Please allow me to respond to your editorial about my lawsuit
against the City of Morgan Hill
– the one that you call the
”
height of audacity
”
and the
”
trashy lawsuit.
”
Please allow me to respond to your editorial about my lawsuit against the City of Morgan Hill – the one that you call the “height of audacity” and the “trashy lawsuit.”
As you note, the City should have taken my offer to settle for an apology without monetary payment for falsely accusing me of criminal conduct.
But since they choose not to, you inconsistently accuse me, not them, of putting the public treasury at risk.
It may interest you to know that though my damages have been much greater, the taxpayers’ liability probably can’t exceed the $100,000 of the deductible in the City’s insurance policy.
At $17,000 apiece, the City Manager, former City Attorney and four City Councilmembers could afford to reimburse the taxpayers for this price tag they have thus placed on their pride. It would hurt, of course, but would not ruin them, and it would put their money where their egos are.
Your Central Flaw
Your primary proposition is that “Bruce Tichinin’s lawsuit against the City of Morgan Hill is the height of audacity.” (Italics added.) The flaw in your thesis is that it begs the question: your conclusion assumes I did something worthy of the retaliation the City levied.
My attorney demonstrated to the City Council, with exacting and nauseating detail that I broke no laws or ethical proscriptions – civil or criminal. Neither the City Council nor their attorneys refuted these analyses or conclusions. They were quite frank in informing us something to the effect: Thank you very much, but we are not going to let the law get in the way of our municipal retribution.
First, let us agree, for sake of analysis, that the investigation undertaken by me (to determine if the City Attorney and the City Manager were intimately involved) was distasteful, impolite, politically incorrect, trashy, and perhaps even creepy.
That unfortunately is sometimes in the nature of the job of the lawyer, or even of the journalist. A major news network is currently luring pedophiles into set-up trysts in which they expose them. I find this distasteful, and somewhat creepy, but societally beneficial.
Second, investigating matters of public concern about the government is a citizen’s Constitutional right, and a lawyer’s duty where the matter has adversely affected a client.
Third, I am not suing the City because they concluded or opined in public or privately that my investigation was distasteful, or impolite, or politically incorrect, or “trashy,” or creepy.
I am suing because, even after having apparently learned from a Santa Clara County District Attorney that I had committed no crime, they falsely accused and threatened me publicly with criminal and State Bar sanctions for having the temerity to follow my leads and hire a licensed private investigator.
Fourth, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals very recently reiterated, “The exercise of constitutional rights is not deprived of protection if the exercise is not politically correct.”
There are countries where governments can retaliate against a person who merely ticks them off, as happened here.
Is that what we want? My case illustrates the principle the protection of the law must be extended even to “bad” actors, or we will descend into anarchy.
It is the principle that even the Devil is afforded the benefit of law, lest, when we have cut down all the laws to get to him, he turns round on us and we have no place to hide because the laws protecting us all lie broken on the ground. Or, as Thomas Paine said: “A man must defend even his enemies against the tyrannies of government, lest he set a precedent that will extend even unto himself.”
A counter suit?
Your next proposition is that the City should counter-sue me, though you mention no grounds to do so, other than your anger – something I suspect you must realize won’t cut the mustard.
But, should the City Council rely on your legal advice, let’s hope they don’t consult the paper for medical advice when they catch cold – they might end up in the emergency ward.
Bruce Tichinin is a local lawyer and Morgan Hill resident. He has recently re-filed a lawsuit against the city seeking damages for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights. Subscribers can read past stories on the issue at our Web site www.morganhilltimes.com.
