

I guess lawyers aren't allowed to label claims as "bizarre", but the MGL ch. 229 claim is incomprehensible.

[ron_newman]

Even if it was the right section of law to cite, it contains no statement referring to treble damages at all.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

This is all for the good. And it looks like Gatehouse Media is taking a hard line -- they refuse to even update the original story with the (to my eyes, relevant) fact that the charges were dismissed. But of course, they're playing a long game here...

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, anything that might establish a legal obligation to update blog posts that were accurate at the time they went up would profoundly threaten the practicality of anyone posting topical information on the web.

[cos]

I don't know that they actually refuse to make such an update. They just refuse to agree to be bound to make such an update. Even if they do make that update, it makes a lot of sense that they'd want to preserve their freedom to do so as a matter of choice, and reject any notion of making agreements with people who sue them about what they'll write in their publications.

[ron_newman]

Also, GateHouse isn't even a party to this lawsuit. Why should they feel compelled to do anything at all?

There are things one might do when asked nicely and politely, that one would absolutely refuse to do under threat (legal or otherwise).

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Gatehouse was her employer at the time of publication. It is not at all unusual to defend one's employees for publications made in a publisher's employ, even after that person has left the job.

[ron_newman]

In case I wasn't clear in my statement, I'm very glad that GateHouse is fully standing behind Deb.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

ME too.

[sommerfeld2.livejournal.com]

spotted a couple nits - the first page of the letter in points (1) and (2) references posts dated February 4, 2013 and March 8, 2013; I believe it should have said February 4, 2010 and March 8, 2010 instead.

[ron_newman]

Oops. Since I don't have direct contact with Filcman's lawyer, I'll point my lawyer at this. The most important thing is to avoid having these errors reappear in either lawyer's motion for dismissal.

[seltzer92.livejournal.com]

it seems like he asked harvard law newspaper to take down their report of the dating incident as well.

theres a 404 error page there now...

[ron_newman]

The Harvard Law Record article is now at http://hlrecord.org/?p=12014 .

Some time between 2010 and now, they reorganized their website in a way that broke all their old article links ;-(

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Which was published in 2003, so way outside the statute of limitations anyway.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

If Ishman genuinely reneged on the agreement, it really just reaffirms that it's a good idea to not give in to any legal demands until a court makes them.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

It's past 5pm, any update?

[ron_newman]

None that I've heard so far.

[bluesauce.livejournal.com]

So basically Ishman's acting in a sketchy and underhanded manner? Color me shocked.