THE LATEST FILINGS
By Alice Chan
(430 words)
When we last went to press, the California Attorney General had just granted "relator" status to the plaintiffs in the Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board’s Listeners’ Lawsuit, authorizing them to sue on his behalf. This happened just in time for Gary Evans to travel to the board meeting in Washington DC to make personal service on each director. Also, in a separate action, directors Rob Robinson and Aaron Kriegel filed a Directors’ lawsuit.
These two new lawsuits brought a beautiful symmetry to the legal attack on the current Pacifica Board: the challenges come from not only the Local Advisory Boards, but also from the listeners and from the directors of the National Board. Each lawsuit amplifies and strengthens the others, and will help the judge understand the seriousness of the problem.
The day before Pacifica’s answer to the latest suits was due in the California court, Pacifica attorneys filed papers in Federal District court to remove both lawsuits from the state to the federal courts. The removal was brought on behalf of Pacifica and all the directors with the exception of five: Bramson, Cagan, Kriegel, Moran, and Robinson. Beth Lyons has opted to be included with the majority on the board, much to our disappointment. The five directors who are not filing with the board have provided their own individual attorneys, and the Listeners’ Lawsuit has granted them extensions of time to file their responses.
These filings on behalf of Pacifica ultimately are delaying tactics; attorneys for the CRB and the Directors’ suit will file with the federal court asking that the suits be sent back to the state courts where they belong. The federal courts do not appear to have any jurisdiction over either case. The Listeners’ Lawsuit will make this filing by October 27th, and the attorneys for the Directors’ Suit will file within 30 days.
SMOKING GUN!
Carol Spooner of the Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board is very excited about a recent discovery. Through a Freedom of Information Act inquiry, she has received documents from the FCC showing that throughout the 80’s Pacifica filed documents stating, under penalty of perjury, that the national board directors were elected by the local station boards, despite their denials that this was ever the case. This discovery goes to the heart of both the Listeners’ and the LAB lawsuits. It is a crucial issue that will allow the CRB to invalidate the By-Laws amendments of ’97 and ’99, and also to show that all directors elected since October ’99 were illegally elected under illegal bylaws amendments.
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