SOUR GRAPES: The out of touch Republican loser of the Yorktown Supervisor’s election, Michael Grace, has filed what many say is a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence his critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense.
TRUMP LIKE: The hyper sensitive Conservative Republican lawyer is resident and a newspaper, calling a letter to the editor critical of him libelous.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE MOVE ALONG: The TEA Party like Republican lawyer upset ate being criticized in a letter, in the January 8th issue of the Northern Westchester Examiner about him and former Republican State Senator Terrance Murphy, who also lost in the last election
The letter charged that Michael Grace had made “self-enrichment deals behind the scenes that did not benefit the town.”
It specifically pointed to a development behind his law offices on Underhill Avenue.
PLEASE SEE: Land Deals Clear Way for Murphy’s Redevelopment in Yorktown
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/yorktown/articles/land-deals-clear-way-for-murphys-redevelopment-i
QUESTIONABLE DEAL: The mixed-use development, which spans four properties and includes a 40,000-square-foot building, involves the Oversensitive Michael Grace’s land while he was still the town supervisor.
POLITICAL CRITIC: There is history between Grace and the critical letter-writer, Mohegan Lake resident Melvin Tanzman, who is the Executive Director Of Westchester Disabled On The Move In Yonkers,
POLITICAL OPPONENT: Two years ago, Melvyn Tanzman unsuccessfully sought the Yorktown Democratic Committee’s endorsement to run against the easily offended Michael Grace for supervisor.
NASTY SUPERVISOR: In an October 2017 op-ed that appeared in Yorktown News, where the easily hurt Michael Grace exercised his constatutional protected first amendment rights to opine that Melvyn Tanzman belonged to the “truly ugly fringes” of the local Democratic Party.
SCARING CRITICS: Many say that Republican Michael Grace is rumored to be running again for supervisor this year and he doesn’t want anyone talking about the land deal with now state Republican Senate Staffer Terrance Murphy.
A SOLUTION IS NEEDEDE: Most legal experts say there should be an early dismissal of merit less SLAPP lawsuits filed against people for the exercise of First Amendment rights.
The acronym “SLAPP” stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – a phrase coined by two law school professors in the late 1980s.
They identified a trend of retaliatory lawsuits brought to intimidate and silence opponents and critics who had spoken out in the public sphere, typically on land use and development issues.
In Yonkers there has been a conspiracy among political operatives to flood the local publisher of the Yonkers Tribune, Hezi Aris, with multiple Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation and even going so far as having newly Republican councilman John Rubbo going so far as to encourage and threaten other such lawsuits against other local publishers
The actual resolution of the plaintiff’s claims – for defamation, tortious interference or related theories – was a secondary motivation at best.
Govenor Andrew Cuomo and Yonkers’ Democratic Majority Senate Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins needs to protect the free flow of information to voters by enacting strong anti-SLAPP statutes were proposed to provide a quick, effective and inexpensive mechanism to combat such Trump suits.
SOUR GRAPES: The out of touch Republican loser of the Yorktown Supervisor’s election, Michael Grace, has filed what many say is a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence his critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense.
TRUMP LIKE: The hyper sensitive Conservative Republican lawyer is resident and a newspaper, calling a letter to the editor critical of him libelous.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE MOVE ALONG: The TEA Party like Republican lawyer upset ate being criticized in a letter, in the January 8th issue of the Northern Westchester Examiner about him and former Republican State Senator Terrance Murphy, who also lost in the last election
The letter charged that Michael Grace had made “self-enrichment deals behind the scenes that did not benefit the town.”
It specifically pointed to a development behind his law offices on Underhill Avenue.
PLEASE SEE: Land Deals Clear Way for Murphy’s Redevelopment in Yorktown
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/yorktown/articles/land-deals-clear-way-for-murphys-redevelopment-i
QUESTIONABLE DEAL: The mixed-use development, which spans four properties and includes a 40,000-square-foot building, involves the Oversensitive Michael Grace’s land while he was still the town supervisor.
POLITICAL CRITIC: There is history between Grace and the critical letter-writer, Mohegan Lake resident Melvin Tanzman, who is the Executive Director Of Westchester Disabled On The Move In Yonkers,
POLITICAL OPPONENT: Two years ago, Melvyn Tanzman unsuccessfully sought the Yorktown Democratic Committee’s endorsement to run against the easily offended Michael Grace for supervisor.
NASTY SUPERVISOR: In an October 2017 op-ed that appeared in Yorktown News, where the easily hurt Michael Grace exercised his constatutional protected first amendment rights to opine that Melvyn Tanzman belonged to the “truly ugly fringes” of the local Democratic Party.
SCARING CRITICS: Many say that Republican Michael Grace is rumored to be running again for supervisor this year and he doesn’t want anyone talking about the land deal with now state Republican Senate Staffer Terrance Murphy.
A SOLUTION IS NEEDEDE: Most legal experts say there should be an early dismissal of merit less SLAPP lawsuits filed against people for the exercise of First Amendment rights.
The acronym “SLAPP” stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – a phrase coined by two law school professors in the late 1980s.
They identified a trend of retaliatory lawsuits brought to intimidate and silence opponents and critics who had spoken out in the public sphere, typically on land use and development issues.
In Yonkers there has been a conspiracy among political operatives to flood the local publisher of the Yonkers Tribune, Hezi Aris, with multiple Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation and even going so far as having newly Republican councilman John Rubbo going so far as to encourage and threaten other such lawsuits against other local publishers
The actual resolution of the plaintiff’s claims – for defamation, tortious interference or related theories – was a secondary motivation at best.
Govenor Andrew Cuomo and Yonkers’ Democratic Majority Senate Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins needs to protect the free flow of information to voters by enacting strong anti-SLAPP statutes were proposed to provide a quick, effective and inexpensive mechanism to combat such Trump suits.
Anti-SLAPP laws enable those who are the subject of a SLAPP suit to seek early dismissal and oftentimes get their legal fees reimbursed.
New York has Anti-SLAPP laws, but they need to be further strengthened to protect the political process from wealthy and abusive touchy political operatives that seek to silence diverse voices in the community.
The fact an anti-SLAPP law is on the books in a jurisdiction can also help to deter potential litigants from filing retaliatory lawsuits in the first place.
As of January 2019, 27 other states have anti-SLAPP statutes: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont.
In addition there are anti-SLAPP statutes in the District of Columbia and Guam.