With commencement today of formal proceedings in the above-referenced defamation action, defendants Joseph Callewaert, Stephen Dresch and David Kneff release the following statement:Today's hearing before Judge Richard J. Liedel on our motion for summary disposition and dismissal marks the beginning of the public phase of the action commenced against us by long-serving Crawford County commissioner and "trash consultant" Robert McLachlan. We are optimistic that Judge Liedel will recognize the baselessness of this lawsuit and the pernicious consequences of such litigation for the First Amendment rights of citizens and for the accountability of government to the citizenry.
These types of legal actions have rightly been dubbed "SLAPP suits": Strategic Litigation against Public Participation. They are intended to instill fear in the broader public and inhibit individuals from exercising their rights, indeed obligations, to petition government for the redress of grievances. Since April the threat of this litigation has been held over us as a sword. But, we have not been, nor will we be, intimidated into silence, regardless of the outcome of this litigation.
Were it to be successful, it is a small step from the SLAPP suit to the official sanctioning of vastly more effective means for dealing with troublesome people. Especially in light of questions raised through the Court by McLachlan's lawyer concerning our "mental incapacity or abnormality," this type of litigation should be contemplated in light of the repressive uses of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, as reported by the late I. F. Stone (The New York Review of Books, 22 December 1988, p. 6):
... The heroine of the expose [in Komsomolskaya Pravada (Communist Youth League organ), 11 November 1987] was not a dissident at all but a good Communist Party member, indeed too good for her own safety. She was turned over to a psychiatrist by the management of her factory because she was what we call a "whistle-blower," too conscientious and outspoken for her superiors. Her examination by the psychiatrist reads like something made to order for a modern-day Gogol. The doctor suspected that she was sexually deprived. He asked her why she didn't get married. "At your age," he advised her, "people normally think about love, not justice. Where do you hurt?"Seven years ago one of us (Dresch, writing with his colleague Kenneth Janson) came to the defense of graduate student Paul Scatana, threatened with reprisals after he revealed the plagiarism of Harvard psychiatry professor Shervert Frazier. Without prejudging the morality or legality of the actions of Robert McLachlan or of any other individual regarding the Crawford-Otsego landfill sale, the Dresch-Janson defense of Scatana bears repeating in light of the present suit against us:To which ... she replied, "My soul hurts. There are so many disgraceful things all around."
"Your soul must get some medical treatment," the psychiatrist decided. He telephoned for two orderlies who took her off to a psychiatric hospital.
Mr. Scatana occupies the uncomfortable position of political tyro in a mature academe. Through his disclosures he has not only documented yet another example of a far too prevalent societal ill (the rationalization of immoral behavior by the calculated probability that it will escape detection), but has committed himself to a higher standard of conduct (and a closer scrutiny) than have those whom he can expect to encounter. [The position of those who are tolerant of threats against Scatana], albeit popular with the established power elite and its legal vergers, is naively conceived and ignores important lessons of history. To Scatana we offer our encouragement; to [his critics] we suggest that the techniques of McCarthy and Stalin, serving the interests of the powerful but corrupt and dishonest, deserve a final renunciation.We appreciate the encouragement which we have received from our many fellow citizens who, through their own speech and writing, have shown that they will not be intimidated and will not tolerate the techniques of McCarthy and Stalin, in whatever disguise they may appear.
We especially appreciate the dedicated and capable efforts of Neal Bush and Elliot Blumberg, cooperating attorneys of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, who have selflessly come to our defense, and to Howard Simon, executive director, and Paul Denenfeld, legal director, of the ACLU Michigan, who immediately recognized the threat to civil liberty posed by this lawsuit
To our attorneys, to the ACLU Michigan and to our fellow citizens we pledge our unyielding commitment to those fundamental liberties which inspired the founding of this nation.
Stephen P. Dresch (sdresch@up.net) for Defendants Callewaert, Dresch and Kneff