Hollister – An appellate court found that while the
”
dumb ass
”
Web site published six years ago by former Hollister City
Councilman Joe Felice was crude and inflammatory, but it wasn’t
illegal.
Hollister – An appellate court found that while the “dumb ass” Web site published six years ago by former Hollister City Councilman Joe Felice was crude and inflammatory, but it wasn’t illegal.
After four years of legal wrangling, the California Court of Appeals ruled last week that while Felice’s 1999 list of “Top Ten Dumb Asses” was tasteless and childish, it’s still free speech. The court dismissed Hollister resident Paul Grannis and J.J. Vogel’s – the two men who topped the list – libel lawsuit against Felice.
When Felice, while on council, posted his list of “Top 10 Dumb Asses” on the Internet in 1999, which included outspoken political figures and then-city council candidates Grannis and Vogel as numbers 1 and 2 on the list, they took offense. The duo sued Felice for libel, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and damage to their reputation.
Besides calling them “dumb asses,” Felice stated that Vogel was a deadbeat dad and linked his name to a Web site dedicated to locating deadbeat dads, along with a link to another site, www.satan.com. It also said that Grannis was “Bankrupt, Drunk and Chewin’ tobaccy,” which linked to another site with the addresses www.olddrunk.com and www.bankrupta**hole.com.
While Felice attached copies of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition filed by Grannis and his wife in 1996, and court records from child support proceedings indicating Vogel was ordered by the Santa Clara County Superior Court in 1990 to pay $10,650 in back child support fees, the two men claimed Felice’s statements were made on the grounds of “hearsay, lack of authenticity and relevance,” according to the court’s decision.
After Vogel and Grannis filed their complaint in 2001, Felice attempted to have the case thrown out locally but San Benito County Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias denied the motion. Felice then took it to the next level and appellate judges ruled that while Felice’s site was juvenile, abusive and that the overall tone was one of “wretchedly excessive tastelessness,” Vogel and Grannis failed to prove their claims that the site reported “provably false factual assertions,” according to the decision.
“The main purpose of the page seems to be to employ the term ‘ass’ as often as possible, preferably in conjunction with ‘dumb.’ In such a context it is inconceivable that placement on the ‘Top Ten Dumb Asses’ list could be understood to convey any imputation of provable defamatory fact,” the decision stated. “Plaintiffs were justifiably insulted by this epithet, but they failed entirely to show how it could be found to convey a provable factual proposition.”
Vogel, who has since moved out of the area, was unavailable for comment. Grannis didn’t feel comfortable commenting at length on the loss because he hasn’t spoken with his attorney.
“Everyone’s disappointed when you lose, even if it’s a ball game,” Grannis said.
Because Vogel and Grannis were running for office at the time, the court found that their privacy was not impinged upon.
Although Grannis and Vogel put their name to a lawsuit, Felice also lambasted other elected officials in cyberspace.
In their suit, Grannis and Vogel included a declaration by former City Councilman Brian Conroy stating that he was ranked fifth on the “dumb ass” list and that his name was linked to a site with the address www.idiot.com. A statement from former county Supervisor Richard Scagliotti was also attached, stating that he was ranked seventh, and that his name was linked to the address www.oldbuttman.com, according to the decision.
While Felice was happy the court found his inflammatory speech to be protected, he said he regretted publishing the Web site.
“Whether it was right or wrong obviously it’s been proven OK to do,” he said. “I regret hurting anybody.”
Felice said he published the Web site as a stress releaser for heat he was receiving in local papers and that it first was sent only to friends. But it eventually made its way to the people it was poking fun at and blew up into a legal monster, Felice said.
Felice was also sued by The Pinnacle Newspaper’s publisher Tracie Cone for linking her name to a lesbian porn site and ended up paying $48,000 and issuing a public apology. But he believes he would have won that lawsuit as well if he’d had an attorney as qualified as the one who represented him in the Grannis/Vogel suit.
Felice didn’t spend a dime on the lawsuit because his attorney, Jesse Ruiz who Felice says is a professor at Stanford and San Jose State, took the case pro bono. But he believes the public ultimately lost because the vicious attacks he published on his site and that were printed in the local papers soured people on community involvement.
“Finding people willing to take a chance in public office is hard – they’re so scared now because of stuff that gets written. You have to take criticism, which obviously I didn’t take well,” he said. “You end up getting a very weak turnout because they’re afraid of repercussions of putting themselves out there. It’s so horrendous that it scares a lot of good people away from getting involved.”
