ATTORNEYS: COUNTY ‘VICARIOUSLY LIABLE’ FOR HIS CONDUCT
A public document obtained by The Landmark shows that attorneys for Jason Maki, a Platte County resident who made a Sunshine request dealing with the Platte County Commission’s recent $84,000 public education campaign for a proposed jail tax, alleges Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker made defamatory posts about Maki on Facebook.
Attorneys with the law firm Fagan and Emert LLC of Lawrence, Kan., sent a certified letter dated Aug. 1 to Platte County Commissioners Scott Fricker, Dagmar Wood and Joe Vanover. The topic of the letter was listed as regarding “County Commissioner Scott Fricker Defamatory Facebook Posts.” The Landmark obtained the letter this week after submitting multiple Sunshine requests to the county for any communication from Maki or his representatives.
Maki, a resident of southern Platte County, is the man who pursued a Sunshine Law case against the City of Parkville a few years ago. The city eventually settled the two-year court case by paying $195,000 to Maki, which legal observers reported to be the largest Sunshine settlement in Missouri history.
On July 22 of this year, Maki filed a Sunshine request with Platte County asking for all electronic records of communication to or from commissioners Scott Fricker, Dagmar Wood, Joe Vanover, county administrator Wes Minder or any other official, employee, or agent of Platte County that has been involved in what the county commission calls “public education” of the jail tax proposal. Maki’s request was reported in a story in the July 24 edition of The Landmark.
Maki’s attorneys point out that on July 27, Fricker “published the following defamatory statements regarding Mr. Maki:”
•“Jason Maki is a scammer, not a ‘sunshine law advocate.’ His sunshine request to the county will cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in staff and legal time to fulfill his ridiculous request.”
•“His goal in this scam is to get the county to pay him off. He scammed the city of Parkville out of $195k (in taxpayer) money and he’s hoping for another payout from the county. He’s not looking out for your interests, he’s trying to make some money. This is a SCAM.”
•“Hey Maki, pound sand.”
•“The county will provide all requested documents and Scammer Maki will find nothing. Huge waste of time and money.”
•“[. . .] you pretend to be an altruistic ‘sunshine law advocate’ but you’re really just looking for another payout. Unless of course you gave the $195k that you got from Parkville to charity. In which case I will publicly apologize.”
The law firm of Fagan and Emert wrote to the commissioners:
“These statements are false. Mr. Maki did not scam the City of Parkville out of anything. Had there been no merit to his claims related to violations of Missouri law, the City of Parkville would not have paid him such a substantial sum. Mr. Maki made valid claims that he was able to prove were true and demonstrated the city had violated Missouri law. He dedicated substantial time and money to the prosecution of that lawsuit to hold the City of Parkville accountable, and a monetary settlement is how the Missouri legislature has decided to compensate those citizens who take the time and incur the expense of taking action to enforce the laws of this state. This is how government oversight by citizens works. Mr. Fricker may consider this offensive, but citizens like Mr. Maki check government power. It seems that Mr. Fricker would prefer to avoid such checks.”
Maki’s attorneys go on to say “the defamatory comments at issue were made in direct reaction to Mr. Maki’s protestations regarding Platte County’s use of taxpayer funds to advocate for and support a ballot measure in violation of Mo. Rev. Stat.115.646. This apparent effort to discourage Mr. Maki’s investigation and the prosecution of his complaint on this election law issue motivated the defamatory remarks.”
The attorneys continue: “Notably, Mr. Fricker published these comments in his official capacity, on his Facebook profile ‘Scott Fricker, Platte County Presiding Commissioner.’ Because Mr. Fricker has since deleted his post, we have included a copy for your reference. Mr. Fricker is using his public position and related platform to bully a citizen in response to raising questions about the county’s compliance with Missouri law. Given his conduct is in his official capacity, the county is vicariously liable for his conduct.”
The letter to commissioners goes on to say: “These statements clearly have defamatory meaning and are damaging to Mr. Maki’s reputation in the community, where he earns income through consultancy work and where his reputation is of prime importance.
“The purpose of this correspondence is to demand that the commission and Mr. Fricker issue a public retraction of the statements previously made, both on the county and Mr. Fricker’s County Commissioner Facebook Pages, as well as in the Platte County Landmark,” the law firm wrote in the certified letter.
The letter goes on to say that if further defamatory remarks are published “we will seek injunctive relief and damages.”
“Notably, given the apparent motivation for Mr. Fricker’s defamatory remarks, we believe that the conduct is sufficient to give rise to liability for punitive damages. Any lawsuit necessary to enforce Mr. Maki’s rights to be free from defamatory publications will seek those damages, and ask the jury to hold Mr. Fricker, and any other defendant who makes similar statements for the same purpose, personally and professionally accountable for them.”
The Landmark reached out to Fricker to offer him the opportunity to comment on the letter from Maki’s attorneys and the demand mentioned within it. He did not respond.
No retraction has yet appeared on either Fricker’s presiding commissioner Facebook page nor the county’s Facebook page.
The Landmark reached Maki for any comments on the situation.
“Mr. Fricker’s actions speak for themselves,” Maki said
RELATED CONTENT:
