Prince Frederick, MD – A letter sent to a state agency requesting an investigation of a waterfront business recently created some legal trouble for an environmental organization. In an account recently published in the organization’s monthly newsletter, Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman told his side of the story. He also reported a lawsuit filed against him in 2015 had been dismissed in Calvert County Circuit Court.
According to online court documents, the civil suit was filed in February 2015 by Veras White Sands Beach Club LLC along with two other parties. The suit named Tutman and Earthreports Inc. as defendants.
The Patuxent Riverkeeper is a stewardship program and Tutman’s title is riverkeeper.
In a newsletter essay entitled “Anatomy of a SLAPP lawsuit,” Tutman explained that he found out he was being sued from one of the program’s members who happened to be doing online research. “I drove down to the Calvert County Courthouse and picked up a copy of the complaint,” said Tutman. “It was indeed a SLAPP suit, which stands for Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation. Basically it was litigation aimed at making us shut up and go away, shifting our focus away from investigating and reporting pollution to defending ourselves against civil damages. Once I read the complaint, I was amazed at the claims—defamation, injurious falsehood plus invasion of privacy and false light. All for a pollution issue that I had barely begun to work on. They were seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged financial losses they had suffered due to our sole written report to the state.”
A local state lawmaker who Tutman declined to name in his account had asked the riverkeeper to look into alleged pollution issues raised by constituents living on St. Leonard Creek, which flows into the Patuxent.
Tutman stated he had met with residents and had attempted to meet with the local business owner regarding the alleged pollution issues.
According to court documents, at the center of the controversy was a letter written in June 2014 to Maryland Assistant Attorney General Jonathan May regarding the residents’ complaints about the alleged pollution.
During the over 18 months the lawsuit was on the circuit court docket, Tutman’s attorney, John D. McGavin, requested the case be dismissed. Finally on July 14, the court granted Tutman’s request for summary judgment, concluding that the complaints cited in Tutman’s letter to May were “not defamatory. Tutman’s letter is afforded absolute immunity as it was a statement made to an administrative agency regarding issues of public importance.”
The dismissal was granted by Circuit Court Judge E. Gregory Wells.
Steven B. Preller, the attorney who represented the plaintiffs, told The BayNet his clients will not be taking any further legal action regarding Patuxent Riverkeeper. “The decision was quite thorough,” said Preller.
“I feel good about the level of research and homework we did at Patuxent Riverkeeper before this case was filed,” Tutman stated. “We did not jump to conclusions and we got our facts straight before contacting the state with our concerns.”
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com