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Bill would shield people who report crimes and then get sued

One law is better than two when it comes to protecting people from frivolous lawsuits after they report suspicious behavior to law enforcement.

That’s the approach of Rep. Kathy Lohmer (R-Stillwater).

Her bill, HF906, would repeal one statute while adding a specific list of actions protected under another known as the anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law.

Lohmer’s goal, she told the House Civil Law and Data Practices Committee Tuesday, is “preventing private citizens and government officials from being afraid to report a crime.”

The committee sent the bill to the House Government Operations and Elections Policy Committee. Sen. Karin Housley (R-St. Marys Point) sponsors the companion, SF1025, which awaits action by the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Two of Lohmer’s constituents told of enduring years of lawsuits at great personal and financial cost from an incident in 2010, when Keith Mueller saw an SUV with an apparently uprooted political yard sign on top. Mueller said he phoned the man whose sign it was, Steve Bohnen, then campaigning for city council in Grant, and Bohnen alerted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

But the resulting charges against the SUV driver — and, with Mueller’s testimony, his conviction for disorderly conduct — did not put an end to the story.

“That’s when the disaster started,” according to attorney Robert Hill.

In the course of representing the men against lawsuits filed by the SUV driver, whom he called a “serial filer,” Hill said he, too, became a target of a lawsuit charging him with “fraud, civil conspiracy, malicious prosecution … It just went on and on.”

Mueller said the “scorched earth tactics” included attempts to subpoena his doctor, employer and priest, and caused him to rack up legal bills of $150,000.

“The emotional stress is gut-wrenching,” Mueller said. “You’re the witness, yet you feel like you’re the one on trial.”

Bohnen concurred: “The collateral damage to me and my family is incomprehensible.”

Even the sheriff got sued, Bohnen said. James Franklin, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association, said his organization filed an amicus brief stating “no citizen doing their civic duty to report suspicious or criminal activity” should be subject to civil suits. “We had thought with the two statutes that were in place that this would not occur.”

Protected Activities

Lohmer’s bill would explicitly add “seeking assistance from, or reporting apparent unlawful conduct to, law enforcement” to the “public participation” activities that the existing anti-SLAPP statute protects. Other named activities would include speaking before a zoning board regarding a real estate project, communicating with an elected official concerning a change in law, demonstrating peacefully for or against a government action, and filing a complaint with the government about safety, sexual harassment, civil rights or equal employment rights.

The bill adds that protected “public participation” activities are not limited to those listed. The statute provides for the suspension and even dismissal of lawsuits meeting the SLAPP definition.

No more ‘good faith’  

HF906 also would repeal a 2003 law that provides for attorneys’ fees for an “individual who in good faith seeks assistance from, or reports apparent unlawful conduct to, law enforcement” and isn’t liable for civil damages in a resulting lawsuit.

“They put in the ‘good faith’ requirement with good intentions,” Hill said. “The problem in litigation is, those two words can cost you a million dollars in legal fees to fight about. And that’s what happened to Mr. Bohnen.” Making a false report to law enforcement is already illegal, he added. 


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