Freedom of Speech Prevails!
Freeman and D'Angelo Lose
Four
Year Court Battle
In the fall of 2007, Nexus CEO Jim
D'Angelo and Nexus board member Peter D. Freeman filed a
"defamation" lawsuit in Hennepin Fourth District Court against Bradbury
Township citizen "Hannabelle E. Lector". While fighting to keep the
Onamia city council from conspiring with the Nexus Corporation
to construct a commercial facility to house 94 convicted juvenile sex
offender in her residential neighborhood, Hannabelle acted as a
whistle-blower. As part of her activism, she created and developed The
Mille Lacs News, an independent news source and The Bradbury Buzzz, an
opinion blog. Hannabelle used words as her weapon.
James D'Angelo and
Peter Freeman
As part of her strategy to influence the Onamia city council Hannabelle
phoned Nexus board member Peter D. Freeman to solicit his aid in finding
an appropriate location for the Mille Lacs Academy - rather than the
property chosen by the Onamia City Council which placed sex
offenders next to daycare, families with children, disabled residents,
and elderly widows. When Peter D. Freeman, a trained social worker hung
up the phone, refusing to listen or talk with her, she sent an email to his supervisor requesting
her help. What Freeman was involved with was unethical, immoral, and at
the time, illegal. It was not her intention to embarrass Freeman. It was
her intention to convince him to stop Nexus from building on the chosen
site.
A self-purported expert
in "conflict resolution", Freeman's first response was to litigate.
The Complaint
In the Summon's and Complaint, Nexus
attorney Victor E. Lund stated:
Victor Lund
"The contents of e-mails sent by
[Hannabelle] to Peter Freeman's fellow faculty members at the
University of St. Thomas and the College of St. Catherine are false, scurrilous and defamatory.
They have caused Peter Freeman
embarrassment and injured his reputation. The statements tend to
lower Peter Freeman's co-workers' estimation of him. The statements tend
to call into question his
competence as a member of the Department of Social Work. The statements have caused
monetary damages in an amount yet to be determined."
[
Freeman
emails ]
Truth is absolute
defense in charges of defamation. Hannabelle has always contended that
she told the truth. The Constitution of the United States grants
citizens the Right to have and express their opinions. Her only
intention in sending the email was to keep the sex offender institution
out of her residential neighborhood. Read "No
Blood on My Hands - Peter D. Freeman"
In the Complaint, Victor goes on to say:
"[Hannabelle], on her web page, The
Bradbury Buzzz, on postings first made in July
2007 and still present on the web page,
made numerous false and defamatory statements about James D' Angelo. The
postings state that among other things, that D' Angelo is "egocentric," "arrogant,"
"a snake," "narcissistic," "cold blooded," "an insensitive numbskull,"
"without a clue," "missing a heart," "liar," and "lacking character.""
The rest of the Complaint was based on one paragraph of
one article, "Can You Hear Me Now?" which was written with so
much hyperbole and outrageousness that nobody could take it
seriously. Nobody except Jim D'Angelo. He apparently took it very
seriously indeed. His reaction was to sue Hannabelle. Note: Hannabelle
also wrote about "Poopsie". D'Angelo claims that he is "Poopsie".
Motion to Dismiss - the MN Anti-SLAPP Statute 554
The Minnesota Anti-SLAPP - Strategic Lawsuit Against
Public Participation, is a law whose purpose is to protect citizen
activists like Hannabelle from being strategically sued to intimidate
them into silence. When Hannabelle asked D'Angelo why he had sued her,
D'Angelo laughed and made the admission, "We thought you'd go away!"
[Note: D'Angelo later lied under oath, flat out denying that he'd ever
made that damning statement.
D'Angelo's Affidavit] Although D'Angelo admitted to
Hannabelle that the
lawsuit was strategic - its purpose to silence the citizen journalist, the judge
didn't believe her, choosing to believe the corporate chief instead.
Judge Rosenbaum
Judge Marilyn Brown Rosenbaum issued her decision on
March 5, 2009 denying the motion to dismiss on the grounds that
[Hannabelle's] statements were not genuinely aimed at procuring
favorable government action "but were instead intentionally aimed at
audiences having no connection with the public project and controversy."
Anyone savvy enough to be reading this article online knows the
incredible defect in her judgment. The Internet can't influence the
government? She is a mind-reader who can determine a person's aim?
Hannabelle was Rosenbombed.
The Appeal
State law mandates that had the court seen how this
lawsuit violated the Anti-SLAPP statute, Hannabelle would automatically
been awarded costs and legal fees. But neither the District nor
Minnesota Appeals Court recognized how the Internet is used as a tool to
procure favorable government action. Because Hannabelle used the
Internet "in part" to lobby the Onamia city council and the citizens who
vote for them, her motion to dismiss was denied. Rosenbaum's
decision was affirmed and trial was set. [
Court of Appeals Denial ]
The Minnesota Supreme Court
Hannabelle's petition for appeal was denied due to state
budget cuts.
Pro Se
When, by the end of the appeals process Hannabelle ran
out of money, Marshall Tanick (Mansfield, Tanick & Cohen) withdrew
as her attorney. Hannabelle continued on, representing herself through
trial preparation.
Mediation
Judge Rosenbaum ordered mandatory Mediation in September
2010. The purpose of Mediation is to help the opposing parties come
together and with the help of an impartial mediator, negotiate a
settlement agreement without actually going through a trial. Jim
D'Angelo failed to appear at the court appointed mediation. There was no
attempt by Plaintiffs at fair negotiation. [see
Settlement Offer ]. Hannabelle refused to settle.
The Trial
The trial was scheduled for December 28 and 29, 2010. In
November, Freeman and D'Angelo withdrew their request for a jury.
Hannabelle demanded a jury but was not allowed to have one. In order to
avoid a jury, Frangelo dropped the lawsuit in early December. "We can't
prove damages," Victor Lund stated during a telephone conference with
Hannabelle and Judge Rosenbaum.
But it wasn't over yet. Freeman and D'Angelo still
pursued a court injunction to remove Hannabelle's First Amendment
Rights. The "injunction hearing" was slated for December 29, 2010.
Minneapolis attorney Andrew Jackola represented Hannabelle in what
turned out to be exactly what Frangelo wanted - a trial without a jury.
"Plaintiffs' request for injunctive relief is
denied."
Judge Rosenbaum's verdict
But after all of the hoopla, despite all of the
Plaintiffs' shenanigans, Judge Rosenbaum denied their injunction. Having
waived any legal remedy and failing to get an injunction to silence
Hannabelle, after nearly four years of spending thousands upon thousands
of dollars on legal costs, Freeman and D'Angelo walked away with
nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Whereas Freeman, D'Angelo and Lund were "Rosenbombed",
so was the innocent defendant - Free Speech champion Hannabelle. The
judge who didn't understand the power of the Internet to influence
government (the Huffington Post?) and who said "The Anti-SLAPP law is
meant to be a shield, not a sword" while allowing Corporate terrorists
to use the Justice System as a nuclear weapon against a private citizen
trying to protect her neighborhood from Nexus and their sex offenders,
also ruled that calling someone second grader names such as "arrogant" and "egotistical" is
defamatory.
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