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A Mesquite journalist sued by the chief of police has responded with a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed and seek $10,000 in compensation.
Barbara Ellestad, who operated the Mesquite Citizen Journal before shutting it down earlier this year, was sued by Mesquite Police Chief MaQuade Chesley for defamation after an article in April about an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior.
In a motion filed Dec. 17 in U.S. District Court by Las Vegas attorney Marc Randazza, Ellestad argues the case against her should be dismissed because it violates Nevada’s anti-SLAPP law — NRS 41.635, which prohibits attempts to throttle public discussion through what is known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
“His reasoning for suing this journalist for truthfully reporting on this investigation is to punish her for informing Mesquite citizens about actual allegations of sexual misconduct by their chief of police,” according to the motion.
It asks the judge to remove Ellestad from the lawsuit, in which Chesley also has sued the city of Mesquite, its former city manager and a number of other, unnamed people.
“Obviously the plaintiff would prefer, for the sake of his political reputation, that a reporter not let the people he is tasked with protecting know about this investigation,” the motion reads. “But Ms. Ellestad’s conduct is not within 1,000 miles of extreme or outrageous conduct. She was performing the normal and expected role of a journalist, and any public official is required to accept that members of the public will harshly criticize them based on their job performance.”
The motion asks that Ellestad be awarded costs and attorney fees, as well as $10,000 in compensation as provided by NRS 41.670 in SLAPP cases.
In his lawsuit, the police chief claims that Ellestad should have known the allegations were false because she said later that she shouldn’t have believed one of her sources, who was the Mesquite city manager at the time. However, Ellestad’s attorney counters in his motion that she accurately reported on the existence of an investigation by the Nevada Attorney General’s Office and had no reason to doubt the accuracy when the story was published.
“But which statements are allegedly false, and how are they false?” the motion asks. “The (lawsuit) does not say, and provides nothing other than a general, conclusory allegation of falsehood.”
Ellestad, who previously was editor of Mesquite Local News, shut down the Mesquite Citizens Journal on May 13 — a day after the city manager resigned. She wrote, “It’s one thing to fight city hall. It’s quite another to fight the Mesquite Police Officers Association union when they make threats and publicly verbalize intimidation to advertisers, people who dare talk to a newspaper who may not walk the line with union positions, and any others who disagree with their agenda.”
In a separate SLAPP case alleging defamation by an online news site, a Storey County commissioner and the site’s publisher have agreed to a confidential settlement to end the litigation, according to ThisIsReno.
Commissioner Lance Gilman had sued Sam Toll and his The Storey Teller website in 2017 over an article questioning Gilman’s status as a resident of the county in which he’d been elected. The litigation eventually went to the Nevada Supreme Court, which awarded Toll and his attorney $190,000 in costs and fees.
Toll ran unsuccessfully for the District 1 seat on the Storey County Commission in 2020. Gilman was re-elected to his District 3 seat.
Here’s the motion in the Mesquite case:
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