Village Attorney Files Lawsuit Against Resident, Foxconn Critic

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — The Mount Pleasant village attorney filed a civil lawsuit against Kelly Gallaher in Racine County Court on Monday, online court records show. At times, Gallaher has been an outspoken critic of the village and Foxconn.

The lawsuit, which alleges Gallaher defamed Village Attorney Chris Smith, comes personally from Smith, and the village is not involved in the litigation, according to an article by The Journal Times, which first reported the lawsuit.

Gallaher and Smith both declined Patch's request to comment Thursday morning.

The lawsuit comes as the Board of Trustees is attempting to increase term lengths for members. The Board unanimously voted to increase term lengths from two years to three years for future officer-holders, Patch reported in January.

Gallaher has claimed the move is a "power grab," she told WisPolitics.com, while members of the board have asserted the move is for efficiency and function.

"It has nothing to do with padding our terms, gosh, it's hard enough to get someone to run for a two-year term let alone a three-year term," Village President Dave DeGroot said in the January meeting.

The term length increase has not yet gone into effect, and it would not increase the term lengths of current office-holders. The charter ordinance that the village adopted in its January meeting left 60 days for citizens to file a petition to bring the decision to a wider referendum vote.

Gallaher told Patch Thursday she plans on submitting the signatures she has collected for that petition on Monday.

She said in an email "we are confident the petition will be successful and residents will have the opportunity to vote whether village officials should have longer terms in office."

Read more of the story from The Journal Times on its website.

The lawsuit accuses Gallaher of defaming Smith in posts on the A Better Mount Pleasant Facebook page about: how long the Village has been considering the increase in term lengths, and about a statement Smith gave to The Journal Times, according to the Journal Times report published Thursday.

Smith had told The Journal Times for a report in February that discussion about the increase in term lengths went as far back as 2018.

On March 3, a post to the A Better Mount Pleasant Facebook page claimed Smith lied to The Journal Times for their report in February, claiming the discussions have dated even earlier than 2018, according to the Journal Times report on the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Smith says he suffered emotional distress because of the statement, calling it defamatory, and he had contacted Gallaher demanding the post be taken down, The Journal Times report on Thursday says.

A Better Mount Pleasant posted a statement on Facebook on March 4, that reads in full:

"Yesterday, A Better Mt. Pleasant posted a statement which falsely accused the Mount Pleasant Village Attorney of lying to the media regarding the dates in which the Village Board discussed the length of terms for village officials. The Village Attorney's statements were truthful, and that is why yesterday's post was removed. In that same post, we also accused the Village Administrator of purposefully not reading written citizen comments opposing the ordinance. This was misleading, because the village did not receive any written comments for her to read. We regret posting this false information and sincerely apologize for any damage it may have caused. If you shared that post, please share this correction as well."

The lawsuit was filed days after the A Better Mount Pleasant Facebook page posted the correction.

Read more of the story from The Journal Times on its website.

More from Patch on The Village Board's move to increase future term lengths:

Trustee Terms Lengths: Petition For Referendum Expected Soon

3-Year Terms For Mt. Pleasant Board Members: Charter Adopted